1 - 6 July 2007  It was a windy start to the month, causing huge seas to come crashing in on the reef; their height was quite spectacular!  As we had been having lots of computer problems, we decided to try to resolve them whilst we were still near a regular delivery path.  After several days of chasing one company and another, going around in circles for most of the time, we eventually found the Toshiba representative on Tahiti who informed us that we had a defective motherboard which he could replace free of charge (well , except for the $1000 custom charges) as the computer is still within warranty; unfortunately, it takes about four weeks for it to arrive from Toshiba!  We decided to live with the frustrating problems and contacted Toshiba ourselves to log the fault and have it fixed when we arrive in New Zealand.  What started as a virus has developed into a much bigger problem.  Apart from playing computers, we have been visiting some of the events of 'Heiva Tahiti'.  This is a month long festival which covers all sorts of events including competitions for dancing, chanting, canoeing, fire walking, fruit carrying (a speed and endurance event), rock carrying and copra preparing.  The dance competition is held every night throughout the festival with two professional dance troops performing each night.  The second troop we saw, Tamaril Tipaerui, were fantastic!  The troop was made up of 50% male and 50% female which gave there dance a more energetic feel.  The pace was fast and furious, with their band drumming out the rhythms.  Their costumes were also wonderful, although it did look as if some of the men were being a little too energetic at times and started to loose some of their attire! 

We wondered what we were going to do with our empty coconut shells!

Whilst in the anchorage we have seen lots of canoeists training for the festival and expected the race course to be within the reef.  However, the course went out of the port entrance and along the outer edge of the reef, so the competitors had to contend with the current and waves as well.  The course was quite a distance and the winner of the Senior Ladies Race were from Venus in a time of 2 hours and 40 mins!  That's a long time to be paddling!!  A Venus canoe also came second, with a Faa'a canoe in third place.  They all looked absolutely exhausted at the end - rather them than us.

Winner of the Senior Ladies Race

7  - 9 July 2007  As the weather was looking good, we set of for Moorea, which was a short 21 mile day sail.  A race from Tahiti to Moorea had left just ahead of us and we managed to overtake the last two boats - with hind sight, we should have entered as we would have done well, but we hadn't planed to leave then and so hadn't entered.  We left the racers and went around the North of the island to Oponohu Bay which is where Captain Cook anchored when he landed in Moorea; the misnamed Cook's Bay is the other side of Mount Rotui!  It was a wonderful day's sailing.

First View of Moorea

As we entered Oponohu Bay, we saw that there were a lot of boats in the first anchorage and we decided to go further into the Bay to try to find somewhere a bit quieter.  We found the perfect anchorage in Robinson's Cove.  It was quite far up the Bay, hidden around a slight corner on the Eastern shore.  We anchored in about 30' of water and then Hazel swam two stern lines ashore and tied them to Palm Trees to prevent us from swinging.  We were completely sheltered there, missing the winds that blew do the Bay.  We were tucked so far in that we weren't visible until you were level with the start of the cove; even our mast was hidden!  Several boats came down the Bay, but no one else came and anchored anywhere near us, so we spent a couple of very peaceful nights there.

Hazel swimming the lines ashore!

Our peaceful anchorage in Robinson's Cove - you may recognise the mountains from the musical "South Pacific"

One of the best views on Moorea is from the belvédère (lookout) on the slopes of Mount Tohiea, which overlooks both Opunohu and Cook's Bays and gives views of the pineapple plantations.  It was quite a steep climb uphill, but the views were well worth it.  On the way, we passed several marae as Moorea has the largest number in French Polynesia.  A lot of them have been restored and there is visitor information explaining them and the peoples' lives in detail.  As seems to be the norm, it rained heavily on our descent, but it was warm rain so we didn't mind!  The snorkelling in the Bay was quite good with lots of fish, but the coral is nearly all dead due to the El Nino a few years ago - there are signs of it starting to grow again, but it will take a long time to recover.  We did manage to see a solitary Black-tip Reef Shark though!  It is possible to see more sharks and rays near the hotels as the hotels participate in feeding them.  We didn't take part in this as it not only disrupts the sharks and rays natural behaviour patterns but it also encourages them to associate snorklers/divers with a free feed which can't be a good idea!

