[password] pilot25041
[position] 16 40.0s 151 31.3w
[status] Saturday 4th Aug morning ...... currently on a buoy in Tahaa and planning to go to Uturoa town on Raitea a bit later to initially refuel and then hopefully get a spot alongside the town quay to watch the 'dancing' this evening.

On Wednesday morning we again all boarded the dinghy and went around the back of the motu to experience the great snorkelling, the coral is in remarkably good condition and even in some areas where there are large piles of dead and broken coral, new coral is starting to grow through it. We have some great underwater pictures as memories and we are sure that, when we return home, family and friends will be surprised at the underwater vistas we have seen! We left our anchorage late morning and motored back around to the other side, picking up a Bora Bora YC buoy using our new technique of picking it up from a rear transom - rather than straining over the bow to pull it up 6-7ft, and then once 'roped' walking the buoy forward, we completed this just as the heavens opened and after the rain had stopped Allan & Lyn went ashore briefly. Once they returned we had lunch and more bouts of rain, then once these had cleared we motored down to Bloody Mary's, again collecting a buoy eas
ily with our new technique. More rain followed throughout the afternoon, necessitating putting the "clears" up, it was so heavy at one time that Barry went and got shampoo and shower gel and he and Ron then had fresh water showers on deck without using any "boat water", a truly refreshing experience! The rain finally ceased for the day and we then had another great meal & evening in Bloody Mary's.

Thursday morning we dropped off the buoy and headed across to Vaitape town quay, managing to get a slot right in the corner, a quick run ashore for fresh supplies before we headed away from Bora Bora and across to Tahaa. With the NE wind of 14-18kts and a 60degree AWA we galloped across the 16nm from the light on the SW corner of the Bora Bora reef to the Passe Paipai in around 2hrs, which was another great sail and then easily picked up a buoy in Baie Tapuamau ready to visit the Pari Pari distillery in the morning.

After another quiet night, on Friday morning Barry took Ron & Jan across to the distillery and on returning to the boat we all jumped aboard the dinghy and went across to the Coral Garden, again everyone snorkelled. However, this time the current was a lot stronger than before and the water levels seemed to also be lower, but we again saw hundreds of fish and extremely healthy coral, so another successful foray. After the exertions of the morning it was a fairly quiet afternoon on board, only interrupted by the occasional "snore", or bout of rain! Two supply ships came and went from the main quay, which also provided some interesting entertainment!

So the weekend has now arrived, as we said at the start of the blog we're off to Uturoa a bit later, on the way there we're going to a Pearl Farm off Pte Toamara, then tomorrow we're going down to the Marea at Taputapuatea and hopefully launching from there through the bottom Passe Teavamoa across to Fare on Huahine the day after.

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