We got our anchor up without any trouble on Sunday morning and followed Bonnie and Blue Lilly to Bora Bora.  We couldn’t lay a direct course and had to put a couple of gybes in, but we covered the 30 miles in 6 hours.  Bonnie and Blue Lilly had found a lovely anchorage, just inside the reef and sheltered by an island. The passage in was narrow and didn’t correspond to our electronic chart, so Phil had to stand in the bow and navigate us in in the time honoured fashion of looking for changes in the water colour which indicate different depths.  We anchored in water so clear you could see our anchor chain going all the way to the bottom, 8 metres down.  It was only spoilt by the water taxis zipping between the anchored boats on the way to a nearby resort.

We spent one night here before moving to the town, where we picked up a mooring off the Mai Kai Marina restaurant and bar.  We needed access to the town to sort our customs clearance for the Cook Islands and to do some shopping.  Clearance out was not as easy as clearing in to French Polynesia; we had to fill out 6 forms, then return two days later for our papers, and even then they weren’t ready when promised so we stayed an extra night, which gave us an opportunity for a happy hour drink with Bonnie and Blue Lilly before we left.

Approaching Bora Bora

The Mai Kai Marina restaurant

Looking south down the island from our moorings