August 23, 2012
Across from our anchorage, just off a site called Anau on Bora Bora, is a place where large manta rays swim. These particular mantas stay about 15 to 20 feet below the surface and will dart away if you get too close to them, but they will contentedly swim under you if you stay near the surface.
We enjoyed a beautiful night at this east-side anchorage. The moon was mostly obscured by clouds, but it was bright enough to give them a bright silvery lining and bathe the mountain below in moonlight. Yet it was dark enough that scatterings of bright stars were still visible and almost seemed to twinkle behind the mountain. It looked like a 1940’s painting of “Polynesia.”
At dawn, the morning light made the water glow a bright teal. I wasn’t quite able to capture this with a camera but will put the picture here anyway. That morning we went for a dinghy ride to explore the area, then took one last swim with the mantas.
It would have been nice to head a lovely anchorage further south, and we would have done so if it hadn’t been for those pesky winds. It was due to blow about 20 knots from the east; so we wanted to be on the west side, tucked in behind the mountain. We pulled up our anchor by noon and made our way carefully back to the other side. Luckily, there were moorings available at the yacht club.
By evening, everyone who had been on the other side had returned, and we had a final gathering on the dock of the yacht club. From here on, life for all of us would be about provisioning and waiting for a weather window for the next passage. Some of us were going north to Suwarrow, some south to the Cook Islands and Niue , and some straight to Tonga or Samoa. The one thing we all had in common was a big passage ahead. For us, it turned out to be over 1200 miles to Apia in Western Samoa.
And click the link below for a quick manta ray video…
