10 June 2024
Where am I?
Latitude: 16°30.9 S
Longitude: 151°46.4 W
Moored to a buoy in the lagoon of Bora Bora.
How is the weather?
It’s been very wet this week with heavy rain and lightning – we were boat-bound for the last 3 days with the sun finally breaking through today. Now we have quite a lot of wind, around 20 knots or so.
What am I feeling?
I’m starting to get the itch – after 3 weeks in the Society Islands with visit from Katie and Will plus some time on our own, I feel it’s time to continue our journey – which we will quite soon.
What has happened this week?
We arrived in Bora Bora a week ago and have enjoyed our stay so far: being in one place for so long is quite a novelty!
There is just one pass through the reef into the Bora Bora lagoon and it is quite narrow, albeit accessible at all states of tide. Having negotiated it, we made direct for the mooring field off Bora Bora Yacht Club where a number of the Oyster World Rally yachts were gathering for a party later in the week.
One is not permitted to anchor anywhere in Bora Bora and there are instead 100 mooring balls in 5 areas of the lagoon to which one has to tie up – this is in an effort to protect the coral on the sea bed. There is a charge for this – US$40 per day (including rubbish collection twice a week) – and given the number of yachts here, one is not necessarily guaranteed to find a mooring ball where one wants to be.
After a few days at Bora Bora Yacht Club, we dropped Will off at the Vaitape port to catch his ferry to the airport for his flight to Papeete and on to New York. We then moved to the area behind Motu Toopua, which is reasonably sheltered from the prevailing south east winds. It’s also dinghy distance to the Conrad resort where we spent a day relaxing on the beach.
The rainy conditions have meant that we have spend some time cleaning the boat, inside and out, in preparation for the next leg of our voyage. Laundry day will be tomorrow assuming the rain holds off. On deck, I have cleaned and polished the stainless steel dorade vents and removed some of the worst marks/stains on the fibreglass. I still need to work on removing growth on the hull at the waterline.
I did have ideas of jumping into the water in calm conditions with a mask and an abrasive sponge, but soon after arriving at our mooring, we were visited by a couple of quite large black tipped reef sharks – supposedly harmless but still…. I think I will do the job from the dinghy instead!
The water here is truly stunning – where we are moored, it is light blue and incredibly clear – the bottom is easily visible 7 metres below us. And as I look out west towards the fringing reef, the sea turns pale green as the depth reduces to 2 metres or so. The deeper parts of the lagoon are almost black – Homer’s “wine-dark” sea. I was thinking tonight that these are moments I will remember fondly for the rest of my days – not just our time in the lagoon of Bora Bora, but the whole voyage to this point. And, of course, it’s not finished yet!
This week, our friends Anne and Per rejoin us on board. We’ll do our final provisioning, clear out of French Polynesia at the local Gendarmerie and head west of south west for the Vava’u group of islands in the Kingdom of Tonga, some 1,200 nautical miles distant. We don’t plan to stop along the way (although there are a couple of places we could drop the anchor if needed) in order to maximise our time in Tonga. So the trip will take a 7 or 8 days assuming the winds are favourable.
It will be great to get going again, heading to pastures (or seas) new!
Fujin out!
Just love that after a week you were beginning to feel antsy…and the reference to “Homer’s wine-black seas”…As ever, the descriptions brought me there, such that by the time I am in my 90s, I am bound to assure my sisters I was aboard the entire time on this extraordinary adventure! Here in Thailand at present, so no complaints! But…
I’m delighted you’re enjoying the blog, Tracy and thanks for your kind comment!
Stuart your pros are a treat, although you do have spectacular scenery to work with. The mention of Conrad (hotel rather than writer) brought the cold draft of the real world into view. How is that drone doing? I fear it is not earning its keep.
Hi Rob, you’re correct that the drone has not earned its keep – actually I haven’t seen a done at all on this trip so I auspect many places have banned them. Might try it out at some point but I am quite nervous about sending it for an unwanted swim!
Using a drone when your anchored will elicit feelings of guilt your disturbing others. Using it while on a voyage will elicit fear of a dunking. But at the end of the day you’ve got to get it out sometime, and damn the torpedos (or aerial equivalent).
* you’re 😊
Hope you have some good sailing on the Tonga leg with friendly winds. Here the predominant feature of the weather over the past two weeks or so has been chill often cold northerly winds. Thankfully all that seems to be over for now and we are looking forward to warmer(if never warm enough) south westerly’s and the usual mixture of downpours and occasional thunderstorms i.e. a typical Scottish summer! Best wishes to all.
Hi Barrie / so far, we have light winds with the consequence that the passage will take a day or so longer than planned, unless we get perfect winds for the next 6 days, which isn’t likely. But at least the sea state is low and the temperatures warm! Make the most of your summer when it comes!
Captain Milne, what a fascinating blog. As a pretty committed land lubber, who enjoys the feeling of one’s feet being firmly planted on terra firma, your evident lust for the freedom of the oceans is fascinating. I will now see if I can go back and read your earlier blogs and will be a more avid reader in the future. Take care, Michael
Take lots of care , Michael
Thanks, Michael! Today’s blog is number 24 – not many more to go before we hit Australia – not literally, I hope!