Hello from Bora Bora

Hello from Bora Bora

 

April 12^th we left Port Phaeton and started our sixth year of cruising.  We sailed directly to Moorea from Tahiti in light winds and following seas.  What more could we ask for?  Moorea is famous for its beauty, deep bays, friendly people and tourists – lots of them.  It is so very different than Tahiti (the busy island with lots of traffic, no real beaches, no dramatic bays, etc.).  Moorea is gorgeous; lush green, quiet (well there is a ring road with some traffic), dramatic old volcanoes, nice sand beaches and well done hotels and pensions at all price ranges for the tourists.

 

We spent April 15^th – Mary's birthday – snorkeling, swimming and relaxing on the boat with the anchor in 8m of water.  That night we went ashore and found the only restaurant within walking distance – something they call here a Snack – and ordered a plate each of shrimp and chicken curry.  They were delicious and we actually took some back to the boat.  To do that we had to climb the fence to the park in the dark where we had landed the dingy – the park had closed while we were eating.  Life is an adventure. 

 

We were anchored in Upunohu Bay – the bay where Captain Cook had done all his anchoring over 240 years ago.  Someone named the Bay just to the east Cook's Bay; it became the famous one and the one where all the big tourist facilities were located.  So one day we fired up the dingy and took the two km ride over there just to take a look around.  On this ride, in a 20 knot wind, we came to appreciate our 15 hp outboard and also learned just what the little black and white poles sticking out of the water meant.  Although not in any book, these poles signify the path thru the reef for very shallow draft boats – ie our dingy and similar boats.  It was what Disney would call an E ticket ride – both ways.  We never hit the reef, but came close a number of times, and came ashore in Cook's Bay.  The bay is quite dramatic, very beautiful and an obvious place for all the hotels and restaurants.  We ordered a drink at the Bali Hai Resort and enjoyed the atmosphere immensely.  All told we spent a week in Moorea being wonderfully glad to be out of Tahiti and finally on our way again.

 

Then it was an overnight sail to the island of Huahine; timed so we would arrive with good daylight to see coral heads and the entrance through the reef.  We anchored in beautiful clear water in 2.2 m of coral sand.  It was great.  The main anchorage (recommended by the guide books) is just off the town, near coral heads, has poor holding, etc.  But we only draw 1.4 m and can anchor in more remote areas.  We were only about .5 km from town so it was an easy dingy trip ashore.  The town of Fare is supposed to be a "typical" island village town but we found it to be more like the typical "principal" town of every island.  It had two gas stations, one grocery store, a farmer's market, two banks, and of course tourists stores.

 

We rented a car one day and toured the island.  We met a group of American girls from a private college in Iowa who were also touring the island as a part of their education.  They had been in Tahiti for 6 months and were getting ready to head home and thus seeing the "other islands" just before leaving.  We also saw a huge old Marae site (ancient site of rituals, etc) and the "magical eels" that supposedly protect the bay downstream and stopped for lunch at a "recommended" restaurant.  It was actually a very good restaurant – for lunch – as dinners started at $30 and went up from there.  We ordered the Mahi Mahi sandwich and what showed up was a huge baguette, sliced lengthwise and filled with fish and French fries all in tartar sauce.  The fish was good but the bread was way too much and eating soggy fries in tartar sauce wasn't too thrilling either.  The restaurant overlooked a pretty bay called Avea and it was also recommended as one of the best snorkeling spots in the Society Islands.  We decided to come and check it out.

 

Again we were able to anchor in shallow coral sand on the edge of the deep water and we happened to end up (with the anchor in 2m of sand and the boat over 15m of water) right over the most beautiful deep coral head that was full of fish.  The water was clear to about 15 meters so we could just sit on the back of the boat and watch the fish swimming around.  We stayed three days and snorkeled all over but our favorite spot was right under the boat.

 

Unfortunately we (mike really) became overconfident of our anchoring ability and after a short sail to the island of Raiatea we anchored in 15m of not so clear water over a little mount in the middle of area of 40m bottoms.  The next morning we found to our dismay that the bottom was not sand but rock or coral and the anchor would not come up.  We worked long and hard and eventually the chain came up but not the anchor!  The chain, we had just bought two weeks before leaving for home, had split – leaving about 25 m on the bottom.  This was real depressing to say the least.

 

We motored (no wind) around to the other side of the island where the carenage (work yard and haul out facility) were located on Sunday and waited for the office to open on Monday.  They might have old anchors or even sell new ones.  They did, but the ones they had were sized for the small panga type local fishing boats.  No one had anything like our 55 lb delta anchor.  We next took a dingy trip to the Mooring/Sunsail charter marina where there was a dive center.  We signed up for a refresher dive and hired them for an anchor dive.  Our "check-out/refresher" dive was like "do you remember how to use the regulator – yes – good – let's go" so off we went.  It was an advanced wreck dive to 30 meters.  It went fine except Mike kept signaling that we was low on air and the "dive master" kept signaling that all was fine.  Mike ended up with 20 psi left in his tank and that was cutting it too close.

 

However, a different dive master was the one who did the diving while looking for out anchor.  He found it after 30 minutes and we soon had it on board the dive boat and by the afternoon it was back on our boat.  We now had an anchor but needed new chain again.  The carenage had new chain and so we parted with more money and were soon back in business and much more careful.

