GHOST

After a rather too windy crossing overnight to Huahine we settled down in a nice anchorage to the south of the island and set out with Jay's kitesurf and my baby kite. I have never flown a kite before but Brad soon showed me the basics and I was swooping around the sky. Unfortunately the conditions were not kind to Jay with strong gusty winds so the kitesurf soon went away and instead we were all having a go with the baby kite and enjoying ourselves. We also fitted in some wakeboarding and arranged to get up early the next morning to watch the eclipse.

We had calculated with our sextant that the surrounding hills would block out the first part of the eclipse which started at around 7.30am so we piled into the dingys and headed out into the lagoon to find a good spot to raft up with Delos to watch. Although we only had around 95% coverage in Huahine (we would have had to travel 40nm South of Tahiti for total coverage) it was still pretty amazing to watch and we all made the most of our "eclipse glasses" to see the show. Apparently the next total solar eclipse is in Northern Australia in 2012 and we've all decided to be there for it!

Huahine is very pretty island and it was a nice place to stop for a while but we were keen to get going so straight after the eclipse we headed off to Raiatea where we had heard there was a good wreck dive. The winds were still pretty strong but we found a nice little anchorage behind a motu and headed off to find the wreck. Unfortunately after 10mins searching for the wreck in really poor visibility we gave up deciding to revisit the following day. We were far more successful in the morning and enjoyed the dive on a wreck which dated back to the early 1900's but it was frustrating to not be able to see more than about 5m! After the dive we were off - finally heading to Bora Bora, yippee!

It was amazing to sail up to this almost mythical island... as you approach you have to circumnavigate the enormous lagoon and it feels like you are heading completely past the island. The wind was on the beam and we were wishing we could have full sails up to enjoy the trip. I have to say Bora Bora is completely stunning and you can see why it is such a dream destination, the water in the lagoons is such an amazing turquoise colour. The night we arrived there seemed to be an unfeasible number of boats here that we know (Sunboy, Meander, Kali, Delos, Fidelis, Bubbles and more...) and there was a display of local dancing in the town so we all headed in to enjoy the dancing and a few beers....

The following day after a pretty late start we headed out in speccy to explore and found a lovely beach for lunch and a great snorkelling spot absolutely crammed with fish. We had a pretty quiet night having a rest before the Bastille Day celebrations (called Heiva here). The town had organised a parade in front of the French Polynesian prime minister and all the cruisers had been invited to join the Bora Bora yacht club float. We were instructed to dress as pirates and bring our country flags to wave around. The procession started at 7.30am and it was a really unique experience and great fun. All of the hotels had their own float and everyone had made such an effort to dress up. The morning celebrations concluded with the banana race, where various contestants strap bananas to a post which weighs in at around 20kg, they then have to race the course to see who wins. Unbeknown to the contestants, Jo from Bubbles decided to enter carrying a log flagpole with a pirate flag attached. He finished strongly and the locals loved it and awarded him 3rd place!

In the afternoon we had a great dive outside the pass where we were glad for the fantastic visibility to keep an eye on two enormous lemon sharks and several black tip sharks who seemed to find us very interesting. Evening celebrations were held at the Bora Bora yacht club where we had a pot roast and barbecue organised by Eric from Ossa Blanca who was celebrating his 60th birthday. As usual the various boats contributed delicious dishes and thanks for the beers Eric - happy birthday!

For Delos' blog see: http://svdelos.blogspot.com/2010/08/heiva-in-bora-bora-by-brian.html