Coral Gardens - Tahaa - French Polynesia.
Nina
Steve and Lynda Cooke
Sun 26 Jun 2016 23:26
Coral Gardens - Tahaa - French Polynesia.
We upped anchor and made our way north inside the reef to the anchorage at the Motu, where there is a large hotel at the North-West corner of Tahaa, where the Coral Gardens are situated. (A Motu is any island on the outside of the lagoon around the islands). It was fairly breezy, and we anchored in 2.3m of water, (Nina draws 1.8m) very carefully picking our way over the edge of the reef onto the sandy anchorage, with Lynda and Karen on the bow as look outs for coral, while Steve and Peter were at the stern looking at the depth gauges. Steve decided that it would be OK as a day anchorage, but not for the night, so we hurried into the dinghy for the trip to the pass between the Motus.
The pass had lots of people wading through the water between the islands, and we tied up the dinghy, before walking up the path to get into the water to return with the current. The water was full of coral garden, and fish of all kinds swarmed us. The coral bommies in the water, which had some sandy areas between the coral heads, meant it was possible to make your way through, but both Peter and Steve cut their feet and legs on the coral as we were whooshed through the stream of water, like a sea river full of fish and coral.
All sorts of reef fish, trigger fish, wrasses, damsel fish, angel fish, surgeon fish, squirrel fish, clams, huge white sea anemones.
A beautiful snorkel.
One of the highlights of Tahaa.