Views from the 'Belvedere' of Opunohu Bay (left) and Cook's Bay (right) separated by Mt Rotui (centre!)

10 - 12 July 2007  We left Moorea on the afternoon of the 10th, originally heading for Huahine.  However, during the overnight passage one of our blocks disintegrated so we decided to head for Raiatea instead as there was a greater probability of finding a replacement there.  The 110 Nm passage wasn't a pleasant one as there was an uncomfortable southerly swell, but we arrived at dawn, as expected, and made our way around the buoyed channel to Raiatea Carenage.  We spent the afternoon cycling around the headland to the town of Uturoa trying to find a replacement block.  We were unsuccessful as no one had anything large enough, so we cycled back to the boat, stopping at every shop or marina that even had a vague possibility of helping.  Back on Oasis, we managed to find an old Bakerlite block that will do the job until we can find something more satisfactory. 

We went snorkelling on the coal heads near one of the motues, but again, the coral had been destroyed by the El Nino and was only just beginning to recover.

The perfect location for a holiday home! One of Raiatea's motu.

13 - 19 July 2007   We left Raiatea in the morning of Friday the 13th - superstitiously, not a good day to go sailing!  It was a beautiful day as we set off in convoy with our friends Kip and Denise on 'Adelia' (48' Jeannue?).  After a quick photo shoot of each other sailing, we concentrated on the fast sail to Bora Bora.  The wind was on the beam and we had all sails up.  It was wonderful to feel Oasis lift her skirts and rise to the unspoken race between the two boats.  We managed to get a lead on 'Adelia' and held onto it for the 22 Nm passage, despite taking another photo shoot opportunity with a Dutch boat called  'Noorderson' (38' Hans Christian). 

In full sail with Bora Bora in the background (taken by Noorderson)

We sailed through a Bora Bora's only pass and headed South to Povia Bay and anchored in 12' of clear blue water over white sand.  Anchored near us in the Bay are our friends on 'Adelia', 'Reflections' and 'Splinter's Apprentice', with 'Gaia Su' on a mooring buoy at the Boat Club nearby.

As we have dive tanks onboard, we have been diving in a small group with Beth and Bone from 'Splinter's Apprentice' and David from 'Reflections'.  It has been a very enjoyable and relaxing way to dive as you haven't got lots of people crammed into a small dive boat, all being rushed by the operators.  As a safety precaution and to alert other boats that there are divers in the area, Bone tows their dinghy on a long line.  As in the other islands, the El Nino of  2001 has killed off the coral but it is trying hard to recover.  There are lots of different types of reef fish around which swarm around you whilst diving.  There are also lots of brightly coloured clams, giving beautiful and rich greens, blues and purples to the rocks around them.  Apparently there are many sharks and rays in the lagoon, but so far we have only seen these below the boat and not when we're in the water. 'Splinter's Apprentice' have a compressor onboard and Bone has very kindly been refilling our tanks - perhaps a compressor is a future investment on 'Oasis' so that we can dive more often without paying the extortionate charges for refilling tanks that we normally face.

Unfortunately, the 14th July, was a very sad day instead of the Bastille Day Carnival we had hoped it would be. Around 11am word was put out that someone was missing, having gone snorkelling from one of the boats and an informal search party was put together.  After he had been missing for about 4 hours someone mentioned that he had gone free diving on his anchor and spear fishing.  Fearing the worst, along with Beth we went to dive under his boat to see if he had got caught in his chain.  Regrettably, our hunch was right and he was found lying dead on the bottom in 24m of water.  He was a very experienced free diver, but had stayed down too long, reached neutral buoyancy, passed out and drowned.  We bought him up to the side of our dinghy and secured him there until the fire and rescue boat arrived to take him ashore.  We had a short memorial service on the dock on the afternoon of the 15th with his girlfriend and the other yachts in the anchorage.  He was 23 years old and his name was Tom off his boat 'Magic Roundabout', he came from the Channel Islands.  A very sad couple of days as you can imagine, but life goes on.

