Moorea is truly anyone's idea of a Polynesian paradise. It has been the site of numerous films, including "South Pacific" and the most recent version of "The Bounty" (with Mel Gibson). It has idyllic bays, lagoonal anchorages and great diving with huge lemon sharks.

 This is a view of Opunohu Bay. If you look closely you will see dozens of sailboats on the left (E) side of the lagoon. The west side of the pass into the bay rarely has boats, owing to the very shallow water.

For some reason, nobody wanted to anchor in the bay itself, so we did. Another shot of Amante enjoying an empty anchorage all to herself.

The grandeur of this massive emerald chunk of jungle harbors not one lethal or dangerous creature, at least not on land. That's our kind of Paradiso.

This is a view of Cook's Bay. The north coast of Mooera has 2 bays, Cook on the east and Opunohu on the west. The central peak is the core of an ancient volcano.

This Opunohu Bay. The view is defaced by some grumpy, crazy-looking guy who wouldn't move.

  Moorea is a great place just to hang out. It lacks some facilities that yachties take for granted, such as public trash cans. The Bays can get rough when the winds are up and the lagoon is festooned with coral, tailor-made to ruin props and dingy hulls. It's a great place for bikes, though the well-heeled can rent a car for less than $100/day. Like Tahiti, it has a road that circumnavigates the island. Fortunately, most places of interest can be reached by dinghy, including a spot teeming with sting rays. The diving here includes lots of shark dives. Moorea is one of the few places where you can swim with lemon sharks, big guys over 10' long and 3' wide.

We wish we could show you some sharks, but our Canon digital camera quit in Tahiti and we had to use a 35mm SLR and camcorder for the shots you see here.

We could have spent another couple of weeks in Moorea, but it was getting late in the season and we had to sail for Huahine

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