We are sitting in US SAMOA where I am writing of our visit to Bora Bora ...
Our news slightly delayed on account of wanting a reasonable internet connection bandwidth for posting our blog ...
I will not go into as much detail around Bora Bora as I do with most islands we visit as Bora Bora is well covered elsewhere on account of its massive attraction to tourists. So we thought to share the things we enjoyed most whilst there.
Our days sail departing Raiatea for Bora Bora saw Impi gliding along with the use of our asymmetric sail which Ana refers to as ‘The Beast’.
We posted a video clip of us under sail to Bora Bora which can be seen on our Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=538389452973162&set=vb.100004063368997&type=2&theater
Approaching Bora Bora is amazing … of course the entrance into the lagoon area is on the western side and as such we approached from the south rounding the SW tip. This found Impi cruising right up alongside the western shore against the reef.
Describing this feeling to someone who has not sailed these waters is difficult ... there is an overwhelming sense of respect and awe for the power and might of the ocean. Here one is cruising on the ocean across the back of waves that crash down onto the reef with a thunderous roar … the depths below the keel are literally kilometres deep ... in effect we are sailing against an underwater cliff which barely exposes itself to the atmosphere. At water level it flattens off >>> the reef. Beyond ... it then drops off to a mere meter or two before becoming deeper on the opposite side … the water colours change from dark blues to transparent turquoise blues >>> the lagoon. And all around and forming a ring ... the reef shelters the lagoon from the sea. And within the lagoon stands a majestic, tall and bold mountain ... a sight that captures the mind and excites the soul ... truly ... on a clear sunny day, this is how it felt to be approaching Bora Bora.
And as we cruised against this reef to find the entrance ... looking over across the reef again, and across the inner lagoon toward the island of Bora Bora ... its majestic mountain continued to impress us ... covered in lush green vegetation it reaches for the sky … a profile known to most … identifies the island’s unique signature ... a signature that bids one a warm welcome!
Our approach from the sea into Bora Bora through the entrance (called Passe Teavanui) saw Impi taking a turn to the right and had us gliding back down the reef on the opposite side, for we sought to initially set up anchor here between a small island called 'Motu Toopua' and the reef system.
This particular spot is a great anchorage (once one gets the anchor to find sand) and is a shelter from the prevailing SE wind.
Here Ana and I delighted in flitting about in the dinghy where there are numerous sting rays to be found. Of course lets not forget how touristy this spot is … the rays are 'spotted and fed a few morsels' to gather them together just before the tourist boats arrive … a terrific show is put on by the skipper who suddenly and excitedly tells the guests he has spotted the rays and of course with many squeals of delight and 'oohs and ahhs’ the tourists get to see and feed these rays.
Of course the rays are well spoilt and laze about waiting for feeds one tourist boat after the next ..
When we approached with our dinghy they came circling about us eagerly awaiting their food which we had not brought along with us. We could only imagine the discussion going on between them and soon they left in disgust!
We were later to discover that nothing is 'for free' in Bora Bora ... even the fish want their fair share ...
We found this to be a pretty anchorage, but apart form that, there was not much activity one could become involved in, so we moved to the main anchorage area just off the town VAITAPE.
Here we dropped anchor next to our good friends, Phil and Robin from Australia, on their yacht ‘Wind Spirit’.
The anchorage here is in a little bay that would hold no more than 3 yachts swinging to anchor. One is easily fooled by the space, however, because of the depth it is necessary to pay out a great deal of anchor chain, which of course increases the room needed for the boats to swing clear of each other in the wind.
Because this anchorage is deep, we had to creep uncomfortably close to the reef system in order to find the seabed in less than 20m depth, and eventually found 11m.
The surrounding views are amazing … it is just incredible to be anchored at the foot of this majestic mountain and observe its beauty, but best be ware that winds do find passage between the cliffs here ... and they do so with great gusto and speed, casting confusion between the boats that lie beneath.
