16:30.25S 151:45.371W

Tuesday 17^th September 2013

Distance run: 2 nmiles

Yes, you did read that correctly – we have travelled exactly 2 nautical miles in 2 weeks.  From a mooring buoy off Bloody Mary’s to a mooring buoy off Marina Mai Kai.  Not that we’re complaining (much), because there are certainly worse places to wait for a break in the weather, and it hasn’t exactly been awful here, just not very nice out at sea and we don’t particularly want to go out into it.

So for the first week on our buoy we chilled out, took trips ashore for a wander around, did jobs around the boat and caught up with a bit of admin while we had decent wifi access on the boat.  Bora Bora is a tourist island with little of historical or cultural interest, so there isn’t a lot to see, unless you’re keen on WWII artillery.   Some folks hike up the hill – we admired it from sea level.

Youngsters in their outrigger canoes riding our dinghy slipstream.

We circumnavigated the island in the south west corner of the lagoon by dinghy and snorkelled the reef, but apart from some HUGE eels, there wasn’t a lot to hold our interest.  It seems there is not much life in the reefs at Bora Bora which is very sad. 

The adult eel swam off before Steve got a shot – these are of the baby!

The second week on the buoy was very windy with constant winds of 20-25 knots and frequent gusts of 30+ knots leaning us over to the point where we went into ‘at sea’ mode in terms of stowage.  Nothing could be left on a surface in case a gust toppled it off, and getting in and out of the dinghy to go ashore was quite exciting.  It was otherwise quite comfortable on board, and with no worries about dragging our anchor we could relax. 

This evening we had a meal ashore in the Mai Kai restaurant as we hope to set off tomorrow.  It was very disappointing.  The prices are ridiculously expensive (around £10 for a glass of wine), the food itself was cooked okay but the portions were small, and the service was distinctly lacking.  The pickled ginger that the menu states accompanies the sashimi did not, neither of the two waitresses knew what it was when asked, and neither came back from the kitchen with any or even to explain why there was none.  The bottle of wine (around £25 for a Jacob’s Creek Chardonnay) did not arrive at the table until after the food had been served and Rod had been to the bar to enquire where it was.  The restaurant is clearly lacking competent management or staff training, and is aimed at the tourist with a bottomless wallet.  We would not recommend it.

Relaxing on the terrace of the Mai Kai Marina during happy hour.

This is a shame because Teiva who runs the marina side of the business is competent, helpful and friendly and nothing is too much trouble.

There has been smoke coming over the hill pictured above all day today, and as we left the restaurant tonight we could see the bush fire burning at the top.  Hopefully it will have burnt itself out by the morning.

We have been watching the weather during all this time and only now does it seem that the winds and seas are abating enough to set off for Suwarrow.  The South Pacific Convergence Zone is unfortunately lurking around the area of Suwarrow so it is possible we could have some unsettled weather, but we hope it will drift away before we get there.