BORA BORA, August 30-September 12, 2007, in which we spend lots of money, finally see sea turtles, make some new friends, crunch a reef, and see how the rich and famous live.

Bora Bora is the most upscale of all the Society Islands of French Polynesia, an exotically beautiful island with jagged volcanic peaks set against crystal clear jewel-colored waters in just about every hue of blue and green imaginable. Most of the Societies have beautiful jagged peaks and aquamarine lagoons surrounding them, but Bora Bora's are especially nice. During World War II the Americans had a large base here, leaving the island with its first (and for many years only) international airport, set on a small motu at the northern end of the lagoon. The main island has several enticing peaks which brought my camera out again and again to capture their many faces. Many of the 20-plus resorts (most with thatched, over-the-water bungalows at exhorbitant prices) are on the motus near to or part of the fringing reef, where they offer excellent views of Bora Bora's dramatic beauty. We were dumbfounded at how many thatched bungalow resorts there are, with even more new ones under construction. One motu appears to be lined for miles with them.

The pro-independence faction seems to have a lot of support on this island, largely because of opposition to the rampant tourism development which is gobbling up their lands and damaging their marine resources. Many would like to see the French OUT, but not quite enough to make a majority. Politics has been rather tense while we've been here, not that most of the tourists have a clue. I listen to Radio Australia and Radio New Zealand, and read Pacific Islands Report's daily news bulletins on the internet when I can, so know that there has been a vote of no-confidence last week, with the pro-France, pro-development president ousted. There was supposed to be a vote for a new president yesterday in the Legislative Assembly, but they postponed it pending a ruling from France on whether an absolute majority of the 57 members would be required to elect a new president - because they don't believe any of the three candidates can get an absolute majority. While the newspapers here are full of all the political intrigue, few tourists read French, so go along their merry ways oblivious. Another vote is scheduled for later this week, when they hope to have a ruling from France that the highest vote-getter wins. Then they may actually be able to have a new president.

Although the waters are lovely to look at, somehow even more magical than many of the other islands we have visited, there was far less to see underwater - small areas of healthy coral amongst large areas of dead or sickly coral, and far fewer fish than we've seen elsewhere. Much of the dead coral is attributed to a bad El Nino they had a few years ago, but much is also blamed on development.

We had a lovely sail to Bora Bora from Raiatea with 20-plus knots of wind most of the way, making for speeds of 7-8 knots much of the time. We actually did over 10 knots through the water a few times! The seas were quite pleasant as long as we were in the lee of Raiatea, but when we hit the fortunately fairly short exposed gap between the islands the 2-1/2 meter swells made for a very rolly ride. Once inside the pass at Bora Bora we headed for Bloody Mary's, a well-known watering hole and cruisers' hangout, where they offered free moorings if you eat dinner, and also have a wi-fi antenna. Of course the moorings were all taken (they seem only to have two!) and we had to anchor in 75' of water. Throughout the afternoon and night and for much of the next few days the winds here were horribly gusty, seeming to swing every minute or so between 10-15 knots and 25 knots or more. This caused the boat to skate around dramatically on its anchor, far more than normal in these conditions because we had almost 300' of chain out making for lots of swinging room. We didn't even bother trying to launch the dinghy the first day, it would have been too much fun in all that wind.

The next morning the wind subsided a bit so we launched the dinghy and went in to check out Bloody Mary's for lunch. Two large boards out front listed all the famous people who have stopped here, including, Brad Pitt, Mia Farrow, and many other top stars and athletes. It is a large beautiful establishment, huge thatched roof over a well-run dining room with sand covered floor, tables and stools made from local woods heavily epoxied or varnished. Our cheeseburger and fries lunch was very good and reasonably priced. Yet, I can't help but think I would have enjoyed what I imagine the old Bloody Mary's was like much better, when it was truly a yachties' hangout and not an almost plastic Disneyland-like caricature of native tradition. Unlike many of the thatched establishments we've seen where the rafters were all made from local trees, and you could imagine the native women hand-weaving all the thatch, here there were lots of 2x4s and 4x8s and much more precision and perfect symmetry holding the thatch together. Instead of a lot of yachties sitting around discussing rough passages and remote anchorages, the place was frequented more by the high end tourists who flock to Bora Bora, mainly Japanese honeymooners. One nice feature I'd never seen before was a place inside the door to check your shoes if you preferred bare feet in the sand as you ate. We went back in for dinner of appetizers and drinks and dessert, not wanting to spend the big bucks that a full dinner cost, and saw only a few other cruisers among the hundred or so patrons.

