Happy Fourth of July from the Malones on Bora Bora - "The Jewel of the Pacific".

It has been a while, sorry for falling into island time with the blog updates again. This is a quick update, a bit of the future plans, and odds and ends.

We had two easy day sails that took us from Huahini to Taha'a and then on to Bora Bora. In a whirl wind of beautiful places and jaw-dropping views, this is ranks among our most spectacular destinations.

Continuing to treat Mary as the princess she is, we have been indulging in the finer things in life here in Bora Bora. Our first night we splurged and picked up a buoy at the Bora Bora Yacht club and went to a Fourth of July party on friends' 85 foot schooner. After an evening of great food and flowing tropical rum drinks, the hostess switched gears and cranked the music and the party poured onto the aft deck dance floor. Their sound system shook the teak decks and strobe effects from spinning the wheel in front of the anchor lights completed the scene. We had not danced since leaving our friends in Seattle and had a blast. As the crazy English and Italian sailors started dancing on the cabin tops we fled back to Whisper with the kids. Yesterday, we completed our recovery with a special treat for Mary, a drink at the yacht club. Imagine the classic thatched roof open air veranda, a small secluded table at the edge of sand, the stunning view over the bay, blue sky and hot sun excusing the scanty clothing in all directions, and a rude shock as the bill came - $28.25 for two drinks - but well worth it.

We are currently staying at THE Hotel Bora Bora, one of the original South Pacific resorts - established in 1961. The hotel is in an amazing location with a million dollar view; the old volcano carved into a stunning silhouette looms behind the hotel and turquoise lagoon stretches out to the reef in every other direction. There was a serious problem when I tried to check in, though. Despite having made reservations months ago, they have unaccountably closed the hotel for renovations! So once again, the princess is doing laundry by hand in a bucket on a boat anchored off a legendary tropical resort.

The plans are to explore Bora Bora for a couple of days and then leave here for Suwarrow in the Cook Islands. We are waiting for the right weather window for the roughly 700 mile trip. Right now, the forecast looks best to depart around the week-end and we will keep reviewing it all week.

Odds and Ends:

Several boats contracted Dengue Fever in the Marquesas. This is a mosquito born tropical disease that we did not think we would encounter in this part of the world. Yikes.

Snorkling and diving is a big part of the life here and there is loose shell etiquette. I found a spectacular tiger cowrie the size of a baseball, perfect black dappling, but with the original resident still in it. After much regret, we took a photo and carefully put it back down on the reef. I am pretty sure that I saw the poor guy for sale on the beach for an exorbitant sum a couple of days later. Oh well, good shell karma points.

Apparently boys never outgrow the dare. When at Huihine, my snorkeling buddy, Wayne, and I were discussing how deep we thought the reef had been. He said that his anchor was at exactly 50 feet and figured he could reach it. In an overabundance of testosterone, we had one of those guy conversations. "NO Way!" "Way!" "Dude (heavy doubt inflection)!" "Dude (loud challenging inflection)!" "Dude (If you can, I can inflection)!" "Dudes (loud exasperated female voices)!" Off we went, and let me tell you that from 50 feet down the surface looks about a quarter mile away.

The fleet is starting to part company here at Bora Bora and we are having to say goodbye to many of the boats. This is the last week with one of our favorite families who are taking a more southerly route to Fiji and then on to Australia. The boys are trying to maximize the Lego playing and snorkeling time.