Cyndi and Rich aboard Legacy
August 15, 2012
There are many places to anchor around Bora Bora, but aside from an overnight trip to the other side of the island, we stayed put at the yacht club. On the downside, it was a long 15-minute walk from town, but on the upside, it was well-protected from the winds, had a good wireless internet connection, and it offered very nice place to hang out on shore. It soon felt like home. -Cyndi
August 15, 2012
We set out in the morning for the 25-mile passage to Bora Bora. The winds were pretty light so we ended up motor sailing the entire way. On the way, we were treated to the sight of whales breaching in the distance, which was very exciting.
(Rich: I looked off the starboard side of the boat, about a mile away, and saw a very pretty sailboat with dark-colored sails. I wondered where it came from – it had not been there a few minutes before. As I watched, the head sail moved aft and the main sail moved forward. The “sails” crossed and crashed into the water. They had actually been two breaching whales.)
The pass into the reef around Bora Bora is easy to navigate, and we felt comfortable in spite of the large waves breaking on either side of the boat as we made our way in. Once we got in, we decided to make our lives easy and just pick up a mooring at the Bora Bora Yacht Club. We wouldn’t have to worry about finding a place to anchor and would have instant access to food, drinks, and hopefully a laundry service. As it turned out, this was to be our home for most of the time we were in Bora Bora. -Cyndi
August 14, 2012
After returning to Legacy, our plan was to relax awhile and then head into the resort for a drink, but plans can change abruptly out here. When we got back to the boat, the tide had gone out so we decided to dive down and re-check the bombie depth. Unfortunately, if Legacy now swung the wrong way, she’d hit the tallest bombie. We needed to get out of there fast. We didn’t even change out of our snorkel suits; we just got the anchor up and headed out.
We headed across the channel and back to Taha’a to an anchorage on the west side called Hurepiti. It looks big, but it has a coral shelf that reaches halfway into the bay; so we had to be careful making our way in. We got our anchor set in a good spot and settled in for our final night in the Taha’a/Raiatea area. We could happily have spent more time here, but the wind was due to pick up in a couple of days and we wanted to be tucked in at our final destination in French Polynesia: Bora Bora. -Cyndi
August 14, 2012
This is a beautiful snorkeling experience. It is important to wear gloves as it can get shallow and you don’t want to put your bare hand on coral (especially the fire coral!). Today we could feel the current, but it wasn’t very strong and we moved at a slow, easy pace. It took us about 20 minutes to go over the gardens. Once we finished, we went and did it one more time. -Cyndi
Below is a little video we took as we drifted through the coral gardens.
August 14, 2012
Once you make a landing here, there is a path to the other side of the motu, about a five-minute walk. When you get in the water there, you can ride the current back over the “gardens.” Sometimes it moves pretty fast, and sometimes it’s hardly there at all and you have to propel yourself.
I noticed other people here seem so determined to get to the snorkeling action that they hardly notice the view above the water. I think that view is part of the attraction! -Cyndi
