Moorea

Tuesday 20^th July

We had a fast beam reach to Ile Moorea in 20 knots in a counter- clockwise direction around the island. 

View of  Moorea from Papeete

Moorea is approximately 17 miles from Tahiti.

Dave at the helm during the sail to Moorea 

With the exception of Tetiaroa and the smaller islands, all of the islands in the Society Islands are high, volcanically formed and surrounded by coral reefs. Coral formations are detached from the island leaving a passage with sufficient water for a vessel to travel. The worn remnants of once tall volcanos are now composed of jagged, rocky towers and rugged, grass and shrub-covered mountainous terrain. The climate is ideal making it the favoured base for all the major explorers of the Pacific, beginning with the Polynesians.

The islands lie in the southeast trade wind belt, with winds from the southeast to east predominating. Trades are strongest in the winter months of July to September. Gales however, are infrequent. The currents follow the direction of the wind, except near the coasts. With the dominating easterly wind driving it , the currents run west  at about 10 to 15 miles a day.

We entered Baie de Cook on Moorea through the well marked Passé Avaroa. The spire of Mont Mouaputa is at the end of the bay and a hole in it resembles a patch of snow and can be seen from the north and northwest.  It had a muddy bottom and wasn’t what we were expecting so we had lunch there and motored around to paradise at Baie d’Opunohu through Passé Tareu.

Baie de Cook 

It is absolutely gorgeous and we  anchored in a lagoon inside the reef at the entrance to Baie D’Opunohu and it was close to paradise.  Looking over the side of Salacia we could count the grains of sand in 8 metre. It is the clearest water we have found. There is a white beach within swimming distance and also some great bommies for snorkelling.

Baie D’Opunohu at Sunset

The are several super yachts in the main bay. The yacht “Athena” is 298ft. It was lit up like a Xmas tree last night.

Athena

There was also one of the most beautiful yachts we had ever seen. Erica XII is flag blue like Salacia but much larger at 172ft.

Erica XII

We are doing an overnight sail to Huahine  tonight. I am really looking forward to it.

Dian (Jones) had her 61^st   today and we loved phoning her as a surprise. Ross was making sure that his special girl had a great birthday.