ISLV: Isles Sous Le Vent, or the unromantic sounding “Leeward Islands” in English (pronounced lew-wards), are wonderful places which can be found downwind from Tahiti. After enjoying beautiful Moorea we continued our tour of “the Leewards” with an overnight sail to Huahine, “The Wild Island.”

As we dropped the anchor in Huahine early in the morning, for the first time on this trip a local boat came by and sold us lobsters they had just caught on the reef. The family was full of smiles and seemed happy whether we bought their lobsters or not.

The crew is taking a greater than usual interest in dinner.

Huahine was the most peaceful and bucolic of all the islands we visited and hardly lived up to its “wild”

Travel mogul Arthur Frommer once called Mo’orea, “The most beautiful island in the world.” Cynics may be forgiven for wondering if this statement came on the heels of publishing his first guide to Tahiti and the Society Islands. However, we aren’t pushing any guides and we would have to agree with his comment. We spent ten days exploring Mo’orea and indeed, it is even more beautiful than Tahiti and might easily claim “The most beautiful island in the world” status in our view. And we have seen a lot of islands.

Situated just 15 miles to the west of Tahiti, Mo’orea floats dreamily above the horizon tempting all with a visit and appears in the background of some of our photos in the Tahiti post. A more beautiful place would be hard to imagine

We finally left Fakarava after spending a week or so there absorbing her gentle charms. Our next port of call was one we had anticipated keenly for years; the lush, dreamy island of Tahiti. We sailed toward the stuff of sailor’s dreams, home of a warrior race and now a favorite destination of Asian honeymooners. To get there we exited the northern pass of Fakarava without incident. Despite this being deep and the widest pass in all of French Polynesia, surprisingly many cruising boats still fret and wait, needlessly, hours and hours for the estimated “best” time to transit. We just left.

I had picked a light wind period of weather due to concerns about our deteriorating rigging and we ended up motor sailing most of the 252 miles to Pape’ete, Tahiti. Nothing

A combination of sleep deprivation and lack of beaches for the little ones in which to safely splash helped make the decision to depart the Marquesas easier. We raised the anchor at Ua-Pou and then let the trade winds gently push us 500 miles west to our next family destination: The Dangerous Archipelago.

The Tuamotus were so labeled on old nautical charts to warn sailors the perils they faced if their ship should ever find itself trying to cross this particular swathe of ocean. From the water as an almost invisible string of low-lying islands and coral reefs through and around which flow strong unpredictable currents, “Dangerous” was an apt moniker and for centuries the islands have lived up to their fearsome reputation claiming hundreds of ships, lives and fortunes. Since they lie in a southeast to northwest line a couple of hundred