Day 66 Opunohu Bay

Dinghy tour of the bay
While Cook's Bay was a beautiful spot, I had bought time on a wireless Internet service for French Polynesia but it was not available in Cook's Bay. The brochure said it could be picked up in Opunohu Bay (accent on the "no") so we got Mark to return from the Pearl for the morning and direct moving the boat. We read in the Puddle Jump book that there was a perfect anchorage called Robinson's Cove in Opunohu Bay. The Cove was about a mile from the Bay entrance and had two moorings already in place. (A mooring is a permanent anchor made of something very heavy on the bottom that is attached to a float with a chain. If they are available, they can be better than an anchor because the will not move if the weather gets heavy. To use an open mooring requires pulling up some of the chain with the boat hook and tying a line from the boat to the chain.) After we tied onto one of the moorings, Mark headed back to the Pearl Resort and Kurt took his surfboard, put out his thumb and headed for some prime surf spots on the South side of the island.
Since my infections prevented me from going into the water and since I wanted to get the blog working again I plugged in the computer to pick up the Wi-Fi signal but was disappointed that there was nothing.
This gave us an excuse to explore the Bay so I put the computer in a waterproof bag and Andy and I go into the dinghy and headed for the Northwest corner where the cruise ships bring their tenders. We found a very small village with two tiny grocery stores and an octagonal church that is cited in the cruising guide as a landmark. We walked around a bit, got some groceries and an ice cream but found no Wi-Fi signal. At least the baguettes were fresh and the ice cream was refreshingly cold under the tropical sun.
Since there were sailboats at anchor on the Northeast corner of the Bay, we decided to try there on the way back and sure enough, there was a signal. We finally also discovered another grocery store and a few houses on shore although they were the only structures along an otherwise deserted beach.
On the way back to Robinson's cove, we realized why no one uses their dinghy much for exploring. At maximum speed, it took us half the day to cover only a few miles.