Cyndi and Rich aboard Legacy
August 16, 2012
As we continued our bike ride around the south end of the island, we passed Matira Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches on the island. White sand beaches are relatively rare in the Society Islands (and for that matter in all of French Polynesia), but Bora Bora has a few. This particular beach was beautiful, with soft white sand and shallow water all the way to the reef, which gave it a gorgeous bright aqua and green hue. -Cyndi
August 16, 2012
Our friends from Raiatea, Alan and Marlies, had taken their boat to Bora Bora for a few days and had ended up at the yacht club the same day we arrived. The next day, we all rented bikes from the club and headed off for a ride around the island. It’s not very big and can be done in half a day.
I felt strange and wobbly on the bike, and I was pretty shocked to realize I haven’t ridden a bike since 1990. You may not lose the ability to ride a bicycle, but you can lose the ability to ride one with grace and dignity. It took some time before I felt confident and well-balanced on the bike, but once I did, it felt wonderful. I vowed that when we return to land life, we shall live someplace where we can ride bikes.
The trip was very scenic, having what you’d expect to see in Bora Bora: palm trees swaying in the warm trade winds, green hills and mountains, and the ocean colored with fantastic shades of blue.
When we got to the south end of the island, our European friends knew of a place where they sell “the good bread.” They kept referring to this market and the bread, which here means baguettes. We’ve had baguettes constantly since arriving in the South Pacific, and while we would agree that some are clearly better than others, we couldn’t imagine any that were so much different than the average fresh-baked baguette. We stopped at the small, unassuming market and bought some much-needed water and a baguette to try.
Eating a baguette from this market was like eating a bagel in New York after a lifetime of bagels from suburban California. I don’t know if it’s the cooking method, the air, or the water, but New York bagels are different. That’s the way this bread was: different from any other baguette we’ve tried. I don’t know why, but the flavor and texture were special, by far the best baguette we’ve ever tasted. We sat on a wall and ate our baguette with hunks of cheese that Marlies had bought. We would have gone in and bought another but we would soon be stopping for lunch and didn’t want to ruin our appetites. Sadly, we never made it down to that market again. If we ever get back to Bora Bora, our first stop will be at that market for “the good bread.” -Cyndi
August 15, 2012
There are many places to anchor around Bora Bora, but aside from an overnight trip to the other side of the island, we stayed put at the yacht club. On the downside, it was a long 15-minute walk from town, but on the upside, it was well-protected from the winds, had a good wireless internet connection, and it offered very nice place to hang out on shore. It soon felt like home. -Cyndi
August 15, 2012
We set out in the morning for the 25-mile passage to Bora Bora. The winds were pretty light so we ended up motor sailing the entire way. On the way, we were treated to the sight of whales breaching in the distance, which was very exciting.
(Rich: I looked off the starboard side of the boat, about a mile away, and saw a very pretty sailboat with dark-colored sails. I wondered where it came from – it had not been there a few minutes before. As I watched, the head sail moved aft and the main sail moved forward. The “sails” crossed and crashed into the water. They had actually been two breaching whales.)
The pass into the reef around Bora Bora is easy to navigate, and we felt comfortable in spite of the large waves breaking on either side of the boat as we made our way in. Once we got in, we decided to make our lives easy and just pick up a mooring at the Bora Bora Yacht Club. We wouldn’t have to worry about finding a place to anchor and would have instant access to food, drinks, and hopefully a laundry service. As it turned out, this was to be our home for most of the time we were in Bora Bora. -Cyndi
August 14, 2012
After returning to Legacy, our plan was to relax awhile and then head into the resort for a drink, but plans can change abruptly out here. When we got back to the boat, the tide had gone out so we decided to dive down and re-check the bombie depth. Unfortunately, if Legacy now swung the wrong way, she’d hit the tallest bombie. We needed to get out of there fast. We didn’t even change out of our snorkel suits; we just got the anchor up and headed out.
We headed across the channel and back to Taha’a to an anchorage on the west side called Hurepiti. It looks big, but it has a coral shelf that reaches halfway into the bay; so we had to be careful making our way in. We got our anchor set in a good spot and settled in for our final night in the Taha’a/Raiatea area. We could happily have spent more time here, but the wind was due to pick up in a couple of days and we wanted to be tucked in at our final destination in French Polynesia: Bora Bora. -Cyndi
