Another week, another island, Taha'a. How blessed we are to be living this dream!
Taha'a is shaped like a flower, about 5 x 5 miles in size, with a population of ~5,000. The people are mostly authentic Maohi race, who cultivate vanilla beans, copra (dried coconut meat used to produce coconut oil) and, more recently, pearls.
Our first destination was motu Tau Tau, known for its coral gardens. We tried to anchor twice in 19 feet of water. When we backed down to set the anchor, we went from 19 feet to 13 feet, back to 19 feet, which meant that we went over 6 foot high coral heads (boomies, we call them). And, with the crystal clear water, we could see the anchor chain wrapping around them. We just couldn't find a spot with enough swing room to anchor.
So, we went up in a nearby bay and picked up a mooring ball. Lucky, because it was 80+ feet deep. Tapuamu Bay was beautiful, quiet and very calm, with a nice breeze. It was an amazingly sleepy village considering that it was the major port on Taha'a. We saw a couple inter-island cargo ships come and go, but not much activity even then.
We dingied across the lagoon to the coral gardens two days in a row. It was beautiful and the number and variety of fish and coral was tremendous.
(See Photos) The most memorable moment was seeing a giant moray eel come out and swim from one coral area to another. Once it headed right towards Tony and, boy, you should see how fast he can swim backwards! (See Video, when upload)
One day we hiked to the next bay for a lobster lunch. Yum! Along the way, we passed by houses with their bougainvillea gardens in the front yard and fruit stands along the roadway. The fruit stands are unattended; you just take what you like and leave money.
(See Photos)
Later that day, we had Seraphinia & Ron, from Australia, over for happy hour and an evening of swapping sailor stories - always fun!
More Later, G&T