Two At Sea

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…

Manta Video

August 23, 2012

First there’s one dingy* out cruising around the anchorage.  Then a second joins them.  Then a third and a forth and a fifth.  Now it’s a giant floating party/weather discussion group/destination planning meeting.  These little impromptu gatherings are so much fun.

* Dingy – what the little boats that we use to get back and forth from shore are called.  Also called tenders, dinks and many swear words when their engines wont start.

 

August 22 & 23, 2012

We ventured into the shallow water a couple of days ago in search of manta rays, and we found them!  The shallow water and mantas are on the other side of Bora Bora.  We motored over an hour through water that was as shallow as eight feet.  That’s a problem because our keel sticks down seven feet.  One little coral head or rock and we’d hit bottom. Nerve-wracking!

But it was worth the bad case of jitters.  We found a great spot to anchor in about 12 feet of water and from there, the manta ray spot was only a short dingy ride away.

This was different than when we’d swam with mantas before.  Here, they were cruising along the bottom over the coral looking to be cleaned.  Little, colorful wrasses obliged them, swimming into their mouths to pick out little parasites.

The water wasn’t as clear as it could have been, the mantas were 30 or 40 feet below us and didn’t care much to interact with humans during their wrasse-bath, but it was still incredible.  We saw two or three at a time and there was a mostly constant stream of them swimming below us. -Rich

August 22, 2012

The east side of Bora Bora has beautiful clear water and manta rays you can swim with. The problem lies in getting over there. About half-way around the north side of the island (there is no pass on the south side), the water gets very shallow. There is one area in particular, the dreaded “S Curve,” that is the most shallow, but all of it is a little scary.

If we were totally on our own, we never would have tried it. Our friends Alan and Marlies had urged us to go, but we put it off as we were waiting for our replacement radar to arrive (that’s another story). In the meantime, one by one, other people we knew started to head over. And one by one, they made it over unscathed. We kept hearing how nice it was there; so after we got our radar, we finally succumbed and headed over.

The trip around the north end of the island was a little hair raising. We saw a minimum depth of 8 ½ feet in the S curve, and we draw almost 7! From there on the depths averaged 15 to 20 feet, but there were a lot of areas with rocks and coral over the bottom—too many to avoid. I would just hold my breath as we went over them.

Finally, after about a 3-hour trip, we arrived at the anchorage. It was actually along the long sandy motu surrounding the main island. This is where they have built the newest resorts, and we were nestled in an area between the St. Regis and the Hotel Le Meridien. The depth was about 18 feet, and the bottom was sand. This was a nice anchorage and worth the stress we had to endure in getting here. Unfortunately, because of the weather forecast, we wouldn’t be able to stay long. -Cyndi

August 21, 2012

That’s the question we hear. Here’s the answer for yesterday:

6:05AM – Woke up late and missed the sunrise. Darn. Usually we see it. Drank coffee. Watched the sky, sea, island…

8:00AM – Go in to shore and walk to town. Breakfast at a place that was reputed to have incredible croissants and pan du chocolate (basically croissants with a little chocolate inside, yum). They did. Wonderful. Next, walk to Air Tahiti’s office to pick up our radar. (Our radar started acting up after we left Tahiti. Simrad sent us a new one.) Cab back to the boat. It’s about a 30 minute walk to town – too far to carry a very big box.

10:30AM – Install Radar. That went well. One trip up the mast to take the old one down. A short rest on deck to wait for my legs to stop shaking, and another trip up the mast to install the new radar.

11:23AM – Whales! Right off our boat. While I’m putting the finishing touches on the radar, Cyndi, who was diligently looking for boat wakes that could shake me off the mast, spotted whales just a short way from our boat. As soon as I got down, we jumped in the dingy to get a closer view. By the time we got there, there were probably 20 boats following the mother and baby. We got very close and had a wonderful view. Sorry. We spent our time just looking and very little taking pictures so we didn’t get any good ones.

12:47PM – Played with the new radar for a while and left it running to test.

12:53PM – Incredible steaks for lunch with short-grained brown rice and huge, fresh carrots. The steaks here are amazing. I’ve never had better, anywhere. And they are inexpensive here.

1:30PM or so – Read, loaf, think, dream, nap, relax…

3:36PM – Dean and Sabina from the boat Local Talent stopped by. They’re anchored in town and were out for a dingy ride. We opened beers, sat around and talked story. While we were sitting in the cockpit, I noticed a bunch of small boats congregating in the channel outside our boat. That could only mean one thing: Whales! We jumped in Dean’s dingy and off we went for our second whale-watching excursion of the day. This time we had mom and baby surface 15 feet from the dingy. What a show! Mom and baby seemed to like the attention and were playing on the surface amongst the small boats, paddle boards and kayaks. Again, sorry. No pictures.

5:55PM – Sat in the cockpit eating cheese and crackers with a nice bottle of wine and watched the sunset. Wine progressed into rum. After enough rum, we decided to watch the first episode of the original Star Trek (thanks Herb for the old TV shows on disk!) We haven’t been watching many videos or TV shows while out here but it’s nice once in a while.

About 8:00PM – I fell asleep. I’m sure I had a smile on my face after another nice day in Bora Bora. -Rich