The crossing from Tahiti to Raiatea on the yacht "Mi Querida" took almost two days and one night. A little slower (by about a day!) than Leigh had predicted but you can't control the wind and there wasn't much of it. What wind we did have however, was directly behind us so it was a comfortable crossing and we had the spinnaker sail up (huge kite like sail out the front) all the way.

Leigh put us on our first night watch together to get used to it and we passed away the wee small hours playing "My Granny Went Shopping - Nautical Edition". The yacht is fitted with GPS navigation and autopilot however the sails need to be set and adjusted according to the wind. The idea of having someone on watch at all times is that you never know when you're going to come across another boat, and the navigation isn't failsafe, even if its backed it up with chart plotting. With many islands, atols and reefs in the area it's all the more important to avoid plowing into them!

We sighted the island the following morning and the approach seemed to take hours. In fact it did take hours, but eventually the sails were down and we were motoring though the coral pass and finding anchorage. At 171 square km, Raiatea is the second largest island in French Polynesia and is similar to others with its mountainous interior and being surrounded by lagoon and coral. We anchored just outside a very rustic 'marina' and rowed ourselves and the rusty bikes ashore.

A 6km cycle into the closest and main village gave Paul and I lovely views of a couple of bays. Although there are a couple of resorts on the island we didn't see any tourists and the atmosphere felt very genuinely local, which was refreshing particularly after Tahiti. The village is small with a nice front where large yachts and small ferries moor up. We saw that the 'Soren Larson'(www.sorenlarsen.co.nz) was there, just preparing to leave. It's a large square rigger which now takes paying customers who want the experience of crewing it around the South Pacific. We got a few provisions from the supermarket then got ourselves a drink to sit and watch village life go by for bit. While we were sitting we noticed a small fishing boat with a row of nice looking tuna hanging up. After enquiring we bought two large tuna for the equivalent of six pounds, which was just about, the cheapest food stuff we'd come across in French Polynesia.They tasted pretty great done on the BBQ too.

We spent two days in Raiatea, and the second day we were meant to leave around lunch time for the short afternoon crossing to Bora Bora.We left a little later though because Leigh bumped in to some yachting acquaintances. While we were waiting Paul and I jumped in for a swim, and deciding we should try to be useful scrubbed the hull while we were in. What seemed like it would be a quick and easy job turned into a mammoth couple of hours with our snorkels and we eventually climbed out considerably dirtier than when we went in! At least it scored us a couple of brownie points with the captain though.