Shattered dreams

Raivavae (pronounced reh-vah-VYE) is one of the Austral Islands, part of French Polynesia, and it’s one of our favourite lesser-known stops. High and lush, it has an encircling reef that provides multiple safe anchorages, friendly people and low-key authorities. In a word, it closely resembles the far better known islands of the adjoining Societies: Tahiti, Bora Bora, Huahine and Raiatea. The only reason this island receives fewer than a dozen yachts a year is that if you are sailing westwards with the trades, coming from Panama or North America with the usual three-month visa stamp in your passport, then calling in here means bypassing or skimping on the (rightfully) popular Marquesas and Tuamotu archipelago.

Shortly after daybreak, nine days and 725 miles out from the Gambier islands, we were lining up the range markers that lead vessels in through Raivavae’s Passe Mahanatoa, motoring into the flat waters of Rairua Bay and letting our chain out in 10 meters of crystalline water.