Inside you have a choice of mooring and anchoring options. There is the standard middle of the lagoon, 80 to 100 feet of good holding. You need a lot of chain and rope for middle of the lagoon anchoring anywhere in French Polynesia, but sometimes it is your only choice. There are a number of mooring buoys in front of the Bora Bora Yacht Club. At the Club, free overnight mooring included with dinner and drinks. The mooring balls in front of Bloody Mary's Restaurant are the same price. Anchoring is also possible at some spots in the lagoon in 20 to 40 feet of sand.
The main village of Vaitape is at the end of the pass and has a cement quay available for docking or Med style mooring. But the local boats come and go constantly and there is no wake courtesy once you leave Victoria, BC. So you pound up onto the dock all the time.
I entered the pass and turned left up to the North. I wanted to go around the backside of Bora Bora to explore the lagoon on the windward side of Bora Bora, said to be a beautiful wonderful lagoon. The North end of the Bora Bora lagoon is challenging with a winding channel in sand and coral heads in very clear water. I was by myself and I had a hard time determining if it was a 12 foot sand bottom in crystal clear water or an 8 foot sand bottom. If it was 8 feet the coral heads might just be tall enough to hit me on the bottom.
Well the pass was not easy but I made it and continued down south in the windward lagoon. The Polynesians have their Bora Bora, but beyond a shadow of a doubt, all the nice sandy beaches are taken over by hotels, with the rooms being super deluxe "thatched huts" built on stilts over the beach and lagoon. I entered the last lagoon with the most notable beach by going about 12 feet too wide on the last navigational buoy, and slowly came to a stop in less than 5 feet 8 inches of water. It was a soft sandy bottom though, lucky for me, but full reverse wouldn't pull Prism back off. I didn't have long to plot and plan, one of the very common watertaxis came speeding up, close, with no wake courtesy. On the first wave Prism gave a bump but the next waves floated her free.
I anchored in that lagoon, very spectacular setting with open ocean, turquoise waters, and wall to wall stilt mounted thatched hut hotels. The loveliest beach in all of Bora Bora is reduced to a city lot that the Polynesians have claimed back. I went for a walk and saw a couple of restaurants, bars and some tourist gift shops (black pearls for newlyweds).
Next day I sailed the windward lagoon, it was great sailing, and what I was really doing was slowly going north to do that pass again. Well I finally got up the nerve and entered the pass and did really well until the last marker. Darn-nation I hit a coral head this time. Bump into a coral head in just 8 feet of sand. Darn-nation, I had about 5 such coral heads to give a good smack to before I was back in clear water, 8 feet of sand. Each bump filled me with horror, but each time Prism fell off or backed away until I had threaded through the coral heads. I was horrified and went over to the nearest anchorage, a 24 foot deep sand basin in a sand lagoon. I set the anchor and dove at once. But in tribute to my Dad and his selection of a strong design, Prism suffered only bottom paint damage, but in about 10 spots.
That night the wind came up strong from the Northwest, with rain and some lightning. Here in the Southern Hemisphere the winds are the exact reciprocal, so a Northwest front here is exactly the same as a Southeast front on Vancouver Island. There was also some distance from myself to the nearest land, an outer reef island so the fetch got some whitecaps up. But 24 feet, firm sand, no coral heads is great holding bottom so I just let out some more rope, wrapped the anchor line in leather to prevent chafe at the anchor roller, and Prism didn't drag a foot. At midnight the wind was backing and during the lull, I pulled in all the anchor rope and dropped the second anchor. Within minutes the wind was howling from the Southeast (equivalent on Vancouver Island is Northwest) and those winds blow very hard. Fine by me, I had little fetch in front of me and two big anchors in firm sand 24 feet below.
Back at the Bora Bora Yacht Club, things weren't so easy. One of the yachts anchored in 100 feet dragged anchor, had to be towed and rafted to a yacht at the Club mooring buoy. The two yachts overpowered the mooring chain shackle and soon they were both adrift, one with many meters of mooring buoy chain on the foredeck. Rumour has it that two mooring buoys off Bloody Mary's were also damaged.
A lot of the cruising yachts in Bora Bora right now are with the around the world rallies. For a handsome entry fee, the participant sails around the world in company of about 30 other handsome yachts. These rallies are for the rich and famous, and it would seem that a lot of the yachts are new, and the new rich owner is on a shake down cruise with others. Many boast professional crew, but others have crew that pay for the privilege. There are two rallies on right now, the ARC and the Bluewater Rally. About 30 yachts in each rally will descend on a given anchorage, en masse, sometimes overwhelming the facilities of the port. Such was the case in Bora Bora, the exit port of French Polynesia. In Bora Bora the facilities strained the most were the mooring buoys at the bars. Or selected coral heads growing too close and too shallow beside the channel.
But with the passage of the front brought the resumption of the trades and that's what I needed to depart French Polynesia for the Tonga Group. Just after noon I sailed out the pass for a couple of weeks of downwind tradewind sailing in the South Pacific. I consider myself a little bit wiser about coral heads and lagoons, but time will tell if that's the truth.
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