Moorea is about 15 miles east of the Island of Tahiti. Sailing there is about as easy as sailing gets. It's all downwind so you just have to throw up a sail and let the boat get pushed there. Even the lamest of sailors can figure this one out. So we threw up some sails cracked a beer and before we knew it we were in Moorea. There are basically two anchoring areas on the island, the first is Cook's Bay where presumably Cap'n Cook left some sort of unsolicited legacy or there is Opunohu Bay. At Cook Bay you're in slightly murky but deep water and at Opunohu you're in 10 ft of water and it's crystal clear, so we chose Opunohu. We drop anchor, floaty toys and boom, we're in the water drinking beer and floating behind Ustupu in the lee of Moorea under her towering mountains.
Incidentally the film The Bounty, about Captain Bligh and the mutiny on his vessel the Bounty was filmed in Moorea. When we watched it a few weeks later it was cool to point out all of the places we recognized.
The next day we went snorkelling with Sting Rays at 'Sting Ray World' or something. I don't know why they call it Sting Ray World because it was just a bunch of Sting Rays and Sharks in front of a bungalow hotel on the water. Regardless, it was pretty fantastic, you bring some canned fish and sprinkle it around and on your body and the Sting Rays come and slurp the fish off you. They rub you and bump you in groups of 3-4. It felt weird but good.
Hmmm, what should we do next? We hopped back in the dinghy and went to a motu to snorkel and hang out on the beach. What is a motu you ask? Well it's an island that forms on the fringing coral reef that surrounds the main island. This one was basically uninhabited less a few speedo clad Europeans wading in 2 feet of water. Dear Europeans, what's with the speedos? Leave some of the male anatomy to the imagination, please.
On our way back to the boat Sylvie was kayaking and unbeknownst to her a humpback and her calf were splashing around directly in her path. When the whales surfaced some 20 feet in front of her I saw in her eyes first horror, then shock and finally amazement. Of the 5 boats following the whales, she had the best seat in the house. Way to not get swallowed by a whale Sylvie!
To top off the day we jumped in the water, sat in the inflatables and drank cold beer. Spot the trend??
Here are some of the other things we did in Moorea:
-Hitch hiked around the island in 4 different cars. It took us the better part of the day but met some really cool locals and wannabe locals.
-Had our own Olympics to make up for the fact that we couldn't catch any of the London games on TV. The participating nations were Canada and the USA. Guess who won these summer games??? Not Canada. The events included kayak time trials, a swim race from one boat to another, the long jump, the coco-put (my idea), and the timed coco nut opening with a machete and chugging.
-Drank cold beer in inflatables nightly behind our boat.
We liked Moorea.
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| The Sting-Ray, an interpretative dance by Dan Schroeder |
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| Up close and squishy |
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| Sylvie, play it cool! |
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