Double Trouble!
Mystic
Archie Massey and Jo Wood-Hill
Thu 19 Jul 2012 02:51
Lon 149:51.04W
Well, I thought having one Massey on board was full of hyperactivity and chaos! It turns out we now have double trouble! :-)
We are having a great time in Moorea, the sun is shining and there is plenty of action as you might expect with Harry and Archie on board! Yesterday we hired scooters for the day and did a lap of the island. We had to leave the dinghy on the davits though as the glue was still drying, so the first challenge was to swim ashore whilst keeping all our belongings dry, without the aid of a drybag. Somehow we managed and we picked up our scooters and took off around the island. We went up to the Belvedere, which is a viewpoint above the two famous bays of the island. The view was magnificent and it is such a shame that the weather was so bad last week when Dad, Jamie and Ilana walked up to the same spot. Taking scooters was definitely a better option - they are awesome fun and with Harry and David on one and Archie and I on the other, there was lots of hooting and tomfoolery, including Archie driving the parked scooter into a small ditch, and on another occasion failing to put it on it's stand thing properly so that the whole bike fell to the ground. We also managed to ground it out on a dirt track leading up to a waterfall, but hey that's what you do in hired transport, right?!
The view from the Belvedere of Baie de Cook and Baie d'Opunohu
Boys on tour
We went round to the beach at Les Tipaniers restaurant where we had eaten last week, and found lots of kite surfers launching from the neighbouring beach. Harry was practically jumping out of his skin with excitement and so a plan was made to return the next day for an epic kiting session. We continued round the west and south coasts of the island. There really isn't much there and everything is focused around the touristy northern coast and the port where the ferry from Tahiti arrives on the east coast. We had lunch in a pizza place near the port, and then Archie and I went to find another illusive waterfall, before joining the others back on the boat.
Arch and David checking out the kiting opportunities
Tahiti in the background from west coast of Moorea
Bikies!
Scooter shadows
Cracking sunset last night
Today we have spent about 10 hours in or around the water. This morning team Massey went wake boarding while I taught David to scuba dive. (who needs PADI?) Then we took off in the dinghy for the long trip across the reef to see the stingrays and sharks in the same spot as we saw them last week. We arrived later in the day and avoided the tour boats that had been there last time. We took a can of tinned tuna which didn't go down amazingly with the stingrays who are used to being fed fresh fish (tuna snobs!) but it got them over to where we were and produced a satisfactory amount of squealing from the boys as the stingrays came and ate the tuna from their hands!
The water is as clear as a swimming pool - amazing!
Archie feeding the rays
We had a late lunch at Les Tipaniers and spent the afternoon kiting from the beach. There were about 12 other kiters in the water - we had definitely found the right spot! Archie took David and I upwind in the dinghy where David excelled and has now cracked it after 3 months of trying, and I failed, again, and nearly drowned, again, and have decided that maybe it just isn't the sport for me! Harry was let loose on his own and after doing well at first, later found the coral at low tide and is now sporting a good show of scratches across his arm and back. After all the excitement it got rather late and rather dark fairly quickly, and we had to dinghy back the 40 minute journey in the dark. There are black and white markers showing the narrow channel through the reef but they are not lit and they run out before the end of the channel which is not that helpful! We did pretty well spotting the markers but when they ran out we found ourselves grounding out on the reef, but luckily the dinghy seemed to be ok and we made it back to the boat. We are all knackered and ready for an early bed. The best news of the day is that after 12 hours of hooning around we appear to still have a dry dinghy, so Archie's hard work at the marina seems to have paid off. Fingers crossed that it lasts.
Harry getting ready to launch
Tomorrow we are doing a dive on a nearby reef with our own kit, and then late afternoon we are setting sail for Huahine (pronounced Waheenee) which is our next island, about 80 miles away so we will do it overnight.