Pitufa.at » Photo Galleries » A second mooring in Rapa Iti

In January 2022 we installed a second mooring for sailboats in the bay of Ahurei, Rapa Iti. Thanks a lot to the Commune of Rapa for sponsoring most of the material, to Alex (the chief of the firefighters) for working with us, to our friends Soraya and Thomas on SY Garulfo for all their work and to SY Pitufa for carrying the blocks! The mooring consists of two 750 kg blocks that are linked with 14 mm chain and a 25 mm rope goes up to the surface. It is well suited for yachts the size of Pitufa (41 ft, 12 tons) or smaller. It is located at S 27° 36,700' W 144° 19,872'. The mooring we installed three years ago is suitable for bigger boats up to 25 tons (S 27° 36,808' W 144° 20,034'. The moorings are not insured, but well made and regularly checked. We usually prefer anchoring to moorings, but in the bay of Ahurei you either have to anchor in deep basins with doubtful holding (25 to 35 m) or on bommies--all the shallower parts are covered in live, fragile staghorn coral, so picking up a mooring is the best choice! Please help checking and maintaining the moorings if you visit. The commune does not charge for the use, but donations to the mairie are highly appreciated.

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1/23: The two mooring blocks didn't have any attachments, so we bent metal bars to fit around them.
2/23
3/23
4/23
5/23: Thomas and Christian did most of the bending...
6/23: ...and Alex welded them together.
7/23: Then Alex took the two blocks to the dock.
8/23: We brought Pitufa alongside...
9/23: Alex put the first block in the shallow water.
10/23: Then we positioned Pitufa on top of it.
11/23
12/23: The forklift lifted the block again and we tied it over Pitufa's strong bow
13/23: Our strong lady only slightly bent over when she took the weight.
14/23: We took the block across the bay to a 6 m spot we had marked before.
15/23: It was teamwork: Birgit on the helm to steer Pitufa, Christian on the bow to slowly lower the block, Thomas and Alex in the water to give detailed instructions as to where to position it and Soraya in the dinghy to give Pitufa a shove in case she would drift sideways.
16/23: The block is slowly lowered.
17/23: Then we went back to the dock, picked up the second block and positioned it just next to the first one on the 6 m spot.
18/23: Then we got out the scuba gear to tie the two blocks together and attach a rope and buoys.
19/23
20/23: Everything went smoothly...
21/23: ...and we toasted the mooring with a well-earned home-made bubbly.
22/23
23/23: Pitufa spent 5 weeks on the mooring, tested it in gusts of 45 knots--it's well made and reliable.