-- Private beach Villa, for rent starting from 5 nights -- Opunohu Bay, Moorea island -- 30 minutes from Tahiti --  
 

www.robinsoncove.com

 
"The Robinson Cove": in the wake of Captain Cook and of the Bounty

 
The most beautiful yachts in the world come to moor in Opunohu Bay. Chilean training ship in the bay A splendid unit mooring. An engraving showing Cook's two ships "HMS Resolution and Discovery" in Moorea's Opunohu Bay, Robinson Cove in 1777.  The HMS Resolution and Discovery in high seas. These engravings are kept at the London National Maritime Museum.

         

If you are a movie fan, passionate of history or a fan of sail ships, you certainly will love to stay in Opunohu Bay, in the island of Moorea.

 

 

 

 Captain Cook



This is exactly where Captain Cook dropped his anchor the first time on September 30, 1777 during his third trip in the Pacific. During his first two trips, he stayed in Tahiti and never visited Moorea. It appears today that it is Opunohu Bay which should have been named after him and not the Paopao Bay, known today as Cook's Bay.

At this time, passes, bays, coves were named after the sailor who discovered them, and aboard the ship there was someone named " Robinson " who found the famous sheltered "Cove" .

 Who was Captain Cook? Click to find out. From Cook's Travel Log, Click to enlarge
In 1777, Captain Cook anchors in Moorea, click to enlarge


The engravings of John Cleveley the younger
An engraving, kept at the London National Maritime Museum, was done to show exactly this mooring with Cook's two ships, "HMS Resolution and the Discovery in Moorea" in Opunohu Bay in Robinson's Cove (see the photo gallery up on the page.)

See portions of Cook's Travel Log, on September 30 1777 when he arrived in Moorea.

 

 Mutiny on the Bounty

It is still in that same cove where about twelve years later the Bounty made a stop in Moorea to gather the breadfruit trees to bring them to Jamaica.
This expedition ended up some time later with the most famous mutiny in history and the rivalry between Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh, who was forced to leave the ship with some of the crew in a long boat and succeeded in crossing the Pacific Ocean. As to the Mutineers, they ended up seeking refuge in the island of Pitcairn, where they burned down their ship so they wouldn't be found.

The most famous movie about this episode featured Marlon Brando, but the most faithful to history was certainly the 1984 "The Bounty" with Mel Gibson.
The sequence of the ship's arrival surrounded by all the canoes and the crowd of vahines and armed warriors was precisely shot in Opunohu Bay.

 The Bounty in Opunohu Bay. Click to enlarge.
 
What is most remarkable, is that since the arrival of Cook and the Bounty in this cove 230 years ago, nothing has changed.