August 14, 2012
The second place we wanted to stay on Taha’a was actually a motu just off the island called Tautau. Tautau is the first in a string of about 3 motus, one right next to the other. Between Tautau and the next motu is a shallow area filled with fish and coral called the Coral Gardens. Tautau is also the site of Le Taha’a Resort, one of the most beautiful resorts in French Polynesia. I’ve always wanted to stay there, but for now I’d be happy to just stay next to it!
Anchoring here turned out to be a challenge. The anchorage is on a rather narrow shelf of land about 15 feet deep. On one side of this shelf it’s very deep, and on the other side it is way too shallow. The bottom is sand (good) and coral “bombies” (bad). The trick is to get the anchor into the sand and to make sure there is enough space between the tallest bombie and the bottom of the boat’s keel. Complicating the matter further was the presence of lots of boats here; we didn’t have much choice on where to anchor.
It took 3 tries, but we finally got the anchor set in a pretty good spot. The first thing we had to do was jump in the water and measure a couple of the tallest bombies near the boat. We do this by diving straight down and reaching out our hand to touch the top of it, then looking to see if our dive fins are sticking out of the water. In my case, if I am completely underwater from the tips of my fingers to the tips of my fins, the water over the bombie is deep enough. -Cyndi
