Our afternoon’s planned stop was going to be the coral garden in Tahaa, the adjacent island to Raiatea. By the time we crossed the lagoon however, I had received a call from one of the shipyards who advised me that this evening there would be a big surge and 25 to 28 knot winds by the morning. They told me that with these South winds it would be best to be in a secure anchorage this evening and wait out the impending 3 day storm.
We took their advise and decided that we would have to come back to the coral gardens at a later time. The kids who had all pulled out their snorkel gear were a bit disappointed but they know we will be coming back. We were in a bit of a rush because by now it was already 1 pm and we had a little over 4 hours to go in order to reach Bora Bora 18 miles away. The only entry into Bora Bora is on the Western coast, exactly opposite to where we were coming from. The approach to this island is extremely stunning and beautiful with its iconic flat topped mountain and unique mountainous landscape in the centre of a turquoise blue lagoon.
The problem with the trip to Bora Bora was that there was no wind and so once again we needed to motor our way there. We finally entered the pass between the island reef around 5:30 pm and quickly went about looking for a safe anchorage that would shelter us from the storm. We saw about 8 boats moored across from the Yacht Club but nobody inside of the adjacent Faanui Bay. According to our guidebook this little bay is one of the best hurricane hideouts in this area. While there was not one single other boat in this bay the sun was setting and we were out of time. We saw two boys paddling on a surfboard in the bay and asked them about the area. They directed us to move our boat a little more offshore and away from some shallow coral as night was setting in. We didn’t end up settling into our spot until a little after 6 in the evening. It sure was a close call with a tight time-line to get ourselves well situated for the night. It definitely would not have been a good thing to be stuck sailing around the outside of the reef at Bora Bora.
Two bow anchors and let ‘er swing. Hope Omi’s having fun, too 🙂
We’re glad you got there safely. I remember one horrendous night when Ty and I had to stay up the entire night with the engine in reverse to keep from being pushed onto the reef. The weather systems can get pretty bad there but isn’t it such a divine little island – maybe one of the prettiest we saw. Or maybe it was so beautiful because of the wonderful friends we made there. Please let us know when you see la famille Tetanui.