20 - 31 July 2007  We have completed six more dives, each one has been simply brilliant!  We have done two dives in Manta Pass, just off the end of Motu Toopuaiti, where we saw lots of small reef fish.  Although the coral has been decimated by the El Nino, it is recovering slowly with new growth visible.  We have also done four dives at Tapu which is just outside the Teavanui Pass (the only pass into Bora Bora), on the outside of the reef.  To dive there, David and Juliet on 'Reflections' motored their yacht out of the pass and tied up to a mooring buoy whilst we dived.  Afterwards, we hopped back onto 'Reflections', welcomed by Juliet with a mug of coffee and then motored back to the anchorage.  The dives outside of the reef have been absolutely fantastic!!  There are so many fish that you are practically bumping into them as you swim along.  There are quite a lot of Black-tip Sharks and we counted 12 of these circling us on one dive.  There are also several resident 10 - 12' Lemon Sharks that skulk along the edge of the reef at about 50' down, we saw three together on one dive.  It has surprised us both that the sharks don't frighten us more, despite them being so close.   Most of the time they don't seem to mind us being there and just cruise past about 4 - 6' away from us.  However, on one of our dives all the sharks seemed to have a different attitude and were a bit agitated, so we gave them a wide berth that day.  We also saw a turtle rummaging amongst the broken coral on the ocean bed, finding things to eat.  He was so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn't even notice us taking pictures of him.  The help Beth and Bone on 'Splinter's Apprentice' have given us taking us diving (they're both diving instructors), filling tanks, etc, has made it such a delight; nice and easy and relaxed. It has given us great confidence to have a go on our own, to the point that we have discussed where we can fit a compressor on Oasis! Its something that will have to wait until New Zealand, but a definite addition to the boat.

Steve & Black-tip Sharks

Black-tip Sharks

The 10 - 12' Lemon Sharks

A Turtle having his lunch

Apart from diving, we have also been cycling.  There is only really one road in Bora Bora and that is a 32 km trip around the Island, hugging the coastline.  Apart from one hill, the rest is practically flat.  We set a steady pace and were round in under two hours, including ice cream stops!  As we have found throughout French Polynesia, everywhere is clean and trimmed neatly.  In the areas void of plush hotels, the local villages are quite small and self contained, each having an impressive church at their centre and a small store.  For a change, we managed to finish the ride without it raining on us and so treated ourselves to lunch at the Bora Bora Yacht Club.  Bora Bora Yacht Club is quite a small building which houses a bar and a restaurant overlooking the ten or so mooring buoys it has in the bay.  The food is very tasty, serving both local and international dishes, and is reasonably priced.  The mooring buoys are also reasonably priced (2000 CFP per night) and free if you eat in the restaurant.  All the basic requirements for yachts are available including laundry facilities, showers, rubbish disposal, free water and bikes for rent.  We enjoyed our time on the buoy, but enjoy being at anchor in the crystal clear water even more.

As with the rest of French Polynesia, July is festival time and we spent another evening watching a performance of singing, drumming and dancing.  This group were last year's winners who aren't allowed to enter the competition this year, so they tour the Islands putting on a special performance.  I'm not sure if it is because the weather is getting warmer, but the costumes are certainly getting smaller; the girls' plumage seems to be shrinking and some of the men were only wearing a few blades of grass!  It was quite spectacular and the French Polynesian President was there to watch it as well.

Another evening, and as a new member of the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC), we joined other members for a barbeque on the beach.  It was very well organised on one of the outer motu, with some of the guys going over earlier to dig a pit and start the fire (very primeval!).  There were about 12 boats involved, all taking their own meat/fish for cooking and a dish to share.  There was a good array of food and plenty of it too.  The evening ended with a bit of a sing song before we all sped back across the lagoon to our boats.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Bora Bora, spending most of it in the beautiful water.  Each morning its array of colours would astound us and it was so clear that we could see our anchor even when anchored in 10m of water with the anchor 30m in front of us.  It was wonderful to watch the Sting and Eagle Rays swimming under our boat, casually moving back and forth looking for things to eat in the sand.  We are sorry to leave here, but it is time to continue with our journey.