Great Snorkeling At ‘The Coral Garden’

Early on March 9, we pulled anchor and motored about 10 nm to Tapuamu Bay on the west side of Taha’a, the island just north of Raiatea.

The bay is pretty deep very close to shore so we were happy to find a mooring ball we could tie up to. Otherwise we would have had to drop the anchor in 60 to 80 ft of water. That is very deep for us. To be safe, (in deep anchorages) you want to put down chain of at least 50ft plus twice the depth. So at 80 ft, that would be over 200 ft of chain. We have 300 ft, so we could do it, but that much chain puts a strain on the windlass when hauling it in. And if it got stuck on something and I had to scuba to get it unstuck, those depths are getting dangerous for someone who does not dive regularly.

After picking up the mooring ball, we took the dinghy into the small town. They have a very nice sheltered dock, a gas station, a small market and a few other things.

There is also a place that sells two of the local products – vanilla and rum. Vanilla farming is big on Tahaa and there are two different rum distilleries on the island. More about the vanilla farming in a later post.

One of the attractions of Tapuamu Bay is that it is close to a great snorkeling location called ‘The Coral Garden’.

This is one of the best snorkeling places I have ever experienced. It is a ‘drift’ because there is a strong current going in. You start out near the reef and float into the lagoon watching all the beautiful coral and fish. It has some of the clearest water I have seen and the fish are very comfortable with people nearby. In fact sometimes they come so close I could not get a good picture.

In this pic, two Pacific Doublesaddled Butterflyfish and a 6 Banded Wrasse are between Peggy and me (see my foot, lower right).

A Convict Surgeonfish

A Blackspotted Sergeantfish

Some Bluegreen Chromis

A Speckled Butterflyfish

A couple of Dotted Butterflyfish.

Some clams have amazing colors!

Lots of vibrant purple coral.

An Orange Striped Triggerfish.

A Six Bar Wrasse. Many of these, sometimes coming up and ‘kissing’ my camera lens.

A Filefish.

Threadfin Butterflyfish.

A Checkerboard Wrasse.

A few Pacific Double Saddled Butterflyfish. There were many of these, and they were not at all shy. They frequently came to within inches, seeming quite curious.

Saw some enormous anemones.

Some fish have a symbiotic relationship with anemones.

Another type of purple coral.

Not sure what this is – anyone know?

I’m guessing this anemone just ate something big and is happily digesting its lunch.

As you can see, there was great visability and many colorful fish. A snorkeling adventure to be remembered!