Pitufa.at » Photo Galleries » A Mooring for Rapa Iti

To protect the delicate coral and to make life easier for visiting cruisers, we installed a mooring together with the community of Rapa Iti. This mooring can be picked up at S27°36.808' W144°20.034'. More moorings are planned.

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1/21: The main bay of Rapa is alive with beautiful staghorn coral.
2/21: And this is what an anchor chain does to it.
3/21: To avoid such damage we started a mooring project with the support of the mayor and the community.
4/21: 16mm chain was ordered.
5/21: Alexandre (the head of the community workers) learned how to splice.
6/21: The 2.4 ton weight should hold boats up to 16 tons.
7/21: We constructed a raft with gasoline drums to transport the heavy block.
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10/21: The block is lowered into the shallow water next to the quay.
11/21: The raft is positioned on top...
12/21: ...and the block is lifted up again and tied to the raft.
13/21: Hurray, it can carry it!
14/21: Oops! It tilted, but remained stable in this vertical position.
15/21: With two dinghies (thanks Avatar!) we slowly pushed the raft across the bay.
16/21: We opened some drums, sank the raft together with the mooring and then cut the raft free.
17/21: Galapagos sharks watched us curiously.
18/21: The raft popped up spectacularly.
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20/21: Pitufa as the first boat on the mooring.
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