Early start for us as the mechanic had to be picked up at 8am to do the servicing of the engines. I went into town to do our last provision before heading to Tonga, our last big supermarket shop. I can’t get too much stuff as Tonga is very strict about what it lets you bring in. Anything from NZ seems to be ok, so I tried hard to buy NZ products. I went to the municipal market to buy fresh produce, always better than the supermarket. As my taxi driver explained Raiatea has the second biggest population after Tahiti. It definitely was more crowded and more of a hustle, although not very touristy.
The produce market
Back at PolePole, the engines had been serviced by someone Rowan felt very confident about which is a great relief. Rowan also managed to sort out his Fish Finder software and Richard the old Canadian guy returned to install it properly and there was great excitement when it all worked. Let’s just hope that it does the trick in spotting coral bommies.
Once all was done we decided to head back to the island Tahaa, and go further up to the far end of the island. We arrived late afternoon and anchored in sandy shallow water that was an amazing colour. I was up at the front of PolePole to sort out the anchor and enjoyed watching a sting ray darting around in front of us, almost like he was a dolphin getting the bow wave, he would circle around and come back again.
We enjoyed a peaceful, relaxing evening without any rain, just too many thick clouds for a sunset.
Bora Bora across the water
Leaving the island of Raiatea behind
Cruising inside the reef up the side of Tahaa island
Passing a little village on this stunning island and me practicing driving!
Our anchorage on the reef side
Looking back towards Tahaa
View across to Bora Bora
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