One of the nights in particular saw us have a torrid time here … the force and power of the wind was just incredible ... and to spice things up a bit, the wind brought along with it, sheets of torrential rain downpours!
Ana woke up quite startled to the violent tugging of the boat at anchor and was very concerned by our close proximity to the reef. I must say I was up and keeping a beady eye on the situation … felt we were too close for comfort and had to start the engines somewhere around 3:00am to manoeuvre ourselves out to another spot.
In driving rain, massive gusts of wind and in the darkness of night … Ana stood at the bow dressed in no more than a bra and shorts to engage our windlass motor to wind in the anchor chain … I stood at the helm with both engines ticking over and watching the reef as Impi jostled about in the wind … found the chain came up a bit and then tripped the windlass motor circuit breaker switch …
What makes the situation worse is that our plotter upstairs has an issue where it is not displaying the charts, so I had no way of knowing our location based on a chart showing depth and position. Instead, here I was with our iPad as backup and using the Navionics Charts program we fortunately had loaded onto it ... looking at it through a special weatherproof cover and through driving rain to establish our position ...
Folks, trust me ... this was no fun!
Oh Boy … so there on the bow was Ana looking at me to assist with the anchor … me standing at the helm trying to keep Impi steady with iPad in hand … I looked at her through the sheets of rain and through the beam of light from our spotlights on the spreaders above …motioned to her that she was on her own up front and needed to do this for ‘King and Country’!
Poor Ana was drenched ... looked at me through the wildness of the situation and then got stuck into working at it!
What had actually happened is that on account of the depth of the anchorage, the length of chain and the constant swivelling of the boat in circles due to the erratic winds, we had a situation where the chain had twisted up on itself mostly because we do not have a swivel between the anchor and chain … this twist effectively had ‘shortened the link openings’ which take grip through the windlass sprocket … now of course got choked up in the windlass causing the motor to stall and cut the power by dropping the circuit breaker.
We always have to learn these things at the worst possible time. To resolve the situation meant working the engines to counter rotate the boat to ‘untwist the chain’ which in these conditions was not easy.
A yacht called ’Tiger Lilly’ lay to anchor in slightly deeper water in close proximity, and the bay already has limited space for manoeuvrability … of course you could only imagine their own fears in keeping their yacht secure in these conditions, let alone another yacht with twisted chain trying to lift anchor alongside and head for another spot!
Anyway, we were later to have drinks and a meal with the lovely couple at the well established bar ... Bloody Mary’s’…
We eventually did get the anchor up and were able to find a spot between some other yachts just off the Maikai marina complex. Of course this also saw us in difficult anchoring conditions due to a hard seabed surface ... took a second attempt to find grip.
The other yachts were all tied to mooring balls here and all balls were occupied, so you can imagine how accurate our position had to be as we were swinging on the length of chain between yachts on tighter, limited stretch mooring balls. It all made for an interesting night and I learnt some new tricks about anchoring!
Taken on a better day .. MAIKAI MARINA .. here a yacht is tied off to the front walkway
Incredibly 'Sailor Friendly folks' at Maikai Marina' ... here one can use the swimming pool, attend the restaurant and have free wi-fi ... one classy establishment!
Anyway, the next day Ana and I were walking about the village … saw many pearl shops and interesting clothes shops and so on …
A woman approached and greeted me asking if we were on a yacht in the basin.
When I told her we were on Impi, she smiled and said we must please come across with her to meet her husband who is at a restaurant nearby … he loves meeting South Africans and they have heard about Impi cruising in these waters.
It turns out they are the couple on ’Tiger Lilly’ anchored close to us the night before …
I offered my apology for the disturbance … and Tom, a tall American ex- naval officer peered at me over his cup of coffee and said, ‘listen Brent, when my wife told me you were moving about in close proximity in those wild conditions, I looked at her and said go back to sleep! They are South Africans and one thing South Africans know to do well, is to handle a sailboat!’
Of course we laughed at this comment … his graciousness to suggest we were not an issue to him the night before at all … and through this meet we became good friends with Tom and Lillie.
