Back to the Yacht Club

0800 Position 16-29S 151-46W. On a mooring at the Bora Bora Yacht Club

It is best to move through these coral filled lagoons when the sun is high and visibility is good, so we waited until 11AM yesterday to weigh anchor and head back to the western side of Bora's lagoon. In addition to the shallow part of the pass I wrote about the other day, we also had to negotiate a narrow and winding channel through the coral to access the eastern lagoon. This channel runs north-south, and we were headed south on our way in. Visibility was great heading south in the channel because here in the southern hemisphere winter the sun is well to the north and behind us. On our way out yesterday we were heading north in the channel, right into the sun, and the glare off of the water made for some sketchy moments. At one point in the channel Rob saw ten feet on the depth sounder, just two feet under the keel, but we never touched.

We found an open mooring off of the Bora Bora Yacht Club, picked it up, and went ashore in the dinghy to use the club's WIFI. I got to have a cold one from the bar and a pleasant video chat with my lovely wife.

Our canoe thief did not put in an appearance last night, but we still had a little bit of excitement. A charter catamaran picked up the mooring next to ours just before sunset. The wind died off completely and the boats were swinging randomly on their moorings. It looks like they installed the mooring too close together in this 100 foot deep bay because the catamaran and Van Diemen swung within a couple of feet of each other a few times. The skipper of the catamaran didn't care. Heck, it is a charter boat, but Rob was concerned about bumping the other boat so he put out all of Van Diemen's fenders to prevent any damage if we did come together. The fenders seemed to do the trick, and we never got close to each other after that.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com