The feeling of sailing away from the boatyard was al-most euphoric. We were exhausted from the work but the excitement of being back on the water on what was now our boat energized us. It was a windy, squally day but we hoisted the main and genoa for a short but thrilling downwind run to an anchorage near Marina Taina.
Here we rested, provisioned, took care of paperwork involved in getting our cartes de sejour (residency per-mits), and waited for the weather to clear.
The channel which separates Mo’orea and Tahiti is less than ten nautical miles wide and the tradewinds make for a quick, easy run from the west coast of Tahiti-Nui to Mo’orea. We left at dawn and sailed to Mo’orea’s south coast where we spent the next several weeks do-ing little more than surfing, eating, and sleeping (with a little snorkeling, paddling, and boatwork thrown in). The sweat-equity we had invested in the boatyard was paying dividends in stoke!
We made some really cool friends in the lineup and invited two couples to join us on the next leg of our adventure. With our shoulders aching from paddling, we hoisted sail and cruised around the west side of the island to Mo’orea’s picturesque North Coast (making piña coladas en route with our handy Vitamix).
We spent the next couple of weeks exploring the two scenic bays on the North Coast: Opuno-hu Bay and Cook’s Bay. Snorkel-ing the coral reefs that flank the entrances to these bays is amaz-ing, but so is hiking into the is-land’s steep, green interior. We took advantage of both!
The Route des Ananas meanders through pineapple plantations into the beautiful Opunohu Val-ley. Trails shoot off the “pineapple road” into the lush rainforest and are ideal for hik-ing, mountain biking, and horse-back riding. There’s so much to do on Mo’orea. It truly is a tropi-cal paradise.