Arriving just ahead of a frontal system, we spent the first few days watching a beautiful motu just South of the pass get rained on. We felt lucky to do this, not just because we were watching rain in Bora Bora rather than rain in Victoria, but because the frontal system hit Moorea, the place we had just left, with more strength, and reportedly caused a bunch of boats in Opunohu Bay (in the same bay as we had been, but in the anchorage in the opposite side from us) to drag.
After that front, we picked up a free buoy outside of the restaurant Bloody Mary’s, had some drinks (clearly), took a long walk around the point to meet the resident kiteboarding instructor Alban, and went into town for part of the Heiva festivities. As a sidenote, Heiva is a nearly month long festival, culminating on July 14th, for Polynesians, by Polynesians. There are sporting, musical and dancing events. They rock the house. I took video so no photos for now.
Carol hiked up the top of a nearby hill to grab a shot of Estrellita on buoy at Bloody Mary’s with the mountains in the background. He also managed to grab a bunch of edible coconuts which he husked, cracked open and grated and I made fresh coconut dark chocolate macaroons. Oh yes, delicious.
We left Bloody Mary’s after a few nights because Bora Bora is really about the motus and the lagoon on the backside. The motus combined with the mountains of Bora Bora are spectacular and when the swell breaks over the SE corner of the island, the water clarity of the lagoon on the E side is very good and the colors…oh the colors. We crept along slowly, very close to the hotels on the E side of Bora Bora with least depths seen of 8 feet (we are 6.5 feet deep). Telling ourselves “it is just sand” we pushed on until we reached the SE area, dropped the hook and then pinched ourselves to see if we were dreaming. A few hours later, without coordination, friends arrived and we had paradise and social time all wrapped together.
Here are our friends aboard the Swiss flagged SV MOMO floating in the blue lagoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment