September 20, 2007 - Bloody Mary's, Bora Bora

Can you see the green reflection of Bora Bora's lagoon on the underside of the clouds? Isn't that amazing?

Yesterday morning we made a quick pit stop in Raiatea, so that Sten could pick up a piece of generator exhaust hose at the chandlery. Then we put up our mainsail and headed to Bora Bora. As soon as we cleared the reef surrounding Tahaa, the wind died. We tried to motor sail, but it wasn't very effective dead down wind. Foolishly, we didn't have our real preventer on. We only had the supplemental vang on - the block and tackle that we use to connect the boom to the side deck. We were rolling around violently in the swell, and wound up jibing accidentally, breaking the snap shackle on the block and tackle. This, on top of all of our anchoring issues, wasn't doing anything to bolster my dad's confidence about our skills.

Amateur Hour continued as we dragged during our first attempt to set the anchor in Bora Bora. Moving farther from shore, got the hook to set next to our friends on Storm Along. When Brian and Nell returned to their boat that afternoon, they were thrilled to see us. I'd like to think that it was our charming personalities that caused Brian to come over at the first opportunity, but I know that it was really Alena's 12 pound shipment of DVD's that lured him over.

This morning, while Sten rebuilt the spare generator raw water pump, which had been leaking a combination of oil and saltwater, with some of the spare parts that Dad brought with him, Dad and I headed ashore to stock up on French cheese and baguettes at the local grocery store and begin our hunt for a place that would set the pearl that I bought for my mom in Apataki. We got back to the boat in time to join Brian and Nell for lunch at Bloody Mary's. Sunny and Charlie from Cosmos told us that we had to check out the men's room. We were confused, but game. After seeing the local carving that adorned the pull chain on the latrine, Nell and I rushed back to the table to grab our cameras. If you ever make it to Bora Bora, don't miss the art in the men's room at Bloody Mary's.
After lunch, Dad and I headed over to Toopua Iti to do some snorkeling, while Sten stayed aboard to continue rebuilding the raw water pump. Since we had such a late and big lunch, we enjoyed "baguette dinner" - a Mata'irea favorite involving crusty bread, cheese, a few knives, and some grapes - while we played Rummikub.