We had an amazing two weeks with Jerelyn on Pangaea. Jerelyn and I have known each other for over 30 years and she has known Mike for almost 10 of those. We are besties from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
We visited 4 islands in two weeks: Raiatea, Huahine, Bora Bora and Taha’a. Each island had its own special story, but here are the highlights:
We picked up Jerelyn in our dinghy from the airport. As we were heading in her flight flew right over us and she saw us!
We sailed from Raiatea after doing a fuel and provision stop in Uturoa. We arrived in Fare mid-afternoon after a bit of a sporty sail and took the dinghy into town for a visit to the museum at the La Pita Village Hotel. We stayed for sundowners and dinner. It was a gorgeous night!
From Fare we headed to Avea Bay to wait out some weather and for Mike to get in some kiteboarding.
We did some great snorkeling in Avea Bay and decided it should be renamed Anenome Bay because of the rich supply of anenomes and anenome fish!
We sailed back to Raiatea for the evening and then on to Bora Bora the next morning. We had an amazing downwind sail all the way there, and a little boost of extra wind from a squall at the end (without getting wet!).
We spent the first day in Vaitape and did some provisioning and exploring. The next day we sailed to the southeast side of the island and stayed there for two lovely days.
We had some great snorkeling here in Bora Bora, including a drift dive off the reef that left me a little scraped and bruised (got pummeled by a couple big waves). Ouch.
The next day we decided to head back to the other side of Bora Bora and were able to get a mooring outside of the famous Bloody Mary’s.
Since we were in the neighborhood, we thought we ought to go for happy hour and dinner at Bloody Mary’s.
After a day of biking and exploring the shops in Bora Bora, we headed to Taha’a.
Every trip we take we buy matching souvenirs. This trip was a silk wrap with a Tahitian pearl from Tahia. The color is lagoon and very true to its name.
Jerelyn and I were both Hoofers at UW-Madison. Here we are showing our Badger pride with the Hoofers burgee.
Once again, we had a great sail! What made today special was a whale show just outside the pass. There were two sets of mama and calf humpbacks delighting the tourist boats. We saw the second set which was actually a mama and twins! The mama was in great spirits as we were treated to 6 breaches, a fin slap and a tail slap. It was amazing. No footage, sorry. No one dared to leave the experience to get a camera.
We arrived in Taha’a just before sunset. We sat down for a sundowner and out of the corner of my eye I saw something in the water right next to the boat. It was two manta rays! Minutes later we were visited by a hawksbill turtle! Very cool.
I woke up in the middle of the night and walked outside. The sky was clear with radiant stars and within minutes I had saw 4 shooting stars. We had some Luci lights on and I looked out in the water on the port side of the boat and the Manta Rays were swimming in th light right next to the boat. I was mesmerized by their dance. What a gift!
The next morning we did a snorkel of the coral gardens.
The gardens were beautiful! It was like snorkeling in an aquarium! Jerelyn saw an orange and brown octopus!
We set sail mid-day back to Raiatea. We had dinner reservations at the Raiatea Lodge with Kate and Alan (Itagime).
We took the dingy to dinner just in time for a spectacular sunset complete with dolphins swimming in the bay!
We returned Jerelyn to the Raiatea Airport in the dinghy for a full circle departure back to Papeete. We miss her already!
What a fabulous two weeks! Thank you, my friend!
First Mate Kate
