When we first arrived in Moorea, we anchored in what they now call Cook's Bay. This was a very deep bay with striking rock formations around the inside edge. In fact, we thought just about everything we saw in Moorea was quite pretty and it wound up being one of our favorite stops so far. While we were there, we went on a very enjoyable island driving tour. We were picked up by a nice guy in a truck with benches built into the back and a canopy that he removed so we could stand up for better viewing in the interior parts of the island. Standing up was not allowed on the blacktop roads around the edge of the island. We really couldn't see what the difference was, but he was a nice guy, so we were happy to comply. He made lots of stops and pointed out many different kinds of fruit trees growing along the road and in people's gardens. We also stopped at a pineapple plantation and at the agricultural school where they grow LOTS of different flowers, fruits and some vanilla. There were also stops at some breathtaking viewpoints. We'll put up as many pictures as we can, but it's tough to do the place justice, so if anyone wants to see more our tour guide recommended two movies that were filmed in Moorea - the remake of Mutiny on the Bounty with Mel Gibson, and Love Affair with Warren Beaty. The guide also made us a little snack of pineapple and grapefruit using leaves for a platter and flowers for decorations which looked so good we took pictures of it - it could have graced a fancy buffet anywhere, except for the fact that the platter was in the back of the truck.
After spending a couple nights in Cook's Bay we got tired of the gusty winds and the murky water inside this bay, so we moved the boat around to a stunning anchorage just outside the mouth of Opunohu Bay. Opunohu Bay actually used to be called Cook's Bay, and is in fact where Captain Cook anchored when he was there, but apparently they decided to change the name because that bay is now in the midst of a reserve area and they wanted to funnel most of the visitors over to the other bay. We're glad the trick didn't work with us because our new spot was quite beautiful. The boat was in about 20 feet of water and we had wonderful views over the reef out to the ocean as well as a good angle on the sunset and a nice view of the public beach we were anchored off of. The water was so clear that on calm mornings you could see the ridges in the sand below us. the boat. It sometimes seemed as though there was no water and we were just levitating above the sand. Tres magnifique! We could also snorkel right off the boat in this anchorage, which is one of our favorite things. We saw an octopus, eels, eagle rays and tons of beautiful fish, but, just in case you think it sounds too good to be true, I will confess that the coral itself was not in great shape here. We were told by the dive guys that three years ago the coral was amazing and then an infestation of these huge starfish called Crowns of Thorn appeared and these creatures killed all the coral despite attempts by the dive guys to get rid of them. There are still quite a few of these starfish there, and let me tell you, none of us had ever seen a starfish that looked like that before! They are huge! And ugly. What a shame.
Once we got to this new anchorage, some other cruisers told us about a nearby stingray swimming site. Apparently excursion boats have been feeding the rays in this spot for so long that they are now quite tame. We were told to take stuff to feed them, but we didn't have anything we thought they'd like, so we headed over in the dinghy empty handed. We motored for about a half hour and were trying to figure out just exactly where the rays were supposed to be when we saw a few excursion boats heading our way and thought we'd just follow them. They came right over to where we'd been motoring around and seeing nothing, but since they had food for the rays there were soon rays everywhere. We got in the water, which was about chest high, and they swam right up to us. Some of the people from the excursion boats who were holding pieces of fish were basically being hugged by them. This amount of contact was a bit much for Angie, who only wanted to see and not touch 'em, but Jeff, Fred and Aimee all felt them and said they were soft but a bit slimy. Yuck. Most of the rays were about 2-3 feet wide from tip to tip, but a few of the bigger ones were 4-5 feet across. After the feeding was over, we got back in the dinghy, and the rays were swimming all around and underneath it, and just that part alone was well worth the long dinghy ride to get there and back.
We wound up staying in Moorea about a week longer then we originally planned because, on the day we planned to leave, the weather became bad for sailing, and stayed that way for quite some time. Luckily for us, this did not mean the weather was bad for hanging out in Moorea, and it continued to be beautiful there, although it was a bit gusty at times in the anchorage. We were not the only boat waiting out the weather in this wonderful spot. Early on in our stay one of the other boats organized a barbecue on the beach we were near, so we got to meet all our boat neighbors (and they were a particularly nice bunch) and this kicked off a daily meeting on the beach for "sundowners and nibbles" which included play time for the kids and chat time for the grownups. Unfortunately, we missed some of the sunset gatherings when first Jeff, then Angie and later Fred came down with a nasty head that moved right down into our chests and stayed there for awhile. Luckily Aimee managed to avoid the cold because, unluckily, her visit ended around this time and her long, long, long flight home would only have been made worse by the sneezing and coughing it produced.
Despite how much we liked Moorea, we eventually became eager to move along since our visa for French Polynesia would be running out soon and we wanted to leave ourselves plenty of time for some other islands, particularly Bora Bora. Our weather router's estimate of the good time to leave kept getting pushed back by the changes in weather, but after a couple other boats in our group left Moorea and reported back that the seas were uncomfortable but not as bad as the weather predictions were indicating, we decided to go ahead and leave too since our next leg was a short one. We estimated it would take between 15 and 20 hours to get to Huahine, so we left Moorea at 4 PM, along with 3 other boats, for an overnight sail that would allow us to both leave the pass in Moorea and arrive at the pass into Huahine with good light to help guide us through the entrances in each reef. Well, now we have a good idea as to what our weather router is trying to protect us from, because although the seas were not as rough as any of the forcasts would lead you to believe, they were in fact rough enough to make the trip uncomfortable. What happens when it's rough like this is that every single thing inside the boat wants to fly around unless it is put away properly. It also means that anything you want to put down for just a minute will go flying or sliding away, and you need to hold onto something any time you are standing up, so it becomes a challenge just to get a water bottle out of the fridge when you're thirsty - forget about trying to cook. In this case we knew what we were in for, so Jeff cooked our supper ahead of time and it was just a matter of putting it bowls (and trying to get them to the crew behind the wheel without spilling) so we did manage to have a nice dinner despite the conditions. Nobody managed to sleep much however, it was just too rolly, so even after trying to wedge yourself into your bunk with pillows on each side, everyone was still rolling a bit too much to get any long sleep. But it was just one night, and we made it into Huahine just fine, so no harm done, and we have more appreciation now than ever for Susan, our lovely weather router, who works to keep us out of that rough stuff - Thanks Susan!
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