Chiara Stella position report

Current position: LAT: -16.493583 LON: -151.789350
Timestamp: 2014-05-30 17:25 UTC
Iridium position: http://map.iridium.com/m?lat=-16.493583&lon=-151.789350
YOTREPOS tracker: http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=CHIARAST
MarineTraffic position: http://marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=10&mmsi=503518300

Chiara Stella position report

Current position: LAT: -16.493583 LON: -151.789350
Timestamp: 2014-05-30 09:21 UTC
Iridium position: http://map.iridium.com/m?lat=-16.493583&lon=-151.789350
YOTREPOS tracker: http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=CHIARAST
MarineTraffic position: http://marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=10&mmsi=503518300

Chiara Stella position report

Current position: LAT: -16.493583 LON: -151.789350
Timestamp: 2014-05-30 01:24 UTC
Iridium position: http://map.iridium.com/m?lat=-16.493583&lon=-151.789350
YOTREPOS tracker: http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=CHIARAST
MarineTraffic position: http://marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=10&mmsi=503518300

Bora Bora

Arrived here at Bora Bora on Sunday late in the afternoon, after a few hours sailing and a few hours motoring from Tahaa, winds were fairly fickle and light.  Of course there is a lot written about Bora Bora in the various tourism guides,  some positive and some negative,  but overall it's a very pretty place. I'm not sure if it's the prettiest place in the South Pacific,  we've been to some remarkably attractive islands,  in particular I think that both Tahaa and Moorea are quite underrated.

Bora Bora does have the advantage of easy accessibility and of course the resorts if you are the sort of person who stays in ad resort every time you go on holidays. I've been quite enjoying cycling around the islands and seeing the sights first hand,  and in particular the area near the main township on Bora Bora is nowhere as pretty as either Tahaa or Moorea or Raivavae.

I don't have to stay in a resort of course,  I just drop an anchor or in this case pick up a mooring, this one outside the MaiKai marina just north of Vaitape.

The marina has the advantage of being close to the town and shops, such as the supermarket and the various pearl centres, but I was a bit disappointed with the facilities. "Toilets" in this case means one single cubicle,  BYO toilet paper,  and "showers" means some outside hose attachments with a spray nozzle. The sort of thing that, to be honest is starting to push my buttons a bit in French Polynesia (along with the inability of any French skipper to use a radio,  know where starboard is, know how fast 5 knots is, or have any clue about safe passing distances).

At least the food is good.

Chiara Stella position report

Current position: LAT: -16.657183 LON: -151.446883
Timestamp: 2014-05-25 20:25 UTC
Iridium position: http://map.iridium.com/m?lat=-16.657183&lon=-151.446883
YOTREPOS tracker: http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=CHIARAST
MarineTraffic position: http://marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=10&mmsi=503518300

Raiatea and Tahaa

We left Mo'orea for the overnight sail to Raiatea.  Despite originally deciding to skip Raiatea in favour of Taha'a, we instead spent a few pleasant days in the Marina Apooiti in Raiatea and exploring the nearby town of Uturoa.  Sailing there from Mo'orea was a pleasant overnight sail without a lot of traffic about, although we were passed by Orca 3, an Australian flagged catamaran (in fact on its way back to Australia from where it was built in France) during the night.

On the way in, in fact just before we were about to make our gybe to the entrance leads into the Raiatea lagoon, we caught this:

Very tasty indeed!  Flash fried with some soy sauce and garlic it was some of the best fish I've ever eaten, and look at the size of it!  Needless to say we still have a freezer full.

Uturoa is a sleepy little town although it has a nice fruit and vegie market and 3 small supermarkets carrying a range of different things.  We also found a guy (Richard) who assisted to get my outboard running again, as it had started playing up in Mo'orea.  The marina also had a laundry and showers which were very welcome.

Next stop is Taha'a. Things are all very close here:

Raiatea and Taha'a share the same lagoon, this was taken just after leaving Marina Apooiti on Raiatea.  Taha'a is to the left, and to the right in the distance is Bora Bora, which is about 5 hours sailing time away.

Taha'a is a very pretty island, lush and green almost to the extent of making Raivavae look barren.  The main export here appears to be vanilla so I went to visit a vanilla plantation today and bought some vanilla pods and powder direct from the farm.

Internet coverage has been spotty and expensive since we arrived in French Polynesia, but right now we're moored off the Hibiscus lodge/bar/restaurant in Haamene Bay which has free (and reasonably fast) wifi.  3G coverage has been fairly poor here although it was OK in Raiatea, but at about $30 for 400MB it's expensive.

Tomorrow we will leave Taha'a and head for Bora Bora for a few days.

Chiara Stella position report

Current position: LAT: -16.773200 LON: -151.413200
Timestamp: 2014-05-20 22:31 UTC
Iridium position: http://map.iridium.com/m?lat=-16.773200&lon=-151.413200
YOTREPOS tracker: http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=CHIARAST
MarineTraffic position: http://marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=10&mmsi=503518300