We waited an extra day at Tahaa before leaving for Bora-bora as there were high winds and rough seas and we were waiting for them to subside. We initially had trouble raising our anchor which was probably caught on a coral head. With some patience we circled the anchor while testing with the windlass and eventually the anchor broke free. I was quite relieved as SCUBA diving to free an anchor or unwrap chain from around coral heads can be exhausting and dangerous work. We have SCUBA tanks to allow us to do this, but I was elated when the anchor was finally secured on the bow of the boat.
The four hour 20 mile sail across to Bora-bora was reasonably smooth despite still strong winds. It was calm in the lee of the island. Mount Otemanu, the peak in the center of the Bora-bora, was very impressive both from offshore and from in the lagoon. The water all around us was crystal clear with multiple shades of blue, green, brown, and white. We picked up a mooring off the Bora-bora Yacht Club where we had an excellent French dinner that night. The next day we rented a car and drove around the island. We stopped at Bloody Mary's, a famous Bora-bora restaurant, to have late morning Bloody Mary's. They were delicious. It was a short drive from there over to the Sofitel Hotel, a luxury resort looking out across the lagoon, with an excellent restaurant looking over the water to the private island across the way with its cabanas up on stilts in the lagoon. Lunch at the resort was excellent, and as the drive around the small island of Bora-bora only takes about an hour, we spent several hours at the hotel just reading and gazing across the gorgeous lagoon.
That evening we returned to Bloody Mary's for an excellent Polynesian dinner. The names of the many celebrities who had visited there were carved on the wooden entrance outside, dating as far back as James Michener.
The sand floors and solid wooden seating gave a very Polynesian feel. But the most memorable thing about the restaurant were the bathrooms. The sinks were piled rocks with a waterfall that started after pulling down on a chain from above. In the men's room, a very nicely carved and highly polished large wooden penis hung down over the men's community metal urinal. Pulling on the penis caused the urinal to flush....
Two days later we went on a high speed boat tour around the island. We made four stops for free diving. We saw the usual black tip reef sharks and many colorful reef fish. On one stop we dove with a small school of eagle rays, which were very tame and swam circles around us in a group of about six rays. The highlight of the tour was the last stop where we saw medium sized giant manta rays. Unfortunately, the water was murky because of the high algae/plankton content that the rays like to feed on, and they were at a depth of about twenty feet which made them barely visible from the surface. Fortunately I was able to free dive down to get a good look at them.
That evening we had a wonderful dinner at our favorite restaurant on Bora-bora, the St. James restaurant. The food was as excellent as on a previous visit. But we were surprised and delighted when right below us where the restaurant had underwater lights in the lagoon we saw a giant manta ray with about an eight foot wing span swimming back and forth.
It was very smooth, serene, and relaxed as it swam figure eights just below us. It reminded me of when I swam with 12 to 15 foot giant manta rays off Puerto Vallarta fifteen years ago, which is one of the highlights of my diving career.
We had been looking for giant manta rays since the Marquesas and Tuamotus, and we were afraid we might not see any in the Society Islands. So this was a real treat seeing one from the deck of the outdoor restaurant.
Because of a gale brewing south of Rarotonga, we elected to delay our departure from Friday, August 4, to Monday, August 7, hoping the wind and seas would calm down by then. We spent the extra days cleaning and stowing the boat for our coming passage, as well as skin diving and trying out more of the excellent restaurants on the island.
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