NO diving, he says

We made the 1.5 hour, somewhat tricky inside passage around to the north side of the Island of Bora Bora where large manta rays have made their home. Tricky because you have to make a sharp 'S' turn to navigate through the shallows and coral heads. There are channel markers and they corresponded very well with our very accurate and detailed electronic charts (CMap). So even though we were motoring over very visible shallows with only 1 metre under the keel, we were confident.

Safely anchored

We anchored (S16°29.305' W151°42.197') on August 22nd between 2 large hotels as their line of cabins stretched out into the lagoon. The lagoon here was a spectacular colour. Beneath Sea Turtle and far off into the distance, we could take in the views of the beautiful turquoise light blue waters. We have never seen the light coloured waters stretch so far at any other anchorage. What a magnificent view!

It was a bit rolly here as we anchored near a well-travelled track for boats coming and going to the hotel with their workers and guests.

We snorkelled with friends off SV Lisa Kay and a few other sailors also from this same anchorage. The large manta rays were stunning and visibility was quite good. They tended to stay deep so Jordan dove a few times to get a closer look swimming alongside them.

With 3 tour boats of snorkellers in the area, 1 of the guides told Jordan and all of the other sailors there NOT to free dive as it would harm the mantas. That was ridiculous as there were scuba divers below us going closer than any of us! And none of us ever touched the mantas or got close enough to scare them - they never even noticed us most of the time. So we continued to ignore the guide as he repeated his instructions to us.

While snorkelling, we found another of the same shell that Jordan discovered in Moorea, but bigger and better coloured!

We felt it to be too busy with all of the tourists. And the locals would not allow you on the beach as they claimed it was private. Perhaps they owned the small motus?

A lot of "private" motus...

So on the 24th, we returned back to the other side of the island and anchored by the Bora Bora Yacht Club (S16°29.479' W151°45.674').