Maupiti Circumnav
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Thu 3 Oct 2013 22:57
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Maupiti Circumnavigation in
Baby Beez
 Plan
A this morning was to see if we
could find manta rays near the first motu we passed on our way in, Pitiaho, we
met up with Windarra. No too many small
boats churning the water so the mantas had gone home. We then picked Philippe up
from Jehol and set about Plan B to spuddle
to the top of the motu by the airport (by the word Tuanai on the map) to find the coral garden and snorkel. I
had the fancy to go the wrong way round, that is, clockwise (then we could say
we had circumnavigated Maupitit in Baby Beez). What a plan.......The book says
Maupiti is a small coral atoll with a volcanic island in its midst. With a
surface area or four and a half square miles, it couldn’t take us too long to
spuddle round – or could it ???
 All began well. This picture is
looking from the first anchorage, just inside the pass, across to the lower end
of the left hand motu - Auira
Geography: Maupiti
is located to the west of the Leeward Islands in French Polynesia. It is the
westernmost volcanic high island in the archipelago, thirty miles west of Bora
Bora. The lagoon has large and flat coral islands in its northern reef half and
two motus on both sides of the pass at its southern end. The primary economic activity on
Maupiti is noni production and we have seen crops of watermelon. The main
settlement is Vaiea.
 With motu Auira on our left off we
spuddled across the sand and occasional coral head. The water depth was between
six and eighteen inches all the way. Bear looked like a fiddlers elbow, outboard
set up, outboard set down, up so the propeller is just below the surface of the
water. Once or twice we almost had to get out and pull Baby Beez, but that was
later..... In the picture – spot the two people
walking across from the ‘mainland’ to the motu. The deepest they will have to
paddle across the point four of a mile – to their shorts.
 The biggest shallowest lagoon we have
ever been in. The people are weeny.
 Plenty of chaps kept us company.
 Then the tricky bit where Bear wiggled
us around many coral heads.
All was well until we rounded the top
of the island, plenty of coral to navigate, a couple of times Bear turned the
engine off and we rowed over the heads. No sooner than we were out of the shadow
of Maupiti than the wind was blowing straight at us and with some gusto.
Philippe and I sat in the front of Baby Beez, reminiscent of a scene from Moby
Dick, when the water gets heaved over the actors in big bucketful's, just as
well it was not too cold, needless to say everything was now soaking wet. We all
got out and pulled Baby Beez along when things got too shallow. Asking a chap in
a flat–bottomed boat where the coral gardens were, he pointed and off we
trotted. Philippe went in to investigate, I said I would go in if there were
more than six fish. Up came the reply “only four”, back to Beez for a stiff
libation methinks. That done, Philippe invited us to lunch aboard Jehol. What a
machine. This catamaran was built for speed, averaging two hundred and eighty
miles a day (compared to our one hundred and twenty). Home then to do the
washing.
 ALL IN ALL THE BEST SALT
WATER POWER HOSE EVER
.
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