Numerous navigators from all horizons make a port-of-call in French Polynesia each year. While visiting the various anchorages they often lack the most basic touristic information on these islands, which are so dissimilar and so rich in their culture.

We hope that this book will help to fill in the spaces that would otherwise remain empty.

As well as being a navigational guide, it is also an introduction to the daily life and tourist activities in French Polynesia.

Several detailed charts, photos and drawings add to the wealth of information contained in this guide, as well as detailed advice for administrative and customs formalities.

This book is an indispensable tool for the experienced sailor who prefers a do-it-yourself approach in discovering Polynesian waters and the local lifestyle at each stop.

For passengers who charter a sailboat without being an accomplished navigator, this guide will serve as a manual and souvenir of their first excursion in these "Iles of Beauty" and an incentive to come back again.

The authors have a very good knowledge of these islands : Patrick Bonnette, former Harbor Master of the Port of Papeete (port autonome), ship captain and sailing instructor in French Polynesia, has lived in Tahiti for thirty years ; Emmanuel Deschamps has been exploring these islands for more than twenty years as a journalist, travel writer and photographer, and he knows the islands from a resident's point of view as well as that of a visitor.