Known as the jewel of the South Pacific, Bora Bora lives up to its reputation. The scenery is stunning, the water a beautiful blue, the anchorages amazing. We stayed at the Bora Bora Yacht Club for a couple of days and enjoyed a dinner out (complete with towels when we arrived at their dock, soaked from the rain on the trip over from our boat in the dinghy), also managed some wifi jobs and got some washing done. The washing was the most expensive that we have done in French Polynesia. So far, the average load of washing has been 800-1500 francs, which is about $10-12 AUD (even this is a lot compared to when we went camping in Australia). Bora Bora Yacht Club charge 2000 francs per load, so P said to the lovely lady “please only do 2 loads” as it worked out to be $24 per load. We should have just done it on the boat, but at the end of the day when the washing was returned to us the lady said “ you just pay for 2 ”. So the washing turned out to be reasonable value by French Polynesian standards, as we ended up paying $48 for 4 loads. P wondered if she was doing us a favour by the look on her face when she asked if S, E, H and J were all our children (which P replied “yes).
After a couple of days on the west side of the island we motored to the north east side. It was a bit windy, as you can tell by G & H’s matching hair!
Picked up a hitchhiker along the way (this happens a lot).
Our anchor hit sand in 4 metres of the most beautiful blue water we've seen yet. The only downside of this anchorage is the amount of boat traffic going to and from the hotels, of which there are many. Didn’t stop the fun though.
G and P went ashore to the St Regis hotel, getting S to drop us off and pick us up as there was a 2500 franc cost to leave your dinghy at their dock. We then proceeded to the bar to use the wifi and enjoy a cocktail. The service was excellent, the grounds divine, and I later learned you can stay for a week at the modest price of $14,000AUD per person. Note that this does include flights from Sydney, but not daily breakfast.
We also visited a small pool on the side of the reef that P & G visited when we were here last year. Nice to show it to the kids and have them sharing our memories.
We ventured the following day to the Intercontinental, to see about dinner and a show. We were welcomed to the hotel and booked in for that evening.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the buffet dinner and the traditional Polynesian dance show. H and G even joined in when the group were recruiting the guests for a demonstration on how to perform the moves. H was placed front and centre, probably because he danced heaps better than his old man..
Have a look at J's face eyeballing the fella that P's getting comfy with ; )
Don't ask where G's hand is (his smile might give it away).
Happy to move on and find a quieter anchorage (P wanted to get G away from the dancing girls), we motored south to the bottom of the main island. This has been P’s favourite anchorage in the Society Islands so far. The water was an even more amazing shade of blue and there were very few boats zooming by. We stayed for 4 nights, snorkelling amongst some healthy coral and abundant fish life. Our friends on Skylark were here also, and the skipper offered to take S for a test scuba dive to see if she liked it. Her first dive was off the back of the boat in about 3 metres of water.
One of our other crew members, Felicity, came out swimming with us today and made lots of new friends.
S loved the diving, and when offered another dive in 6 metres, jumped at the opportunity. While they dived, we all snorkelled above them, taking lots of pictures and enjoying the fish life. It was here that we saw a huge moray eel being hand fed by a local tour guide, who also lured her all the way out of her coral head.
We haven't had much luck spotting any manta rays as yet, so we headed back north to try our luck at a popular dive spot. G and some of the Skylark crew went for a dive whilst the rest of us snorkelled above, playing in the bubble trail. No luck on the mantas unfortunately, but a lot of fun was had by our free divers trying to dive down to the divers below.
Dad & S made a late arvo / night run to the airport in the dinghy to pick up some well overdue boat parts. Everyone was as excited as Dad to unpack and check out what we had received. Thanks again Dooza!!
When we opened it up we found that the BFS crew left some lovely Easter wishes to us all contained within. Thank you all!
We think the kids like it here, they even seem to be enjoying their schoolwork!
Back to the main town of Vaitape and start provisioning, filling up with diesel and completing all our internet stuff. We have been busily preparing the boat for our passage to the Cook Islands / Niue / Tonga which along with lots of other jobs has included scrubbing the entire hulls. S, E, H and J have also enjoyed a couple of sleepovers with the Skylark kids and plenty of hanging out together. We have only met a couple of families so far, and a few couples, who have all been so friendly and full of good advice for us first time cruisers. I imagine we will meet more people as the peak cruising season draws closer, and look forward to keeping in touch with the friends we've already made.
Currently sitting tight and watching the weather closely to pick a comfortable passage west. Next update / location - who knows?