We decided to head over to the anchorage on the SW side of 'Baie de Povai’ where there are a few mooring balls (or floating / semi floating plastic barrels) to which one can attach the yacht. The main attraction here, of course, is the famous restaurant frequented often by the ‘Rich and Famous’ … BLOODY MARY’S!
In the photo below - at anchor off the walkway dock from Bloody Mary's
We lowered the dinghy for a short burst to the long wooden pier leading toward Bloody Mary’s …one can tie off the dinghy here and at a point the pier reaches the main road which has to be crossed literally to the entrance of Bloody Marys just on the other side.
Cars travel along this road at speed so we are not sure how many accidents have occurred here on account of drunk sailors who had one Bloody Mary too many, but it was something we agreed we needed to be careful of when leaving!
At the entrance to Bloody Mary’s are huge sign boards displaying the names, of famous celebrities and people we are all supposed to know of, who have visited the establishment.
I asked them if they wanted me to spell my name for them ... I did not want a spelling error on the board when they put it up there!
Of course this produced some laughter and they assured me it would not be an issue … LOL
The photo below does this fine establishment no justice at all ... it truly is a beautiful place ...
Ana and I were HUGELY impressed with the establishment … one literally walks onto a sandy beach floor … shoes are taken and put into shoe lockers at the door, and one is encouraged to feel the sand between ones toes … to relax and make the place ones own for a while.
Whilst these floors may be of sand, be sure to know the establishment oozes with taste and is beautifully built … the area separated into two areas where on one side there is a terrific little pub counter where sailors were sitting and nattering away over a number of Bloody Mary’s, and on the other side the restaurant with its fine choice of foods which we were tempted to try.
After Ana and I had finished with our drinks we made reservations for 4 as we wanted to ask the folks from ’Tiger Lilly’ to join us for supper that night.
The supper was exceptional and the foods are TOP GRADE in quality ... and very reasonably priced.
Here all guests are called from the bar to the beautiful display of foods … including lobsters, swordfish, yellowfin, prawns, ribs, steaks and so forth … the lady gives a superb explanation and presentation of the foods … tells us where the food is from, how fresh the meats are and so forth … very well done!
Guests will then order the food from her and be escorted to the various tables.
We all agreed that the food was incredible, the ambiance ‘par excellence’ and one felt to have had a ‘real treat’.
Before leaving, I was encouraged to take a look at the men’s toilets with a number of people telling me I would be impressed with the artistic wood work and decorations … a MUST SEE!
So, off I went and … yes … the place looked nice as did the rest of the establishment. I thought whilst I was there to to ‘drain a kidney or two’ and when I was done grabbed for the wooden handle of the flush chain when I realised I was grabbing the handle which was carved as a huge penis in ebony type wood.
Of course I grinned as I could imagine all who encouraged me wondering what my expression would be … came out to a bunch of people all having a good chuckle and asking me what I thought! Of course I said it was a nice room … … … ‘what of the handle?’ they asked … ‘Yeah, I thought that was well proportioned to size in reality … well … as far as I know and I don’t know other men but it seemed rather similar to what I usually handle there’ ….
Of course this produced huge roars of laughter and I guess in the end ‘boys will just be boys’ whilst the ladies smirk and shake their heads at each other …
We decided it was time to head around the island which due to the reef structure is only possible by going around the top on the northern side.
And so we proceeded up the west coast and around the north, dropping anchor in a very pretty spot between these stilted hotel rooms that look so beautiful over the water.
At first we spent time anchored between two hotel groups (St Regis and Four seasons) with no more than 300mm beneath the keels in what has to be one of the most stunning settings there …
Below a Google Earth shot of our position at anchor here ...