At least the wi-fi worked here, so after a hiatus of a few weeks without internet access we were finally able to check email on-line.

After a few days, we moved over to anchor off the Hotel Bora Bora. Our old cruising guides showed the reef and shallow areas around here as great snorkeling, but we found mostly dead coral and thousands upon thousands of black spiny sea urchins. We did find one spot of fairly healthy coral, but a fairly small population of fish. We dinghied quite away around to the southern tip and discovered more jet skis than good snorkel spots.

On Sunday we moved over to the Bora Bora Yacht Club, another supposed gathering place of yachties with free moorings if you ate ashore and internet access. Again, at least the internet worked. While there were a few moorings empty, they were so close to anchored boats that they were unusable, so we had to anchor in 90' of water. The Yacht Club itself is not really a yacht club at all, but a small restaurant and bar with a current owner who would rather not have yachties around at all, but he'll probably be out of business soon anyway. Maybe the next restaurant owner will be more welcoming. It is located on a slightly larger piece of property which includes a few bungalows and a very nice Polynesian man named Rapa who loves yachties, and offers laundry and other services. He seems to be the true yacht club at this point.

It being our sixth wedding anniversary, we decided to celebrate with dinner at the Yacht Club, but were surprised upon going ashore that it seemed to be closed on Sundays. Finally about 6 p.m. it showed signs of life, so we went in. We were later to learn that the restaurant owner can't be bothered to open during the day, and does very little to encourage boaters coming in to drink. There are maybe 10 tables under the open-air thatched roof of the restaurant, without enough chairs to go around (but the chairs they have are quite nice) and the two small tables outside have maybe 2 or 3 chairs total, somedays none, unless you take them from an inside table. When you arrive for sunset cocktails, all the inside tables are set for dinner, suggesting that they only want a few people to stop in for drinks, because that's all the chairs available unless you steal from a dinner table. Needless to say, they don't get much business.

When we arrived for dinner, there was only one couple seated for dinner. They were American honeymooners. We got to talking, and soon the four of us were sharing a table for dinner. Angela and Charles Grannum, from Brooklyn, NY, like us they married fairly late in life (in their 30's and 40's). He's a dentist, she's in guest relations at a Manhattan hotel catering to Asians. Both had ancestors who came from Barbados, so we shared a Caribbean connection. Fortunately they were great company, because my dinner left a lot to be desired. I ordered rack of lamb, was presented rib-eye steak, and when I complained, the waitress took it back and returned with a stingy serving of rack of lamb with the same sauce the steak had (which hid the taste of the lamb) rather than the mint sauce promised on the menu. It didn't taste very good at all. In retrospect, I probably should have graciously accepted the steak in the first place - I think the chef was trying to tell me something by sending it rather than the lamb.

Charles and Angela were staying at the Le Meridien, a bungalow resort on one of the motus, where we visited them the next night for cocktails and appetizers and a tour of the resort. The architecture was very striking and the grounds beautiful. They had an inner lagoon of sorts, closed off by grill-type fences, where they had a turtle sanctuary and guests could snorkel with turtles, rays and a fair abundance of fish. They raise the turtles for about 3 years before setting them loose to the wild. In all our months in French Polynesia I think I'd only seen one turtle before this, on our first island, Fatu Hiva, so it was a joy that a serious attempt was being made to rebuild the turtle population. In the Virgins we regularly saw turtles while swimming, so it was quite a surprise to see so few here. Between eating the eggs and the turtle meat, they seem to have greatly reduced the numbers. The Grannums showed us their bungalow out over the water, with large slabs of glass set in the floor to view fish in the spotlit water beneath, except there were almost no fish, and none of any interest. Their room was quite nice, with very upscale amenities. It was even air-conditioned (every night when they returned to the room they would find someone had cranked the AC colder) which didn't seem necessary given the constant pleasant breezes across the water.

Taking the boat over to the eastern side of the lagoon where Le Meridien is located was quite an adventure winding our way through coral and shallow spots. The channel is fairly well marked (something the French seem to do very well is navigational markers) but we still found ourselves in the shallowest water we'd seen in awhile. A few days later moving around on that side we smacked hard into a coral head after misreading a channel marker. I immediately put the boat hard in reverse and we didn't budge. Bryan jumped in the dinghy and pulled from the stern while I again went into reverse and we managed to pull free, with a little gelcoat missing from the keel and several scratches. We knew that sooner or later we'd hit the bottom, and were fortunate that it caused only minor damage, but I hope we don't have it happen too often.

