Raiatea, Tahaa, Bora Bora

[comesatime]

Looks like you chartered cats from both Moorings/Sunsail as well as Dream Yatcht Charter.

How did they compare? Any other charter companies worth looking into?

[chouliha]

We recently left Jacaranda on a mooring and did a 2 week charter using Tahiti Yacht Charter Raiatea. That is another option

Chuck
Jacaranda
Raiatea

[Gnomads]

Originally Posted by comesatime

Looks like you chartered cats from both Moorings/Sunsail as well as Dream Yatcht Charter.

How did they compare? Any other charter companies worth looking into?

I cannot say a bad word about the Moorings. The base was clean, the manager super nice and it was one of the best chart briefings I have ever had. The boat was clean and well prepped. We did have some minor issues which we resolved, someone had removed the reefing line on the mast, and we had a leaky head, (only when flushed), and a loose door handle. Other than that, the boat was great. I was skipper on a Moorings 4800, we had one other similar boat, a 44' Sunsail cat and a boat from Dream Yacht Charters.

While I did not visit the Dream Yacht Charters base, I do know that crew had to switch boats as the first one they were offered smelled really bad. I went on the one they ended up with, (a 55' Catana), and it did not smell the sweetest, and had no holding tanks. They were anchored up stream of us one night---not pretty. The crew on this boat did not like the layout of it. Having said thaat, there were some single people ended up in those births at the front accesses from the deck hatch.

[comesatime]

Originally Posted by chouliha

We recently left Jacaranda on a mooring and did a 2 week charter using Tahiti Yacht Charter Raiatea. That is another option

Chuck
Jacaranda
Raiatea

Thanks Chuck,

How did you like Tahiti Yacht Charter Raiatea?

[chouliha]

I have nothing to compare it to since it’s the first charter we have done. So keep that in mind with my comments below.

Boat was made available 24 hours early(at no extra charge) when our cousins could not find a vacant hotel nearby. Jacaranda is pretty small below.

The Fontaine Pagot 40 less than a year old was VERY clean when we boarded.

We provisioned ahead of time since we were here in Apooti a week before our cousins arrived. Intro was on time and delivered in a very organized manner. The Tahitian woman, Teresa, was very knowledgeable and very helpful. She was not familiar with the water maker and brought in one of the French techs to explain it to us.

Since the boat was less than a year old the sails were in excellent condition.

Chart orientation was very short since we knew more about the places she wanted to go over as we had cruised the area for the past year. But she answered any questions we had and could have spent hours on the chart briefing rather than the 10 minutes.

We did have a few problems though
1. Stb AC unit failed - That was the side our cousins were sleeping in. Luckily we switched sides with them and took the stb fwd cabin. Having the hatches open was fine with us as we had just came thru the summer season and found the weather at night cool and delightful.

2. As reported in other posts the boat hook that is supplied with these boats is a freakin joke. Why get all twisted about a boat hook - Well there are mooring available to pick up in various places. Most put down by the government and are free. Even laying on the bow tramp we could not reach the moorings. Grrrrr - We ended up going to a hardware store and bought a length of pvc pipe same diameter as OD of the pole. Then slit the end of the PVC pipe, slide the boat hook in and a couple hose clamps gave us a long enough pole that we did not have to hold ones ankles to get a mooring.

2. The gen set was terrific but we did have some minor issues with the Victron battery charger going to float immediately upon starting the generator. Solved that by switching the BC off and on every time we stated the gen set. No big deal.

4. Not having a chart plotter at the helm we thought was nuts. We did bring our laptop with all our OpenCPN charts and GE images loaded plus all our previous tracks so we had bread crumb trails of everywhere we wanted to go. We set the laptop on the saloon table and could see it from the above helm station.

5. The stb aft hatch had a busted hinge which made the hatch unusable but that was ok since we didn’t use that cabin except for storage. Would have been rough with a full boat.

