Day Six, July 20: Passage to Bora Bora; anchorage at Motu Toopua
This is the Teavenua Pass, the only one into Bora Bora Lagoon. Cook visited here only briefly on December 1777 in order to recover a anchor lost by the French explorer Bourganville. He would have used this same pass.
The Reefs at Teavenui Pass
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Today, we set sail from the Paipai Pass west of Tahaa and charted a course of 25 nm, 294T for the Teavenui Pass into Bora Bora Lagoon. After entering Vaitape Bay, we refueled the dingy at Maikai Marina, and then motored down the west side of Motu Toopua and anchored in 6 ft of beautiful turquoise water at the southern tip of the motu. We had our first and only rain on this trip today. We were then blessed with a beautiful rainbow off our stern to the west.
Getting gas was HARD! First you had to find a station that sold gas, then you had to find one that was open - they close for lunch about 2 hours each day, then you had to find a bouy for the sailing vessel and another place to dock the dinghy, then get the gas and head off again. We "borrowed" a diving boat bouy for the Miri Miri. For only a few minutes. They wanted their bouy back. - Cathy
The Anchorage at Motu Toopua
Meredith and Shelby at the moment of our windlass' failing
I believe we reached an impasse here - Anna Catherine
Shelby hands me the
anchor thing and then
tells me all I need to do
is "push the button".
The entire device is
covered in buttons...
- Meredith
After the windlass failed and half an hour of troubleshooting, we waited an hour in a short storm for a mechanic to come out to the boat. Of course, the first time the mechanic tried the windlass it worked fine.