Celebrating a Big Milestone With a Sailing Vacation in French Polynesia
To celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, the Elstner family of Annapolis didn’t choose the fastest route to paradise. Instead, they rounded up their two adult sons and flew 13 hours on three separate flights to French Polynesia! Kirsten and John and their sons Jack (from La Jolla, CA) and Ben (Bozeman, MT) set sail from The Moorings base in Raiatea November 27 for a four-day bareboat charter.
A little bit of background: this family does not consist of ordinary travelers. They’ve traveled the globe for work and pleasure, camped in the wilderness, sailed on the Chesapeake, buzzed around in powerboats on many bodies of water, trekked on glaciers, gone deep diving among (and studied) sharks, caught thousands of blue crabs, and paddled around for fun. They’re true outdoor adventurers who choose unique destinations. They had also amassed numerous frequent flyer miles for this special occasion and aimed to go to a brand-new destination.
We interviewed them last month about their memorable journey:
SpinSheet: Could you summarize where you went and/or favorite anchorages?
Kirsten: We sailed around Taha’a, a small island to the north of Raiatea—the two islands share an incredible lagoon. Our favorite anchorage was on the east side of the island, near Passe Toahotu.
Were provisions for the boat easy to find, or did the Moorings stock the boat for you?
Moorings stocked the boat. We still went ashore by dinghy for some additional provisions. There was a small grocery store on Taha’a.
How were your sailing conditions?
We were mainly in the lagoon, so I would call it relaxing and incredibly beautiful for snorkeling, diving, and swimming. Very calm and perfect weather for November, 80 degrees every day, no need for long sleeves.
Tell us about your excursions.
We snorkeled every day. The water was completely clear and full of life: healthy coral, lots of fish, dolphins, manta rays, sharks, and tons of colorful fish! We did some diving also.
Three highlights on sea or land?
A land highlight was dinner at a little family-run restaurant on the beach, a short dinghy ride from our Passe Toahotu anchorage. It was Thanksgiving. When the owners learned that we were there to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, they covered our table with flower petals, baked a special cake, and came to our table to sing beautiful Polynesian songs for us. It was magical. Sea highlights were seeing a huge manta ray flipping and diving near the boat, sleeping out on the deck under the stars, and snorkeling all over the reef on our last morning, under a rainbow with a view of Bora Bora in the distance.
Did anything surprise you about the trip?
We were there during “rainy season,” but only experienced a few showers. The weather was gorgeous!
If you could do the trip over, would you do anything differently?
We would stay on the boat longer!
