As we spent most of last season in the Marquesas, Tuamotu and Gambiers we had decided this season we would focus on the Society Islands. Due to COVID the number of boats around was significantly reduced and charter fleets are just starting to get going again as the borders were now open to vaccinated US tourists, so we opted to head furthest West first to the ‘Pearl of the Pacific’ – Bora Bora. Most boats work the way West island hopping, but we had unfinished business with Bora Bora and good friends there who were leaving shortly for Fiji.
Askari - our perfect home in perfect Bora Bora
Perfect SE corner Bora Bora - drone fun
Who wouldn't want to hang out here for a month from Insta #braybraywoowoo
So 8am on 21st May we pulled up the anchor in Tahiti, made our way to the fuel dock and then left through the southern pass – where there was a surf competition going on – not usually a thing we look for when going through a pass but the surf was neatly to the side. The wind was fairly light, but we manage to sail most of the way with some motor sailing just to keep moving. The moonset between the islands of Tahaa and Raiatea was quite something but the sunrise over Bora Bora was even more spectacular. By 9am the next morning we were tucked up on a mooring ball at the Bora Bora Yacht Club, near to Rick & Sanne on Incentive who promptly rushed over.
Approaching Bora Bora pass
Perfect sunset with Rick & Sanne
Moonrise at Bora Bora Yacht Club
That night we all went out to Rick & Sanne’s favourite bar – they have been here a while… Cocktails at St James were delicious and the comfy chairs right on the waterfront were just the ticket – we might have stayed beyond happy hour! The next few days we explored the area around the village of Viatape and re-lived some experiences we had here back in 2006. You might know that the night Andrew and I met, back in 2004 he was living on a boat and said he’d sail me anywhere (how romantic he used to be) I suggested Bora Bora with no idea where it was. Bora Bora became ‘the promise’ that resulted in our first sailing adventure, our life together in Australia and our marriage. So, to be back here with Askari in the picture we have looked at the wall of every home we had since was pretty tingly – to complete memory lane journey here’s that picture of R2 in the same spot in 2006.
Our R2 in Bora Bora 2006
Askari in the same spot 2021
Village near to the yacht club
Away from the resorts Bora Bora is perfectly Polynesian
People take such pride in their homes here
Our favourite spot in Bora Bora is tucked away in the South East Corner so as soon as the conditions were good enough to navigate the narrow channel through the reef we set off to spend a couple of weeks enjoying the special blue water that only exists in Bora Bora. While in this perfect spot we undertook some boat jobs as well as enjoying paradise with mostly just a few other boats. Being in a flat calm spot was time to replace the windex and the anchor light that has become the but of many jokes – there’s nothing many of our friends like more than questioning why this Oyster has the worst anchor light in the anchorage…. Well not any more – lopo light conceded it wasn’t working and under warranty finally sent us a new one. Andrew also did a major engine service, major gen service and caught up on small maintenance items. I’m not sure what I did, probably mostly take photos of blue water and go paddle boarding…. I did meet Nui though on one of my excursions who invited us to his home and beach – especially useful when Andrew wanted to add fins to the outboard. Nui and Piigi offered their advice as Andrew worked and then cut fresh coconuts to refresh us after the job was done. Nui has since become our friend and has popped out to Askari for a beer, brought his Wife out to meet us and welcomed us back to his Motu. It felt like a world away from the village over here – that was until the Bucketlust arrived…..
East side of Bora Bora
Working through the reefs is nerve wracking but we had perfect conditions
Now that is Bora Bora blue
Ready for snorkelling
Raitea and Taha in the distance
Our swimming pool
Can't get enough of the view from our bedroom window
New vs old anchor light bench test
Calm spot for jobs on the top of the mast
Even in a squall it's so pretty
One of the thing that has really changed since we first came to Polynesia is the amount of Catamarans and especially charter cats – now I’m not a Catamaran hater I just prefer real sailing yachts….. However the one’s that just look like a block of flats really do offend me as they never sail and have so many guests they take over. So, when 16 of them sporting huge flags and blow up dolls flying off the back turned up in our paradise to party in a circular raft I was pretty sad. Especially when they anchored in a no anchor zone, near to peoples homes and close to boats with kids, until after dark when the guests were all drunk they un rafted and started driving all around the mooring fields – the only saving grace was that they did have skippers but I was certainly glad when they left next the day; even though they came back to Bora Bora 3 weeks in a row . I’d certainly avoid this group in future- they use boats to party in way that wouldn’t be accepted on land in most places.
