Arriving on a holiday in Raiatea, or anywhere in Polynesia, means that everything is closed. We spent the day on the boat, relaxing, reading and watching movies. On Thursday morning, we promptly (around 9am) dinghied over to the boatyard and tied off to the small dock. We sat and watched the process of putting a sailboat into the water with a tractor rather than a huge boat lift. While the tractor eased the boat into the water, 2 divers were swimming under the boat removing support boards and lines, until the boat was floating freely. Tom, in the dinghy, moved around the sailboat to help fend off the sailboat from the breaker walls, just in case the sailboat got to close in the tight quarters of the boatyard. Thankfully, for this sailboat, everything went smoothly and soon they were out into the lagoon. Then, Tom helped another sailor, Steve, a single hander we met in the Marquesas; bring his boat into the boatyard. It was Steve's turn to be lifted out of the water. Reverse the process and the boat ends up on stilts, sitting on land.

Anyway, we found the office and more importantly, we found where to get our propane tanks refilled. Raiatea Carange Boatyard does the fill of the tanks. Just remember, it's butane gas here in Polynesia, not propane. Still burns the same. We haven't had any issues and this is the second time our tanks have been filled with butane. So if anyone out there is like us and didn't want to stop in Tahiti then you can get your tanks filled here. We dropped them off at 10am and picked them back up at 2pm. We treated ourselves to lunch and spent the rest of the day on the boat.

Friday morning, we pulled out of Raiatea, and sailed the 28 miles over to Bora Bora. We arrived yesterday around 2:30pm. We plan on spending the remainder of our visa time here in Bora Bora, about 2 weeks. We originally picked up a mooring ball at Bora Bora Yacht Club behind a friends boat, La Luz, but after bringing it aboard, we found a sign stating not to use this mooring due to needed repairs. A quick glance into the water and it was easy to see why; the 1 inch line was almost chaffed through. While we would have liked to stay near friends, it would have been completely irresponsible and rude of us to stay. The reason we couldn't stay isn't so much that we may break free, its that we would drift into other vessels in the mooring field, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want us making that decision about their boats. So we are on a mooring ball right outside of Bloody Mary's Restaurant. Bloody Mary's offers well maintained free moorings to any cruiser, in hopes that the cruiser will patronize their restaurant. This should have been our first choice, but it all worked out very nicely. It is a nice big bay with only 2 other boats, also on moorings. We have a superb view of Mount Otemanu, the center of island. Life is good and we are very happy to be here in Bora Bora.