While on the eastern side we ran into Ruth and Angus from Do It who were just about ready to head out for the Cook Islands. We had them over for lunch and caught up on our various travels and those of mutual friends. We then had a couple of very rainy squally days so didn't want to risk navigating the channel down to the southern point or back to the western side and elected to just stay put. We caught lots of water, worked on blog entries and pictures, and read a lot.

By Friday the weather was nicer so we moved back around to the Yacht Club and went ashore for sundowners with the crews of Do It, Gammel Dansker, Bess, and Antje, most of them leaving within a day or two for the Cooks. Only Antje is heading for Suwarrow in the northern Cooks then on to Samoa, which is our intended track. The others are all headed to the southern Cooks, then Tonga and New Zealand, so this was our last chance to say goodbye. Hopefully we'll see some of them again next year when they come north to Fiji and Samoa and we come south from the Marshalls.

When we arrived for sundowners at the YC there were only 2 chairs available at the outside drinking table, and as the others arrived they had to take chairs from inside - and were told this was OK but they had to leave by 7 so the chairs would be available for dinner guests. Some hospitality!

On Saturday we dropped off 5 bags of laundry with Rapa, then moved over to the western side of Motu Toopua for the weekend. The first night we spent off its southern tip by the Bora Bora Nui Resort and Spa, alone in a large lovely anchorage with only a megayacht, Gran Finale, for company during the day, and delightfully all by ourselves for the night. Anchored in 35' of water on a nice sandy bottom, with protection all around from the seas, and far enough off-shore that we still got some wind, it was a wonderful anchorage and we couldn't figure out why more boats weren't there. We went for a long dinghy exploration, futilely trying to find the place out on the shallow flats where we'd seen several tour boats gather from time to time, then going around the southern tip to investigate a raft full of birds sitting in the midst of the shallows. Almost back to the boat again, we saw tour boats once again out on the flats, so went out to join them. They were feeding stingrays, so we donned masks, fins and snorkels and hopped in. A very nice older gentleman, a guide on one of the boats, came over to us and advised we take our fins off, stand up in the shoulder-height water, and not move and the rays would come to us. He then gave us some chopped up fish to use to encourage their approach. We had several large rays swim up to us, allowing us to pet their soft silky bodies and look them in the eyes. It's still hard to believe that one of these gentle creatures did in Steve Irwin.

Sunday we moved to the northwestern anchorage off Toopua, another fairly shallow, very comfortable spot. We snorkeled and saw some very nice coral and fish.

Monday morning it was back to the big city (or should I say small village) to anchor off the Yacht Club and begin the process of checking out of French Polynesia. I headed for the store while Bryan went to the bank to get our $2700 bond back, only to be told he had to go to the Gendarme first, then come back. Of course the bank was closed for the 2 hour lunch period by the time he could get back. In the meantime he joined me at the store, where we spend a few hundred dollars and wondered how we would get it all back to the dinghy a half mile away, when the cashier asked if we needed a ride and arranged a free ride for us back to the quay.. Back to the bank in the afternoon, we got back $2500 (the rest had gone for fees to change the money in and out of local currency), and proceeded on to the other big grocery store where we dropped another $150. Back at the boat we went in to the YC to pick up our laundry only to find Rapa gone and not due back for awhile.

Tuesday morning Bryan ran in at 7:30 to make sure he found Rapa and our laundry - after all, we've already checked out of the country and really do have to leave soon. Then a dinghy ride back around to the gas station where one jerry jug of diesel, and two large and one small jerry jugs of gasoline cost us $115, and on to find a pay phone to call home and use up the remaining time on our French Polynesia phone cards. Had a nice chat with Mom and Dad and Baide, but couldn't reach anyone else in the family. Either got busy signals or machines, so finally gave the phone cards with a bit of time remaining to the gas station man who had given us a huge breadfruit on our earlier visit. Now I'm just finally bringing the blog up to date, and will try to use the last of our remaining wi-fi time getting it all posted.

Tomorrow we head off on a five-day passage for Suwarrow, also known as Suvarov, a small atoll in the northern Cook Islands which is a national park. It is inhabited for 6 months of the year only by one caretaker family of parents and 4 small boys (about the same ages as my brother John's kids when they circumnavigated, including the two youngest being twins), and all the reports we've read of other yachts which have visited indicate that it's a wonderful experience. We'll probably spend a week or so there, then on to American Samoa, another few days away.