Not sailing but partying in front of people's homes
We recommend avoiding this group at any cost
Adding fins to the outboard at Nui's
Nui's - such a warm welcome here in paradise
Bora Reflections
Engine service time
Grumpiness over we flew our drone, went diving with mantas and enjoyed the local people on the motu and in the village on the main island, where we would go every few days for fresh baguettes and vegetables. Bob and Ann on Baloo arrived and we shared snorkel and dive tips, otherwise the charter boats came during mid week and we enjoyed quiet weekends. After a couple of weeks with Andrew’s birthday approaching we moved back around to the West side and took a spot behind another Motu in more shallow clear water but closer to town and other dive spots. Our first dive inside the lagoon turned out to be a real treat when a group of about 50 spotted eagle rays joined us. Outside the pass the diving was nice enough but nothing really special, a few sharks but there’s definitely better spots in French Polynesia.
Motu anchorage - just lovely too
Bloody Mary's
Jimmy Buffet Burger at BMs
For Andrew’s birthday we had booked a table at St James and the evening was just wonderful – what a treat to drive the dinghy right to the front of such a lovely restaurant where we got a warm welcome back. We love this island and the way we can move around the lagoon, stop in different spots and get a different experience in each. It has a reputation amongst cruisers as being expensive and restrictive due to the requirement to use moorings balls, however we found the local food no more expensive than other islands but you can also upscale it too. We opted to pay for a month of mooring which is just $10 a day and we get rubbish collected and really enjoy our visits from the lovely guys that manage the moorings.
Driving out for Andrew's birthday dinner
Birthday treats
What a wonderful dinner - St James Bora Bora
Bora Bora Yacht Club
After a week or so behind the Motu we went back to Bora Bora yacht club to top up the fuel, make one last trip for tapas at St James, provisions and then we were ready to head to Maupiti. Our last night was lovely and calm so we drove out to the reef for a ‘beer and a bob’ in the shallows, but ended up being welcomed to private island by the caretaker Mana and his dog Mika – we shared our beers and got a full tour or the Chinese owned island that up to 250 tourists visit each day usually.
It actually didn’t end up being our last evening as the rain was just terrible the morning we were due to depart so we opted to wait a day and finally left for Maupiti on June 20th. With plans to come back to Bora Bora…..
How most people envision Tahiti – swaying coconut palms, sandy beaches and beautiful girls with long dark hair, warm smiles and grass skirts. It is certainly possible to find these scenes on the lovely island of Tahiti however for most cruising sailors in the Pacific a stop in Tahiti means pulling into the city of Papeete for repairs, admin and provisions. We were not any different, although we are fortunate in that with our super speedy dinghy we can anchor off the airport behind the reef with beautiful views of Moorea while we take care of ‘stuff’.
There is always something nice about returning to a place you’ve been to before; as we approached the Port I knew that I would be able to get clearance to enter the Port and transit the airport runway in English – but adding a little French and Tahitian always makes the Port Captain happy so we had an warm welcome back to Tahiti. We pulled into the anchorage and spotted boats we knew and after a quick rest we zoomed ashore to visit our agents at ‘Tahiti Crew’ who had packages of treats for us from Oyster and also new bank cards amazingly from Australia (took 3 months to get here but they did). Then we headed to the local vaccine centre and the supermarket – I was on a mission for arugula and no-one was going to get in my way! The vaccine centre was quite busy and they suggested we come back in the morning so we enjoyed a cold hinano in a glass- at the marina while unpackaging our goodies…. This was the first time we have had a beer in a glass at a bar since October last year and wow it was good!
Cold beer and goodies from Oyster Yachts
Next morning, up early before the seabreeze, we were able to dinghy right to a park in front of the Marie building at Punaauia that housed the vaccine centre for this suburb of Tahiti. We were swiftly given a number and then presented our ID and answered a few brief questions, then a quick review with the doctor, who looked about 12, before getting our first Pfizer vaccine and appointment to return 3 weeks later. Wow that was easy and free– thank you French Polynesia. Off we went to do some provisioning at Carrefour which of course included lunch out – gosh I like city life.