When moving south we were quite surprised to find deeper water along the hotel bungalows over areas marked on our charts as being reefs … there in-fact were no reefs to be seen …
The following anchorage where we spent a while was just a stone throw to the south between the St. Regis hotel and the well known Meridian which has a ‘Lagoonarium’ where one can feed turtles. This privilege will cost a tourist US$60 per person … personally felt the damn turtles can go hungry for once. Ana asked what delicacy they were eating which produced no smiles … oh yeah … we will feed turtles in the wild thank you very much!
Down south we found more pretty anchorages and enjoyed snorkelling on the south side of a little motu called 'Piti uu Uta’. This area is well publicised as being a snorkelling mecca of Bora Bora, however, we found it all to be a bit too touristy and apart from the fact that the water is incredibly transparent and clear, felt we had perhaps been too spoilt with snorkelling in mother natures naturalness off the Tuamotu Archipelago atolls.
None the less, this snorkel spot was fun and a number of tourists arrived yet again carrying fish food which of course gathers the fish in large numbers.
Ana and I dived on various coral banks to swim with the manta rays … and although we found these creatures, must say that the water clarity was no where near as clear as we had expected it to be in this location.
Another disappointment was the condition of these coral reefs … there certainly were lovely sections between, but on the whole we found the amount of dead coral quite astounding!
There is much we could write of Bora Bora ... there are helicopter tours, The Tupuna Safari 4x4 Adventure trips in the mountains, Black Pearl Farm excursions, dives with manta rays and so much more ... one should be prepared to dig deep into the pockets here ... the local businesses have perfected the art of having tourists so swept up in the beauty and ambiance of the place that taking money from them is like taking candy from a kid ... and they sure 'aint shy' about it!
Our feelings of Bora Bora?
We feel our visit here to be a ‘treat’ and not be passed by … a place of exceptional beauty and especially so on the eastern side …
One has to embrace the hustle and bustle of tourism in order to enjoy being here … after all ... it is this way because of the magical beauty, the warm crystal clear waters .. all this makes for that idyllic island life we all dream of ...
One of the inter-island ferries below ...
Hotel Groups abound and sadly have to say that, in general we found a tendency of staff to be unfriendly and rather business like! It's all about the money, and I guess they see sailors approaching by dinghy as 'Gypsies of the sea'. One has to put in quite a bit of effort for them to realise they are not dealing with the dregs of society here ...
Bloody Mary’s is a must see, must do and must drink and 'eat at' place if one is visiting Bora Bora!
Two days before our departure for Maupiti, we heard a desperate MAYDAY VHF ch 16 call going on between a stricken catamaran (a Catana 40 ft catamaran called MONTEVERDI) which had run onto the reef when exiting Maupiti for Bora Bora. The yacht was sinking fast and the French Coast Guard had to be pretty persuasive to convince the Captain and his crew (4 people) to remain with the vessel until the last … ‘Do NOT abandon the vessel for a life raft if the vessel is still semi afloat’ he kept shouting down the VHF.
Anyhow, this was the 2nd incident off Mautpiti we in just a few days, so were making sure to study the entrance into Maupiti in great detail.
The day before we left Bora Bora for Maupiti, we had heard the occupants of the catamaran had been rescued … the vessel had been ‘floated with huge air bags and they used serious pumps to pump out the water. The vessel had then been towed to Bora Bora and run onto a nearby sandbank and tied off there for the meantime. Ana and I were curious and took Impi across to go and have a look … we like to learn from experiences like this, but must admit we felt rather sad for the owners of the charter company and for the destruction of such a lovely craft.
The good news is that all were safe … the lesson is that it can happen to anyone and we need to be cautious out there!
Bora Bora ... an island of greens and various shades of blue ...
Brings folks from far and wide ...
A tropical island with tourist galore ...
Beauty of beauty ...dreams come true ...
A delicate balance, businessmen take for a ride ...
Bora Bora ... I fear you could be on the brink of becoming the Society Island hore!
Keep it real folks ... its Bora Bora's natural beauty ... that we adore!
Very good to know all this about Bora Bora! Will definitely turn back to this page if I'm ever going there. Very detailed and honest description. Keep it up Impi!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Marco (FatBoy)