This is the aqua blue waters in the lagoon on the SE side of Bora Bora.

May 19-25, 2011

After our enjoyable “vacation” with Sara and Bob, we immediately went into boat chores and repair mode. We went onshore and had two loads of wash done at Bora Bora Laverie, the laundromat. We decorated Dream Caper with our colorful towels, sheets and clothes for only two hours as the sun and wind dried everything very quickly. We spent one night on the west side of Bora Bora near the Hilton Resort and then motored within the lagoon around the northern tip of Bora Bora to the southeast side. The channel on the east side of the island gets very narrow in places as it winds through an area where the coral was blasted away many years ago to accommodate boats like ours. It is a one-boat-at-a-time channel at this point and we had to exercise extreme caution to stay in the channel especially with winds gusting to 20 knots per hour on the return trip.

On the east side of the island, the volcanic crater of Mt. Otemanu, the tallest mountain in the middle of Bora Bora at 2300', is clearly visible and is a stunning contrast with the aqua waters of the surrounding lagoon. We did some snorkeling here. The tropical fish are colorful and abundant in some areas however the coral is mostly drab. One local told us that the man-made pollution from the island that is washed by the rains into the lagoon is killing the coral. Another told us that the coral was exposed by low sea levels some years back which killed much of it. Another said that last year's cyclone wrecked it. There is a coral garden area here where the fish are abundant especially when one provides pieces of bread or fresh sardines. We watched a red octopus try to hide from us there. When we dinghy through shallow waters over sand, we can see sting rays and eagle rays “fly” away from us. In this quiet anchorage at the extreme SE side of the lagoon, Portia spent two days working! She had an arbitration decision to write for a hearing which she held in Arizona when she was back in the US. During those two days, our friends on SV Magenta arrived and 6 charter boats anchored near us; there was plenty of room. The sailboats we see here are about 98% charters. SV Magenta will leave Saturday to make the crossing to Tonga. We hope to see them there.

We returned to the west side to get ready for our good friends Rae and her 9-year old daughter, Beatty to arrive on Thursday. We tied up to a mooring at the Bora Bora Yacht Club on its last day of operation at this location. We had hoped to get drinking water from them but they had just turned off their water. They have been here for decades but will move just south around the corner and be ready for business in 2 weeks. Their move may have something to do with being wiped out a few years ago by a cyclone from which they have not rebuilt. In Papeete, sweet drinkable water was free at the gas dock but in Bora Bora we have to pay for it; about $20 for 75 gallons and our tanks hold 160 gallons. So, we decided to “un-pickle” our watermaker (reverse osmosis that makes drinkable water out of seawater) which is powered by our generator. At the end of last season, we had drained the watermaker, put in the required chemicals to pickle it and shut it down. We kept our fingers crossed that it would work because one never knows on a boat if what worked yesterday will work today. But, voila! It worked beautifully. After 3 hours at 20-22 gallons per hour, we added 60 gallons to our tanks. It was also our lucky day at the local grocery store, they had lots of fresh packages of romaine lettuce from California and other nice veggies! We cleaned up Dream Caper and are now ready to have some fun vacation time with Rae and Beatty.