Today is a lazy day - we are anchored in the lagoon at Bora Bora and it's been raining off and on for most of the day. First decent rain we've had for a while. I managed to fill the reserve tanks (50 gallons) during this morning's downpour.

Bora Bora is known for its beauty and it certainly is that. The lagoon surrounding the main island is an impossible shade of turquoise where it is deep and an emerald green where it is shallow. The main island is dominated by Mount Otemanu. Although it is only 727 metres high it has a sheer side on it that stands out from the rest of the lush vegetation in a pretty spectacular way. We are anchored in 25 metres in the shadow of this mountain outside a Bora Bora icon - Bloody Mary's. This Bora Bora institution is perhaps the most famous bar in the South Pacific. Coconut tree stools, coloured lights, a thatched roof and a floor of sand have attracted celebs from around the world. All the famous people's names are written on a big board outside the door. It's a bit over the top and I was disappointed to find my name was missing so I'm considering putting on my black frogman's outfit and stealing ashore late tonight and fixing that shortcoming.

We haven't done any snorkeling here because most of the coral has died as a result of a particularly bad El Nino year in 2001 which also discoloured the lagoon. The lagoon is back to its original splendor but unfortunately the damage to the coral is irreversible.

We tied up alongside the town quay for two nights during the week because there are major dance and singing contests every second night happening in town leading up to Bastille Day. It was pretty impressive to watch upwards of 60 women and men shaking/wriggling/gyrating their hips at about 200 shakes a minute and sweating to the beat of 20 drums. The town has prepared a big sand field about the size of a soccer pitch in the heart of town surrounded by grandstands and small eateries and games parlours for the occasion. This is where the dancing is held. We staked out our territory together with some other cruisers, early in the afternoon, went off and had some dinner and returned to enjoy the show sitting comfortably in our beach chairs.

We were rafted up at the quay next to our single handed Japanese friend Hide on 'Polaire'. He has two friends from Japan sailing with him for a few weeks and one of them is a really good cook so at least Hide is eating something. We had the three guys and Peter and Ginger from 'Marcy' onboard 'Volare' for a roast lamb dinner one night and that earned Debbie many intakes of breath and soooo desu ka's (if you've lived in Japan you'll know exactly what I mean). 'Polaire' is a 52 ft Tayana and has more antennas on it than a Chinese spy ship. She also flies a Japanese flag that is about 20' by 15' off the back stay so she's hard to miss. One of the things about Bora Bora is that it's a favourite place for Japanese honeymooners, so the word soon spread that Hide and 'Polaire' was in town and he had a constant stream of young tittering Japanese honeymooners coming aboard having a look. One of his crew, Hashimoto-san (the good cook and also the chairman of Hide's fan club back home in Japan that raises the money for him to afford to take 10 years to sail around the world single handed)acted as the tour guide - first the guided tour of 'Polaire' then the guided tour of 'Volare'. We had a constant stream of people through the boat having their picture taken in the galley, in the saloon, in the head, in the cockpit, in the bedroom and, I imagine, in the chain locker. As they got off 'Volare' Hashimoto would sign them up for Hide's fan club. We were thinking at one stage of setting up a turnstile and issue entry tickets.

We'll start looking at the weather a little more closely over the next few days and when we get the easterlies back we'll take off for Raratonga in the Cook Islands.