Mo'orea

With no Pete on board we left Tahiti and headed across the short very expanse of the Pacific between Tahiti and Mo'orea. We were heading to Cooks Bay on the North of the island which promised to be a beautiful spot with a few restaurants and somewhere for us to fill up with fuel. We were not disappointed. The bay is surrounded on all three sides by the mountains of Mo'orea and the shelter they provided made it a fantastic spot to drop anchor. Clodagh and I headed in to check out the Bali Hai hotel and to see what else was about. We’d timed it perfectly as the hotel had been decorated for a local wedding and a local dance show had been arranged for that evening. Clo and I popped back to Rafiki to grab the camera and try to entice Damo out (without success) and then headed in for the local spectacle.

The next morning the three of us headed ashore to fill up the jerry cans with fuel. As a yacht in transit we are able to get duty free fuel which is great for us but seems to be a big problem with the French fuel station employees as a form needs to be completed for each transaction… He was not impressed and was even less impressed when we went back the following day for another load of fuel! After sorting the fuel we went for a wander and paused for a beer at one of the hotels on the bay. Keen to test our new spear guns, Damo and I spent the afternoon snorkelling and diving on to the various reefs in an attempt to catch some dinner. Sadly we were forced to go hungry - it seems spear fishing is far more difficult than it looks… Sneaking up on fish in 5 - 10m of water is tricky to say the least. We quickly realised that practice and better lung capacity was required! Early the following morning we loaded up the dinghy and headed out to the outer reef for another attempt. We anchored the dinghy to a coral head and set off looking for some easy prey. Damo struck first with a shot through a small trigger fish. Not big enough for dinner but big enough to chum up (chop up in an attempt to attract more fish). I took the fish and my shiny new knife and started chumming in hope that we would attract some decent size parrot or grouper and not a decent size shark… Plenty of fish came to snap up the free meal but sadly none of any size. We’ve had another few attempts since and are yet to catch anything for dinner - we’ll keep you posted!

The next day Pete returned from his interview with a dose of jet lag after travelling through the night. We picked him up and dropped him at the boat for some much needed sleep. We made a plan to move Rafiki to the next bay, Opunohu in the morning as it was reported to be a much better spot for snorkelling. After a good nights sleep we were all back in the same time zone and Rafiki was being moved. We dropped anchor in about 10m of water at the opening to the bay and dove in for a snorkel. After a nice swim and lunch back on the boat Clo called Pete up in to the cockpit with concerns that we had drifted closer to the coral reef… I heard the discussion and joined in and after a few minutes thought it would be easier to just jump in with a mask and have a look. Clo was quite right and our rudder was slowly swinging towards a large lump of coral which would have had disastrous affects. Damo chucked the engine in to forward and we narrowly missed the head by a matter of seconds! We reset the anchor in some better holding and relaxed!

Three birthdays have so far been celebrated on board Rafiki - Clo in St Lucia, Me in Antigua, Pete in Colombia and now today was the day that we celebrated the fourth birthday on board as the old boy (Damo) turned 34/35/36 - he wasn’t sure! As the oldest guy on board Damo gets a fair bit of stick about his age and his birthday was no exception to that! We started the day with a birthday breakfast and the usual handing over of a naff birthday card/postcard! The morning was then spent snorkelling and spear fishing and later that afternoon a buddy yacht - Nelly Rose pulled in to the bay and dropped anchor next to us. We popped over to say hello and discussed each others plans. Pim and Hanneke were keen to check out a local sting ray feeding spot as they had heard such good things about it - their third hand reviews were good enough to convince us to change plans, stay a bit longer and go check it out. That evening was spent in the Hilton Resort drinking Birthday Cocktails! The resort is beautiful. Right on the beach with small villas on stilts over the water. We sat on the balcony of the bar surrounded by couples who had run out of things to say to one another! There was nothing but tranquil silence and a beautiful sunset until we arrived… Damo's birthday was marked in the same way the others had - with far too much drink and eventually with a sing song on the back of the boat!

The next morning we loaded up the dinghy and prepared to head off to feed the Sting Rays. Sadly, Pete wasn’t going to join us as he was feeling a little queer. We left Pete in bed and followed Pim and Hanneke to the feeding station. We arrived to an empty lagoon, not a tourist in sight! We dropped the dinghy anchor and jumped in. Within seconds three or four large rays were in the area looking for food and closely behind them were a group of Black Tip reef sharks circling the group hoping to pick up some scraps. The Rays came right up to us and happily took the food from our hands. They have a luxurious silky feel to their wings and a hard skeletal back. It was quite an experience! Clo seemed to enjoy herself and did relax after a while despite the fact that all of the photos show her terrified with her hands held high above her head!! After the food had gone they seemed to lose interest and started to disperse. We all jumped back in the dinghy’s and carefully made our way back through the coral reefs to Rafiki. It was a great way to end our trip on Moorea. Once back on board Pete seemed to be feeling a little better and we made plans to head off the following day for the next Paradise Island - Huahine!

Adam x