When they think about the Society Islands, most sailors likely conjure the most famous of this French Polynesian group—Tahiti, Bora Bora, perhaps Moorea—the stuff that cruising dreams are made of. But from the moment we shimmied our 50-foot steel cutter, Atea, through the narrow, challenging entry of Maupiha’a, we knew we had found something special.
Supremely isolated, with only handful of residents and not even a regular supply ship, this fragment of land, just 1.5 square miles in size, reminds me of the last gift of the holidays, the smallest, least adorned package that goes unnoticed amid the bigger, shinier offerings. After spending time in French Polynesia’s larger, betterknown islands, few have time remaining on their visa or in the season to tuck into Maupiha’a on their way west.
Located on the western edge of the archipelago’s Leeward Islands, Maupiha’a, also known as Mopelia, is 100 miles from its nearest populated neighbor. Models of self-sufficiency, its residents raise pigs and chickens, collect tern
