[password] Tsar12
[position]16 49.14S 152 00.53W
[weather]cloudy 29 degrees sea 0.5-1 m N swell wind 10-14 knots northerly
[status]on approaching Mautipi the pass entrance didn?t become entirely clear until we were just out from it - for a while I was wondering whether we were going to have to turn around and sail back to Bora Bora which would have had us having to motor sail the 30 nm v hard on the wind so we were pleased when the entrance finally became clear and we entered no problem against a 3 knot current. We motored up to the main village where we anchored in 5 m of water . Soon after an Aussie ( Rob) from. a 54 ft monhull called Southern Comfort came over and introduced himself - later that eve we had sundowners on his boat, then the ne t morning we climbed the mountain at the back of the village - a 380M hill with ropes on rock faces at the end but a great view to show for it. Back to a cafe on the waterfront ( the only one) for a cold beer and lunch :)
Later that night we had Rob and Lauren ( his wife) over for dinner which was a great night-he kindly left us with his hard drive full of movies of which we downloaded approx a terrbyte worth onto our hard drive and started watching new movies soon after !
Next day we motored down towards the pass where there is a sandy bank ( plus bombies) in 7m of clear water which is where the Mantas play in the mornings - apparently there are 50which call this lagoon home.
That afternoon I took the surfski out to the pass entrance and decided to catch what looked like a good right hander on th the outside.
First wave came through and hooked onto it for a good ride but when I pulled out the following wave which was bigger and looming into a solid face-I paddled desperately to try and get on the out side of the break to go over but it popped up into a solid wall so I st4aightened up to a 2 m wall of breaking water. It ripped the ski away from me and I was in whitewater holding onto the paddle desparately looking for my ski spotted it 20m away and swam hard on
Y to have another wave rip it away just before I got there. The situation now wasn?t looking gr3at - solid whitewater and v shallow reef plus I was in the water on the outside of the reef-swimming hard I made the reef which had waves pounding on top and had to scramble about 30 m across the top while getting pounded then got to slightly deeper water where I swam to the waiting ski !
Managed to paddle over the top and get out again then straight back to the boat to nurse my wounds which consisted of scrapes to one forearm and leg. Luckily the first aid kit is in good shape and patched everything up - not that major but I was very lucky - it could have been a lot worse !
Next morning the Mantas were 50m from the boat so despite the scrapes Zuny and I hit the water and swam with 2 Mantas for 45 mins.
The wind being from the North I decided to take advantage and cut our stay slightly short so we could lay back to Bora Bora - slightly eased sheets - am 2/3 of the way across now on a nice easy sail so back to Bora Bora now and this time we will do some exploring around the island .

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