Since Jacaranda was close by we bought a bunch of tools, voltmeter, ac clamp on meter plus a bunch of cruising stuff. Nice to have a bunch of things close by and not have to decide what will fit on your bag before you board the plane.

The water maker worked great - app 30 gallons an hour

I think having 4 couples on board would have made things really tight as bag storage was pretty limited. We often said we were glad we were just 4 people onboard rather than 8.

Also 2 weeks gave us lots of leeway when deciding where to go and what to do especially as we had some crappy weather when we first started off. One day it poured all day so we had a relax day onboard in Avea bay Huahine. Nice not having to push on. We did explore Tahaa, Raiatea, Huahine and Bora. Wanted to get down to Maupiti but didn’t feel we had the time especially if the pass closed out.

We would charter again with Tahiti Yacht Charter and can recommend them.

Cheers

Chuck
Jacaranda
Raiatea, French Polynesia

PS? Hard to get use to the small Jacaranda now that we are home.

[JESSWILLMS]

Well, life got in the way of me providing a proper update after our French Polynesia trip last May, but I wanted you all to know that it was a tremendous vacation - a real bucket list week! I appreciated everyone's input before our trip.

Husband and I flew LA direct to Tahiti then took a puddle jumper to Raiaeta. Had an excellent briefing by the manager at Dream Yachts. We sailed a 40ft Catana catamaran which had some issues, but it was an older boat after all (we've always gone for the cheaper boats because it's all we've been able to afford!). Dinghy engine broke down on us the first night, one of the boat engines broke down on us the second-to-last night which someone had to come to Bora Bora to address it, etc. But Dream worked to fix issues ASAP. Dream staff was really pleasant to deal with. Base is simple there, must go offsite for provisions, etc.

First night we anchored off a little motu not far from the Dream base. So quiet! Second night we spent as the only boat off of the Hibiscus restaurant on Tahaa. We had a lovely private dinner as the only guests on the restaurant dock. Third night we had a mooring off of the Bora Bora Yacht Club. Stunning full moon rose over the mountain, making it seem like daylight outside. Anchorage was busy, but quiet. On next day's transit I donated my husband's iPhone to the Bora Bora lagoon...oops. Fourth night we anchored off of Bora Bora's St. Regis resort where we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary at the Lagoon restaurant by famous chef Jean George. Fifth night we were the only boat at anchor in the southeast corner of the Bora Bora lagoon. Every night we watched the Milky Way show until the huge moon came up. Magic! Sixth night we spent anchored somewhat near Bloody Mary's restaurant. Again, the only boat in sight! Next day it was sporty trying to find the entrance back through the reef into Tahaa, but we figured it out! Just stunning to see the big waves crashing so close to the cut. The 7th night we were back at Tahaa where we attended an intimate and absolutely fantastic Polynesian dinner show put on by a small group of very friendly and beautiful locals (not an over-the-top production like you get in Hawaii, though those are fun, too). Lots of people in the anchorage that night, but it made for good people and boat watching. The next morning we returned the boat to the Dream base just in time to make the plane back to Tahiti. We then took a ferry over to Moorea so I could cross off a bucket list item that I'd dreamed of for more than 30 years - a night in an over-the-water bungalow (at the Hilton resort). Spectacular experience at that lovely place. We watched the fattest and brightest rainbow sit over the water for more than an hour! Ferried back to Tahiti the next day and direct back to LA. Sad we missed the island of Huanine which everyone raves about. Even more sad we couldn't take our time and do 2 weeks, but work, daughter's HS graduation and an impending cross-country move made that impossible. Oh, and a distinct lack of additional cash.

Incredible memories to last a lifetime. Happy to answer specific questions or share pix...I took a lot of them as the scenery is breathtaking, as was expected.

Hoping to book Bahamas charter with Dream soon, just for something different/closer to home. We've already done the BVI 5 times (and will surely return many more)!

Cheers!