Pfizer jab one - super efficient!
Smiling at a lovely food truck after the jab!
The mooring field near Taina Marina - so many boats are left here
The Fat Susan crew returned to Tahiti for repairs so lucky us got to have another few fun times with them before they left for Ports West.
Thanks to Floss on Fat Susan for this cool pic of swim up paddle bar
Then out of the blue we got a 5 year residency permit – I had been quite stressed about how to manage two passport renewals later this year while needing to renew our carte de sejour (CDS) for French Polynesia. The Australian consul in Noumea had advised us to sail or fly to Los Angeles… The Brits wanted my passport sent back and it had taken our friends months and months to get a new one… So I flicked an email off to see if I could renew the CDS sooner and straight away was told I could get our new one and should just bring a stamp for $90. Totally confused with the translation, but we rushed into the city and queued for an hour to buy a stamp at the post office. Then I missed the office but was given a phone number – gosh I wish my French was better everyday! So we went for lunch in a grump but amazing French food cheered me up and then I plucked up courage to call. To my surprise I was told to come back even though the office was closed– I walked in handed the stamp at reception and got given an envelope, still confused until I opened it and there it was 5 years residency! How did that happen?? It turns out part of the Brexit provisions allowed for all UK citizens in French territories on 31 December 2020 to be given 5 year temporary residency. After so much uncertainty over the last year, we pull into a port get a vaccine and a residency permit within 2 days – gosh we felt so welcome and relieved, I honestly could have cried and hugged every Tahitian I met.
Desert at AlphaB - yuuuuum!
Half price beer on Mondays - we skipped the huge option but these guys didn't
One of many wines shared with Eve in Tahiti
So now we had three weeks to kill in Tahiti until our second jab – but lots to do!
After five years of living on board we felt we needed to invest a little in updating Askari and our dive gear that was over 10 years old, we also had some repairs and updates to do having received a big box of goodies from Oyster aftersales. On the dive gear, we managed to do a good deal on some new Mares Dragon BCDs and also replace our regulators while saving our emergency spare regulators, unfortunately we couldn’t get a new underwater compass anywhere in Tahiti. So after setting this all up we just had to go for a dive. It was a little late in the day and the visibility wasn’t great in the lagoon but we found the wrecks not far from our anchorage, next to a boat of Tahitian ladies who were having quite a party and were quite keen on us – perhaps I also looked like a man in my dive gear?! We had fun in the wreck of a seaplane
Diving video Tahiti Wrecks
Another admin challenge was renewing our boat insurance, always a nightmare and every year it just gets worse. One of the problems being Australian flagged is that the law in Australia says Australian flagged boats must be insured with an Australian broker – hey and guess what there’s only two, so with no real competition and such a small market we pay heaps more – at least 30% more and for less cover. Also, there’s no negotiating with either of them, so there was no way we could get Cyclone season cover in French Polynesia other than in the northern Marquesas. So much to our great sadness we have changed our flag to the UK. I felt quite sick as I scrubbed Fremantle off the stern and then we had a lot of paperwork to do, including arranging for the AIS to be re-programmed, changing all our EPRIB registrations, radio licenses, sailmail account, the list goes on.
We did a lovely overhaul of the master cabin. I found a shop that sold bed linen to hotels and they put us in touch with a nearby dry cleaners who could adjust the linen to fit – then with some new squishy pillows and cushions we were back to having a super stylish comfy bedroom again. What do you think?
Updated Master Cabin
We heard from Tahiti crew that the dance schools in Tahiti were all being given the chance to present their end of year gala performance at the main cultural centre in Papeete. Because of the covid restrictions this was the only venue that had the proper processes in place to allow them to bring their families and friends to see their work. So we jumped at the chance to go and got tickets with our friend Eve too. As it turned out another girlfriend Ruby was in town and she managed to get a last minute ticket so Andrew went along with us girls, after a lovely catch up over a glass of nice wine in the cockpit on Eve’s boat “Auntie” at Papeete marina. We nearly didn’t make it though as that afternoon a weather system clipped Tahiti that sent over 40 knots into our anchorage for two hours, there was no hint of it in the weather forecast and it was really quite a shocker. There was ‘donut’ party boats flying across the anchorage with people in the water out of control, one catamaran dragged after he tied a kite on the stern, then one guy got swept off with the kite into the main channel – it turned out the boat only had one engine and just missed our friends on Two Drifters. Another boat also dragged but Askari sat firm with my knuckles white watching the carnage. Then is just went flat calm and we drove the dinghy out to town for the wonderful evening of dance.
