After spending a week on the popular West side of Bora Bora, we decided to try life on the other side for a while. The picture above is the view looking East at the main village of Vaitape, with the formidable Mt. Otemanu (2,385' high) in the background. The "other side" is reported to be void of cruise ships, fast ferries or jet skis, but plentiful in quiet beaches and awesome snorkeling. So we get ourselves psyched up for the trip as it's fairly challenging navigating for vessels with even moderate draft. The course is so shallow, the large yachts that dot the horizon in the main harbor don't even attempt it! And the super yachts - forget it! So, with perfect mid-day sun over our shoulders we're off by 11 am. The trip required us to motor around the top (North) side of the island, through miles of shallow water strewn with rocks and large coral formations (called bommies). Much of the route is through water less than 10' deep, so we motor slowly with Jody doing lookout duty on the bow. And while it took us slightly less than 3 hours to cover the 11 miles, the stress of piloting a sailboat with a nearly 7' draft made it feel like an all-day journey.
After passing multiple large hotels with their fancy over-water bungalows, and fretting over every dark spot (bommie) in the water, we arrived in a gorgeous spot and dropped the anchor in 11' of water. The photo below was taken at sunset from the back (or East side) of the mountain, looking West.

We'll miss the sunsets we enjoyed on the West side, but will find something here to fill the void.
Cheers from Huzzah!