We went to the Coral Gardens as soon as we had finished breakfast as the sun was out and Rowan had a call at 11am. What an amazing stretch of water between two motus (little islands). One island had a big resort on it, thankfully it was tastefully done. The area of significant coral is roped off to protect it which is great. We anchored JeldiJeldi in shallow water and walked over to the area with the coral. We were taken aback at how amazing it was. The coral was in fantastic condition. We saw loads of big pinky red anemones which we have not seen anywhere before. The fish have obviously been fed, as they were very tame. We timed the current well as it was pretty low tide, I was very grateful for that extra buoyancy in my bottom as we just eked over the coral! We ventured down some very narrow channels that would have been difficult in current. In fact the tide turned as we returned and we could feel it pushing us through, luckily in the right direction. It worked out perfectly and was an absolute spectacle which Rowan’s Go Pro videos will do more justice to, than my eulogising!
This was the weirdest thing we have seen, I thought it was an octopus arm but it had little tentacles on the end of it, and then withdrew the whole length into the left hand hole. Anyone know what it is?
Rowan managed his call back at the boat and then we set off for our sail to Bora Bora, we had about 20 miles to cover. It was pretty exciting getting through the pass, quite narrow with an enormous swell and big waves breaking either side of us, especially as we had put the sails up before hand. The sun was out and we had a lovely sail across to Bora Bora, Rowan was in his element, PolePole was going like a dream and very comfy. We had anticipated it would be a bouncy crossing with the big swell, so we were very pleasantly surprised at the comfortable passage.
The waves on the side of the pass as we were going through
Leaving Tahaa through the pass
Rowan checking on the sail with big breaking waves behind him
A monohull getting quite close to the reef we thought
The swell is huge and creating such dramatic waves as it hits the reef
Another narrow pass into Bora Bora, Rowan had done some research as to where we could go for the night, as they only allow you to go on mooring balls here. We think it is a great idea as it saves the coral from so much damage. We had the usual antics of me dropping the boat hook trying to pick up the buoy, but we got there second time around. Rowan easily found the boat hook as we are in shallow sandy water with lots of coral bommies around – thank goodness we are on a ball. We had a reef shark greet us as we arrived, he was extremely curious – I’m very glad I can’t dive and rescue boat hooks!
The dramatic skyline of Bora Bora, more big waves hitting the reef
Inside the reef at Bora Bora
Quite a few boats around us, I bet they were envious of our BBQ’d lamb chops! The night sky was brilliantly clear and full of stars.
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