 

All this took the better part of a week and since Raiatea is not known for its diving, snorkeling, beaches, or places of interest for tourists we decided that we'd move on to its sister island of Tahaa.  This island is the least developed of the major islands on a par with Huahine.  We stayed on a mooring buoy at the Taravana Yacht Club (taravana means crazy in Tahitian) for three nights in order to be there for the Tuesday night buffet (including Mai Tai drinks) and dance show.  Then it was off around the island for exploring and snorkeling.

 

This island likes to promote its "coral gardens" and in many ways that is what it is like.  A big area between two motus (islands themselves on the outside of the main island) that is fairly shallow with small coral heads all over the place that you can snorkel in between.  They are nice but – seen one – seen them all.  They just didn't stack up to the beauty of Avea bay and the number of fish.  We stopped by Vahine Island resort for lunch and then proceeded to anchor again in 2.2m of water off the largest motu and went exploring and looking for the supposed "great snorkeling".   We never found it.  That night the wind really came up and the next day the whole fleet of the Tahiti Pearl Regatta came sailing by us.  It was blowing 30 knots and we decided not to move for the day.  The next day it was blowing 40 knots and we just stayed put again.

 

It finally stopped and we moved to Hurepiti Bay; got a mooring ball from (and signed up for a tour) the Vanilla Island Tour company.   The fellow who leads the tours is a botanist and a vanilla farmer.  The island is known as the Vanilla Island where about 90% of all Tahitian vanilla is produced.  For four hours he showed us the island and explained how each vanilla plant has to be hand-pollinated because they don't have any hummingbirds on any of the islands.  We asked about all the Acacia trees we'd seen on all the islands.  They were imported early on and are now taking over the landscape of the islands.  While pretty they are drastically changing the scenery and eliminating native species.

 

Then a short sail to Bora Bora.  Everyone (locals) we had talked to had discounted spending any time on any island other than Bora Bora.  We came to understand why.  This place is gorgeous.  The old volcano has sunk low enough to fill in with sea water with about two-thirds of the old ring left above and showing.   Of that, two thirds is really dramatic with solid rock faces and jagged peaks.  A million pictures must have been taken of this place.  Around the outside of the volcano are multiple motus with coral sand, aqua blue water and breathtaking views of the mountain.

 

The concept of the "over-water" bungalow was probably born here and now it is way overdone.  Beautiful beaches are now off limits as they are blocked by hundreds of bungalows (at least $700 per night) and most were empty.  It must be an ego thing with the hotel companies with each major chain deciding that they must have a presence here – regardless of whether they are profitable or not.  The recent hurricane (February) did damage some and the world wide economy probably has something to do with it also but the shear number of rooms and nightly charges would be enough to scare away most ordinary folks.

 

We used the Bora Bora Yacht Club for our base of operations.  We stopped there upon coming in, upon coming back from the east side of the island, upon back from the south side of the island and while awaiting the return of wind.  Yep, from 40 knots on Tahaa to 2 knots on Bora Bora.  You never know in the game of sailing what you are going to get.

 

We snorkeled and fed fish out of our hands.  So many would come that we could not see each other.  We found yet another advertised "coral garden" and went to see it.  Its main attraction was the tropical fish that swarmed up yet again when we broke up stale French bread.  We followed the tourist boats out to the reef one day and found ourselves standing waist deep in and amongst about 40 Tahitian Sting Rays.  They were so used to tourists standing among them not one had its tail up and its very dangerous stinger out and ready to attack.  Since we had encountered others on the other side of the island that did not like our presence, this was a real change and we enjoyed it so much that we returned on our  own about four days later and had 10 of them to ourselves.  We petted them and they in turn rubber their white undersides against our skin.  We brought bread to feed them but they just follow the fish that eat the bread and seem to simply be curious about these fish that stand and rub them and don't try to hurt them.

 

We went scuba diving again.  The first dive was down directly in the mouth of the ancient volcano.  It sounds better than it was as the mouth is probably 4 million years old and has filled in with sand.  We saw some eagle rays and lots of trigger fish.  The second dive was outside the reef near the pass into the island.  There we swam with Lemon Sharks and they did not look friendly at all.  One was pregnant, about 3 m long, with at least two cleaning fish clung to it and one yellow damselfish right in front of her nose – kind of leading the way around.  The dive master assured us that this was a very healthy reef and therefore the sharks had plenty to eat and not to worry.  But each time they came around we all just sat and watched until they had passed.

 

We went to the famous restaurant "Bloody Mary's" where Mary order a $12 bacon cheeseburger – "the hamburger in paradise".  It opened in 1979, long after the movie South Pacific which created the fiction.  Turns out that the movie was based on Michner's book about Bora Bora but set on the Island of Bali Hai.  The US did build a base here to fuel boats on their way to pacific war so the basis of the story has a ring of truth.   Historians have called the building of the base here the most disorganized and unsuccessful USA venture during the entire war.   It seems that someone had the idea that the base should be jointly and cooperatively built and controlled by both the Army and the Navy.  It got built but the stories of errors and misunderstandings are many.

 

We hiked up a mountain and found two of the old cannons that had been placed to protect the island from a Japanese invasion.  They say that the cannons were fired twice for practice and never used again.  But the view was great.

 

We'll leave here as soon as we get at least some wind.  Our next internet access point is 1500 nm away in Apia, Samoa so it could be a while before the next post.