Day 128: Bora Bora – 13/05/10

We wake up to blue sky, glorious sunshine and fresh brioche for breakfast which I baked last night.  Wonderful.

Mike decides to move from our overnight anchorage to just around the other side of the Hilton resort, in the hope of finding some internet coverage and a better view than the beach building which has now started again.  We have realised that they are actually retrieving sand from the sea bed – a dredger is just a couple of hundred yards out at sea and is funnelling sand through a pipe onto the beach.  When it has drained, the digger is picking it up and bagging it.  Heaven knows where it will end up.

Photo:  Sand bagging

As we motor around the corner of the resort, we realise just how big it is.  The over water villas on the ends of each row are enormous and there must be nearly 100 of the ‘ordinary’ ones.

Photos:  Big and small – a villa to suit everyone – at a price!

The colours in the water are beautiful today – a mixture of green, blue and turquoise and the water is even clearer than yesterday, although it is probably the wonderful sunshine helping.

Photo:  Checking out the sea bed

Photo:  Raiatea and Tahaa in the distance

We put the anchor down just around the corner next to another WARC yacht, Kalliope, and immediately pick up all sorts of internet signals.  We have to use the paid for ones but the connection is good and immediately there are three computers on the go.  I get quite a good Skype signal and manage to talk to a few people, including my brother-in-law, Terry.  I take the computer outside with the web cam turned on and show him the view.  When I point the camera down to the sea, he can see a dark shape in the water.  “Is that David’s towel” he asks innocently, relating back to an incident last August when his mate got terribly excited about a huge ray swimming around the boat until we discovered that it was his Hugo Boss towel which had taken off from the rails where it had been hung out to dry.  You’ll never live that one down, David!

Mike gets his Hooka out again to dive under the boat and jiggle with the propellers to make the boat go faster, Carole and John go snorkelling and I cut my hair before going for a swim.  I end up staying by myself in the water for hours, eventually discarding all my clothes for that lovely feeling of freedom you get when nudie swimming.  There’s nobody around to notice except the fish.

Photos:  Nude except for a noodle, I float happily off Bora Bora

We watch the yachts in the Tahiti Pearl Regatta sail past the reef – very slowly as there’s not much wind, then have a spot of lunch before pulling up the anchor again and motoring around to the Bora Bora Yacht club, passing a huge P & O cruise ship on the way.  How that thing manages to get through the reef I don’t know. 

Photo:  P & O cruise liner, Pacific Sun, anchored in the lagoon

Photo:  Dramatic volcanic crater looking like a giant tooth

I hook the mooring buoy first time and John threads the two warps through the ring and we are on.  Then its a bit of air-conditioned rest for everyone.  I wake up for my cup of tea just as the heavens open again and its another huge downpour which lasts for a few hours.  We had been thinking of going over to the Yacht Club for a few drinks before eating a curry on board, but stay in instead.

Photo:  Mike sits in the cockpit enjoying his cuppa while it pours

Tomorrow is Carole and John’s last day on board.  I do hope the weather picks up for them.