I’m told that guardian angels come in all shapes and sizes. Our particular guardian angel on this occasion was an underwater rock wall….

Continue reading “Between A Rock And A Hard Place – Huahine, French Polynesia”

Moorea is another one of those stunningly beautiful French Polynesian Islands – from a distance. Up close we have to say it was a little disappointing. We were hoping it would be more relaxed than Tahiti, but it was too commercialised and touristy for our liking – too many big hotel complexes, too many jet skis (oh, how we wish they’d invent an Olympic sport of skeet-shooting jet-skis), but nothing can take away from the simply stunning scenery.

Continue reading “A Whale of A Tale – Moorea, French Polynesia”

Well, I guess Papeete isn’t that big a city compared to others, but after a few months of coral atolls it was a shock to the senses to be back amongst the hustle and bustle of traffic and city noise. Continue reading “Bright Lights, Big City – Papeete, Tahiti”

Last stop in the Tuamotus for us but far from least – Tahanea is a beautiful uninhabited atoll on the eastern side of the group, now a nature reserve, where we’ve spent a wonderful two weeks doing what we love best – diving, snorkeling, beach-combing and relaxing. Continue reading “In Heaven (with the door shut) – The Tuamotus Pt 3”

Our next stop in the Tuamotus was Makemo, west of Raroia. Although only 70NM away it’s impossible to do the trip as a day sail because of the need to time exit and entry through the passes at slack tide. So we opted to do a slow overnight sail to Makemo, pottering along at 3-4 knots and arriving at the pass just after dawn and just on slack tide. Trying to time slack tide is something akin to a black art, with lots of mumbling and muttering while hunched over various tide data, but mostly it comes down to guestimation – and amazingly we seem to have got it right so far. Continue reading “In Heaven (with the door shut) – The Tuamotus Pt 2”

Sorry about the absence of blogging activity for the past few weeks – to quote our good mate Pembo from WA, we’ve been ‘in heaven with the door shut’ and there ain’t much internet inside the pearly gates! Continue reading “In Heaven (with the door shut) – The Tuamotus Pt 1”