Bora Bora

Hi everyone,

We spent 11 nights in Bora Bora.  It's a spectacular place but we only did a little exploring.  Our infected cuts were gradually improving but limited what we could do.  Just to top it off I came down with a fever and sore throat for the last few days.  Throughout we were waiting for a weather window to depart French Polynesia.

Moored off BBYC

We moved to the Bora Bora Yacht Club mooring field since it was closer to the main town.  Even so it was a 30 minute dink ride or a 4km walk.  We took the dink in several times - to shop, to see a show and twice to clear out.

Vaitera town with dinghy dock at left

One evening a group of us went ashore for a sundowner at the YC.  Quite a large group and a fun evening.

Bora Bora YC dinghy dock

Sundowner at BBYC with OCC and EBBYC sailors

Sundowner

One day we hiked up the hill to one of the two WW2 US gun emplacements.  Operation Bobcat established a port in Bora Bora soon after Pearl Harbor to support the South Pacific campaign.  Each emplacement has a couple of 7" guns.  It wasn't easy finding our way up or down but it was a fun day out.

With the sv Apres Skis at the gun

Commanding the pass

View over the old US WW2 port

One evening we went ashore to see one of the last shows in Bora Bora's month-long festival.  We saw kids of various ages competing for traditional dance prizes.  It was interesting and fun to watch.

Temporary buildings for the festival

Dancing

On another day the crew of US sv Bandit took Nicki snorkelling.  They found a number of manta rays and had a great time.

Manta Ray

Most of our time on Bora Bora was spent relaxing and preparing the boat for her next passage, thankfully the to-do list was quite shore.  We filled our water tanks from rain and from jerries filled on SVs Apres Ski, Bandit and Water Sprite who all have water-makers.  Water is available in town but is expensive in small quantities and it's a long ride.

Somewhere under a rainbow (sv Water Sprite photo)

With a good weather window developing for this week we started our clearing out process last Friday.  We updated the departure date on our online 'dossier' then visited the Gendarmarie.  We then went back on Monday afternoon and happily our papers were ready.  Our next post will see us at sea, heading towards Samoa.

Trust all's well where you are.