Mooring buoys here are like gold. At the old Bora Bora Yacht Club, the new Mai Kai Yacht Club and at Bloody Mary's they're traded, reserved, paid for, and coveted by some, and many cruisers stay on them for a week or two at a time. Some are free; others are 2000 cfp's a night (figure about 80 cfp per one USD). We, on the other hand, don't particularly like to be on a buoy, as one never knows the quality of the materials used to construct the mooring buoy or the maintenance history of it. Unfortunately, anchoring around here is frequently in water 60'-80' deep; you pray you don't wrap a coral head or, in some cases, catch a submarine mooring cable! Infini is like a boat magnet; when other boats see us anchored, they come on over and anchor (it seems) right on top of us! We used to think leaving 100 meters between boats was a courtesy, but don't you believe it; we feel fortunate when a newcomer leaves a boat length between us. Last night was a good example. We had gone into town to see the final Heiva dance performance in the town square. Upon returning to the boat at 10:30pm (yes, I really can, on occasion, stay up past 8pm!), we discovered a 115' megayacht schooner anchored about 25 meters away from us! I called the boat on VHF 16 (he showed up on our AIS unit) and he didn't answer! Hmmm…needless to say I didn't sleep well and had visions of imminent collision, although the winds were calm and there were no problems. This morning we pulled anchor and moved to Taurere Motu on the southeastern side of Bora Bora and are anchored in 10' of sand with several miles of sandy beach in front of us. What a change from being in town for a few days!
Just a reminder, when you check our position, change it to satellite view to see the beautiful lagoon and motus around the island.
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