Moorea is a beautiful island in the Society group of French
Polynesia. Only 15 miles removed from Tahiti, its dramatic contour is visible (and
luring) from there on clear days, and as a destination it is only a three-four hour
sail or a one hour ferry ride away. Moorea is a “high” island surrounded by
coral reefs. Its body consists of sharply outlined peaks, green hills and white
sand beaches. Between shore and reef, the lagoon presents smooth clear waters
of all shades of blue. Because of its close proximity to Tahiti and its
plethora of things to see and do, Moorea attracts heaps of tourists. You see
them being transported in vans, buses or pick-up trucks onshore and being
ferried on tours with lagoon and whale watch boats, dive boats or jetskis. On
busy days, Irie has to swallow a lot of wake and bounciness, but usually, the
anchorage we are in right now is pretty quiet and we are the only boat around;
a rare sight in Moorea! We enjoy privacy and comfort in a sublime setting.
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| Spiky sea cucumber |
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| Big coral boulders |
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| Colorful clam |
Even though Moorea has many reefs and a myriad of coral
patches, the snorkeling is only fair, since most of the coral is dead and therefore
lightly populated with reef fish and other underwater creatures. Mark and I
have been in the water with flippers and masks in different areas surrounding
the north coast. At the reef anchorage NE of Cook’s Bay, only a rare patch of
live coral was to be found and the fish population was very limited. The reef
anchorage NW of Opunohu Bay offered a surprise during my first swim, when I
snorkeled over dark rocks that appeared to be tikis. They were! Underwater
tikis are strewn near the two white mooring balls in this area of the anchoring
shelf. They are a nice addition to the coral reefs presenting an average amount
of live coral and colorful fish. Sting rays and the occasional shark keep the
underwater adventures interesting. Unfortunately, many of the reefs are
presently overgrown with algae. We had heard about a good snorkeling spot in
between the two motus (islands) NW of Moorea. We took our dinghy over there – a
long ride away – but, once again, found not much of interest, except tour
groups.
The underwater highlight of Moorea is called “Stingray
City”, a dedicated area where stingrays – and now also an increasing amount of
reef sharks – gather. The reason: tour operators feed the rays who, in return,
love to be around people and even climb on them, offering tourists the
opportunity to touch and stroke these gentle creatures and take amazing
pictures. Some rays even climb all over the people standing and swimming in the
shallow water, so we’ve heard. Not a fan of feeding wildlife (even though the
stingray feeding has been an attraction on Moorea for over twenty years), Mark
and I parked our dinghy amongst the tour boats, and I jumped in the water to
see what all the fuzz was about. Mark remained dry above the water surface,
because the circling sharks – outnumbering the sting rays – put him off from
jumping in. The fact that a tourist had been bitten by a shark here a week
prior supported his decision.
I saw some stingrays swimming about, but most must have been
tired from all the commotion and feeding earlier in the morning, because they
were resting on the bottom, covered with white sand. Since we didn’t have any
food to give them, they went about their business after the initial curiosity and
anticipation hearing our outboard engine upon our arrival. Even though I
managed to stroke one of the bigger residents, I was a little disappointed that
they didn’t “climb all over me”. Like in South Fakarava in the Tuamotus, many
black tip reef sharks were present – in this tranquil climate I almost had to
urge to pet them as well – but they just swam around and kept their distance.
Maybe coming over earlier in the morning, before all the tourist hubbub starts,
provides better interaction with the velvety and gracious stingrays?
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| Petting a Tahitian stingray |
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| Coral patches between the two motus |
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| Spotted Sandperch |
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| Moorea houses a lot of dead coral, blooming algae and few fish |
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| Tahitian stingray digging itself in |
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| Picasso Triggerfish attacking my mask and chasing me off |
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| One of the submerged tikis |
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| Another underwater tiki |
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| And a third underwater treasure |
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| Tahitian stingray up-close |
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| And a bunch of sharks... up-close |
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| A couple of stingrays |
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| Black tip reef shark with remora underneath |
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| Stingray climbing a tour boat for more food - the fact that there are this many fish in one place, means that food was thrown in the water to attract the wildlife and enhance the tourists' snorkeling experience |
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| Black tip and a stingray covered by sand |
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| Swimming reef sharks and resting rays |
Mark and I – and probably most cruisers – prefer Moorea to
Tahiti, so we tried to leave the “big island” as soon as possible, once our
guests Griet and Wim arrived from Belgium. The wind predictions were favorable
(about 15 knots from the east), but, as usual, none of that materialized.
Instead of the funky west winds from last time, we didn’t have enough wind to
keep the sails full this time, so we had to motor sail most of the 25 miles to
the Opunohu Bay area in Moorea. All of our eyes were focused on the horizon is
search of whales, but none were to be spotted.
As we were driving in between the channel markers of Opunohu
Bay, we counted seven masts in our (small) anchorage of choice, so we steered
towards the alternative and bigger anchoring area near the beach. I saw
something in the water approaching us: “Whale!” Fifty feet forward of our bow,
a big humpback whale surfaced, followed by her calf. They were leaving the
channel, into the ocean. Dumbfounded and thrilled – a combination between awe
(wow, amazing!) and ouch (wow, don’t hit us!) – we grabbed our cameras, but the
pair dove down and didn’t pop up again until they reached safer waters, out of
camera reach.
The following days, Irie sat in the clear waters of the two
reef anchorages and the darker, brackish water of Opunohu Bay. We took our
visitors up to Magical Mountain for the amazing view over the surrounding
reefs, buzzed amongst a pod of dolphins with our dinghy, hiked through the
forests and into the hills to reach a couple of viewpoints, and swam with reef
sharks and stingrays. While we took care of some boat errands and daily life
chores, Griet and Wim donned their snorkel gear and explored the underwater
world. Our last day in Moorea was filled with boat preparations (cleaning of
the hull, hauling Mark up the mast, securing a whole bunch of things,
separating the outboard from the dinghy, etc…) for the overnight trip to
Huahine, our next destination.
