Tahaa and Bora Bora

Greetings My Friends,

It has been a while since I have written and I am trying to remember everything that has happened. We made a brief visit to Ile Tahaa, went back to Ile Raiatea, sailed to Bora Bora, checked out a few spots on Bora Bora, Evan and Chloe flew home, I checked out some other spots on Bora Bora and now, with mixed emotions, am getting ready to leave French Polynesia.

The guide books said there was a turtle nursery on Tahaa at a hotel/restaurant that I thought would be cool to check out. The guide books need to be updated. Raaitea and Tahaa share a reef so we motored inside the reef to Baie Haamene to catch a free mooring buoy in front of the Hotel Hibiscus. After settling in and checking out the restaurant through the binoculars trying to decide if it was still open we took the dinghy to the dock. The Hibiscus Hotel and turtle nursery would purchase accidentally wounded sea turtles from fishermen and nurse them back to health before returning them to the sea, at some point in the past. The docks where in desperate need of some serious maintenance and in a crudely fenced area there was one sea turtle looking for a way out. I know I am not a turtle expert but I am pretty sure this guy had been all better for a while and was only remaining there because an injured replacement had not or could not or would not be purchased. A little disappointing. We found the owner who spoke English and asked to see a menu, he said they had fish, raw fish, cooked fish, fish and desert. Guess I wasn’t going to find out if we could afford to eat there, who am I kidding I knew we couldn’t. Dinner was amazing, it turned out to be a buffet and because we were a little late we missed the instructions and had no idea what most of the dishes were, oh well, oh well. All throughout French Polynesia I have notice many neglected and abandoned tourist destinations apparently the “economic downturn” has left its impression but the food is still awesome.

After motoring back to Raiatea to a spot near the pass we were ready to set sail for the heralded island of Bora Bora, the jewel of the south pacific, some say one of the most beautiful islands in the world. Bora Bora’s volcanic peaks make for a spectacular skyline and the lagoon inside the reef is very large in comparison to the island yet shallow in many places over white sand making the water many different shades of that post card blue. It really is amazing and from a cruising perspective absolutely idyllic. We stayed a couple nights on a mooring buoy at the Bora Bora Yacht club and hung out with other cruisers. About two dozen of us went for another dinner I couldn’t afford at the infamous Bloody Mary’s. It, also, was amazing. The floor of the restaurant and bar area was white sand and much of it was open to outside. The menu consisted of viewing the catch of the day displayed on ice and choosing after an explanation of each type of fish, ribs or steak. If you ever get to Bora Bora put Bloody Mary’s on your list of things to do. We also joined a bunch of cruisers on a different evening for Chinese food, from inside the restaurant I could have sworn I was back in Vancouver except I caught a baby gecko in the bathroom and put him in a wine glass, you could keep that place of your list.

We met many more cruisers, Doug from California with his young wife Seleca from Panama on a smaller boat than mine, Doug had a great sense of humour, well, I appreciated it. Brian from, well, all over and his wife Juliet from England were super friendly and a real pleasure to hang out with. Chloe had a good time encouraging the obvious discomfort of an early teens son of a cruising family who was doing his best to play it cool. After gathering some local knowledge from other cruisers we headed to anchor off the reef near the Manta Ray cleaning station. The water inside of the reef was generally 8’-12’ deep and we anchored in the pale blue water in about 8’. Snorkelling with the manta rays was pretty cool, not as intimate as feeding the sting rays but they were much bigger and amazingly graceful, they would come to this spot to have other fish clean them. We stayed a couple nights in this spot then headed back to the Mai Kai Marina to get some more provisions before checking out another anchorage.

After just over 5 weeks I could tell Evan and Chloe were ready to go home. We had an amazing time and for the most part everything went extremely well. I am sure we all did things to get on each others nerves but I have to say they had a real maturity about them to realize there was nothing to do but the make the best of their time here and I really feel they did. Three people on a 27’ boat for 5 weeks would be challenging for anybody. It is my sincere hope that they take away from this trip so much more than just seeing the Society Islands of French Polynesia. That they found discovering a little of the way of life of a different culture interesting and may want to learn more of other cultures so they can take what appeals to them and apply it to their own lives. That they saw people working on boats and getting paid to see the world and that that is an option, one that isn’t real until you see it, which also means there are so many other options out there. That the cruisers they met from all over the world who are actively living their dreams seem to be genuinely happy and that this would apply to anybody who is living their dream no matter what it is. It is hard not knowing when I will see them again, I am going to miss out on many things, but seeing as I had to do this for me and never would have been the only good time I will make the best of it. I will not get to teach Chloe to drive or see their graduations, I know, bad Dad, but later on in life and I miss out on weddings and grandchildren, ha ha. I will continue living my dream and hope that the part of it where they want to join me whenever they can comes true as well.

And now it is back to the life of a solo sailor. After the kids left I did nothing for a few days, perhaps I was a little depressed or just needed to gather my thoughts, anyway, don’t worry yourselves I gathered myself and went to the club. I stopped going to nightclubs a long time ago because they are not fun. Waiting in a line to pay way too much for a drink in a place that is too noisy to have a conversation with someone not to mention all the attitude, just not my cup of tea. In my opinion, pubs good, clubs bad. Polynesia is a little different, the local club consists of locals, some staff from the resorts and the odd cruisers. The locals for the most part are not that wealthy and are friendly, fun and easy going, the resort staff are super happy to get away from work and cruisers are fun. Totally ok to go out in shorts and flip flops, my kind of place. I enjoyed myself, played some pool for the first time in a long time, met some people other than cruisers, ok, I felt like the shit enjoying the company of a table of beautiful early twenties French girls who speak English to work at the hotels, I love the way they say Jonathan.

A few cruisers had hiked up the mountain so I decide I would give that a go. The trail was steep, actually, by BC standards it wasn’t a trail, more of a liability, the route went straight up until it hit a rock face then along the rock face and straight up again when possible. The trailhead sign strongly recommended the use of a guide. It took about 2-1/2 hours to get to the top and the view was amazing. On the way down I ran into Graham and his daughter, a cruising family from England, wonderful people, great fun, they were ready to quit but I told them the top was only about ten minutes away. I was really impressed by his ten year old daughter, in order to make it up there were many ropes to pull yourself up where the path was too steep on slippery rocks. Later on when having dinner on their boat I found out it took them 4 hours to get down and on more than one occasion she sat down and refused to continue, Graham got her down but immediately had to fulfill his promises of a new t-shirt and a pair of earrings, smart girl.

And now I think it is time to leave French Polynesia, my visa runs out in a week or so, although many cruisers check out and stay for an extra couple weeks and nobody seems to care, they just blame it on the weather. Also I should be in some sort of hurricane hole by December which doesn’t really give me much time. The next group of islands are the Cook Islands followed by Nuie, heard of it?, me neither, the Kingdom of Tonga and then Fiji. I am still not sure which ones I will visit and some may depend on the weather and sea state on arrival. French Polynesia is remote but most of the islands I visited are well developed and touristy, I am hoping to visit some islands with a more preserved traditional way of life. I will write again from the next place with internet but am sure I will check my e-mail before I leave in the next couple of days. I hope you are enjoying reading these letters and I look forward to your responses.

Word Up,

Jonathan