40 plus knots - yuck!
Dance Group Tamariki
This prestigious dance group includes all ages
One of only a few men
We also enjoyed lots of lovely social time with friends in the anchorage and going out for a ‘beer and a bob’, with the Askari swim up bar on my paddle board becoming ‘a thing’ when the Fat Susan’s pulled in, we also caught up with friends on Two Drifters, Esprit, Venture Lady, Casa Blanca, NDS Evolution and others that just pop out to when there’s a gathering a sunset on the shallow bank. So when OCC Port Officer, Dianne who looked after us so well on both visits to Beaufort NC (USA), flew into stay with Eve on Auntie she was brought out to experience this lovely sunset float too. Aside from that there was lovely meals and happy hour drinks at the Casa Bianca restaurant, a great place to catch up and sometimes it seemed like all the boats that were in Nuku Hiva for Cyclone season were now here in Tahiti.
Back at the swim bar - thanks 2D for this great pic
An OCC welcome to Dianne - thanks 2D for this pic
After all that socialising we needed to get out and see something of Tahiti so we hired a car for a few days and went exploring and hiking. Waterfalls were our mission and Tahiti did not disappoint. Behind the City are deep valleys that run up to the plateau and each of these valley’s has some great hiking. We failed on our second day and ended up at a closed restaurant with no prospect of a day hike but a nice view of the city. However, the first and third days gave us some of the best hiking in FP. First to Vallee Fautaua which had a lovely river walk followed by a challenging climb to the top of the falls, we lucked out as we didn’t know that at the top of the Fachoda Falls were amazing pools that include slides and rope swings until a French hiker pointed us in the right direction. It was super fun and after a group of local kids that were obviously bunking off school left we had it all to ourselves.
Just after the slide is the drop!
So cold but had to be done
Loved these pools
Taking the upper walk we thought we might miss the whole drop - wow!
Bridge to the upper section of the hike
Beautiful River
After the second day didn’t work out as planned we did a bit more research and found a blog in French about a hike that took you over private land and required you to donate a small gift to the local farming association to access it. That sounded fun so we packed some sugar and coffee along with our hiking gear – it was along the river Tipaerui and to get there you drive through one of the most industrialised parts of Papeete then just across the river it goes from car wrecking shops to paradise in the space of a few metres. We parked up and then set off to find out who to donate to. We first met a family who after a chat said whilst they’d love our donations the correct spot was a bit further ahead – we left them the sugar anyway and carried on. Then we came to a sign and a covered communal space with a fire for underground cooking and met Te-hae. He welcomed us and gave us directions for the hike, some bananas to keep us going and his dog Faa as our guide- yes seriously he gave us his dog. The hike started as a lovely stroll through the gardens of their community and then joined the river for more river crossings than I could count, then got to full on boulder hopping but ended up at the stunning Cascade Faaroa. Of course a swim was essential. After we returned Te-hae put the kettle on a made us a wonderful tea with local roots. He applied a cannabis based oil in a dodgy looking jar to Andrew’s cut leg and then after a great chat about everything from the environment to the history of the valley we left with gifts of more fruit than we could carry and even more love for this beautiful island. We were just minutes from the city and felt like we experienced Tahiti as she would have been a 100 years ago. What an absolute treat!
Nice view of Papeete but no hike today - provisioning and chandlers instead
With Te-hae - day 3 hike
We still talk about this cool dog Faa
Another bracing swim
We loved Faa as much as the Falls
We got rid of the hire car the next morning and the delivery driver dropped us off at the vaccine centre for our second jab because he said it was on his way and then we did a little extra provisioning before going back to Askari to prepare her for a sail to Bora Bora. What an amazing few weeks in Tahiti.
As a result of this warm welcome, we reflected that actually we would be silly to leave French Polynesia at this time. Having our 5 year residency and sorting out the insurance to give us more options during cyclone season firmed it up – why leave possibly the best cruising ground in the world when we feel so at home here and there’s so much more to explore.
