Yes, the pot of gold can be found at this boat yard. They are the go-to business if you put your boat on a reef in French Polynesia.

The other night at 3 AM we heard a MAYDAY call from a boat that was on the reef... when we charted the location we realized they were about 2 miles away on the south side of the pass entering the west side of Raiatea. We found that they were arriving from Papeete, had put the course into the chartplotter, told the auto-pilot to follow the course and gone to bed... only to awaken to the sound of their boat running up on the reef.

We were able to watch from out cockpit as they were plucked from their deck by a helicopter and dropped at the nearby airport... about 5 am. By 7:30 they were at the Raiatea Carenage Services where they plunked down about $10,000 to have their boat pulled off the reef. From what we heard, the then bought plane tickets back to France.

That day was a holiday, so the boat sat on the reef looking like someone had parked it there. It was an aluminum centerboard boat, with a flat bottom, so it sat there looking quite normal, except when the larger than normal wave would wash over the reef and roll it around a bit.

The following day, the yard had the Maupiti Express Ferry with a huge tow line and a couple smaller boats... in three hours, they had the boat sitting in a cradle in the boat yard. The estimate was $50,000 to cut the bottom off the boat and replace it.

RCS has pulled 5 boats off reefs in the past 2 months. On 4 of the 5 the entire crew was asleep! For us, even in the middle of the Pacific this is a big mistake. We always have someone awake.

The 5th boat drove themselves up on the reef in Apataki because they were using a chartplotter without detail in it, at night. Again, pretty crazy to navigate the "dangerous middle" without proper charts...