Beyond the reef, a deeper blue

French Polynesia scatters 118 islands across a stretch of the Pacific roughly the size of Western Europe, and scheduled flights reach only a fraction of them. A yacht is not an indulgence here so much as the correct instrument. These islands were settled by canoe and charted under sail, and they still make most sense from the water, where the distance between a busy resort pontoon and an empty motu turns out to be about twenty minutes.

What a charter here actually looks like

Most itineraries run through the Society Islands, starting from Papeete on Tahiti or the charter hub of Raiatea. The geography is unusually kind. Moorea sits within sight of Tahiti, Huahine is an easy overnight passage, and Raiatea, Taha'a and Bora Bora stand close enough that you can see one from the next. Nearly every island carries a barrier reef, so once you are through the pass the swell disappears and the lagoon lies flat in almost any weather. Days find their rhythm quickly. A reef pass at slack water, a long lunch at anchor, a swim before the light turns gold, and the slow theatre of Mount Otemanu changing colour through the afternoon. Crews here read the passes the way cab drivers read traffic, and a good captain will have moved you to the quiet side of a lagoon before you knew you wanted to be there.

The anchorages that matter

On Moorea, Opunohu Bay and Cook's Bay cut deep into the island's volcanic spine, green walls rising straight from the water with pineapple farms climbing the valley behind. Off Taha'a, anchor near Motu Tautau and drift the Coral River, a shallow channel between islets where the current carries you over coral gardens thick with butterflyfish. Bora Bora rewards guests who skip the hotel side of the lagoon and anchor off the eastern motu, where the sand shelves into a turquoise that looks retouched and Otemanu fills the sky astern. Then there are the Tuamotus, an overnight sail to the north-east and a different planet altogether. Fakarava is a UNESCO biosphere reserve whose southern pass holds a standing wall of grey reef sharks, and at Rangiroa the dolphins of Tiputa Pass ride the tidal race most evenings as though paid to do it.

Fakarava's southern pass holds a standing wall of grey reef sharks, and the nearest crowd is an ocean away.

Ashore: vanilla, marae and poisson cru

The dish to order everywhere is poisson cru, raw tuna cured in lime juice and coconut milk, and it is never better than from a roulotte, one of the food trucks that gather at Vai'ete Square on the Papeete waterfront after dark. Taha'a grows some of the world's most prized vanilla, and a morning at a family plantation explains why the pods cost what they do. The black pearls of the Tuamotu lagoons are farmed rather than mined, and a pearl farm visit is worth an hour of anyone's time. On Raiatea, the marae of Taputapuatea, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, was once the ceremonial heart of eastern Polynesia, the place the great voyaging canoes departed from and returned to. Time a charter for July and the Heiva festival fills Papeete with drumming, dance and outrigger racing, the islands' annual statement of exactly who they are.

When to come

The dry season runs from May to October, with steady trade winds, low humidity and daytime temperatures in the high twenties, which is why the fleet concentrates in those months. Humpback whales arrive from Antarctic waters to breed between August and October, and French Polynesia is one of the few places on earth where you may enter the water with them under licensed guidance. November to April is warmer and wetter, with the lagoons at their glassiest between squalls and the calendar far quieter. If July can be arranged around Heiva, arrange it. To start sketching a route through the Societies or out to the atolls, talk to our charter team.