Gentlemen Don’t Sail to Windward

0800 Position 16-49S 150-59W.  Anchored in Avea Bay, Huahine

We got an early start in anticipation of a long day sail ahead of us, and powered out of Bora's lagoon at 830AM.  The double reefed mainsail went up in the calm waters of the lagoon.  We set the full jib when we turned the corner at the lighthouse on the south western tip of Bora's barrier reef and shut off the engine when we got out of the lee of the island.  It was blowing in the low teens, right on the beam.  Perfect. 

Tahaa and Raiatea lie between Bora and Huahine and prevented us from heading directly toward our destination.  Our course took us due east until we passed to the north of Tahaa's barrier reef and then south east to Huahine.  After we got settled on course we noticed a sail directly in front of us headed in the same direction.  The AIS indicated it was an Oyster 65 named Meteorite, two miles ahead.  They were taking advantage of the favorable wind to get from Bora to Huahine, just like us….  Race on!

Oyster is the sailboat equivalent of Rolls Royce.  These English built fiberglass cruising sailboats are sleek, quick, and expensive.  Meteorite is a new model 655.  We figure the 655 goes for about $3M.

After about half an hour we could see that we were reeling Meteorite in.  They could see it too and started messing with their sails.  First they set a larger jib and then reefed their mainsail.  It didn't matter, we kept gaining on them.  We caught them just after rounding the northern edge of Tahaa and by the time we arrived at Huahine were nearly two miles ahead of them.  The owner must be humiliated after being beaten so soundly by a smaller, older, wooden boat.  I hope they had him on a suicide watch last night.

Van Diemen arrived in Fare, Huahine's main town, at 130PM having averaged nearly ten knots for the passage.  We doused our sails and powered eight miles inside the reef to Avea Bay at the southern end of Huahine's western lagoon where we anchored off of the Relais Mahana Resort.

The Relais Mahana is our favorite Resort in all of French Polynesia because it has a strong WIFI signal and we have the password.  The crew figured this out when Van Diemen anchored here on their first pass through the area while I was in Hawaii.

A rum drink at sunset, barbequed lamb chops for dinner, and movie in the saloon afterwards made for a pleasant end to a great day.