Saturday, June 22, 2013

Bora Bora to Palmerston Atoll: Day 2 - Whale Encounter!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Not too eventful of a day today, but I had an INCREDIBLE experience at night.

I went for usual shift at 11:00pm to relieve Jan of her duties, and while she was updating me on the events of the night, we kept hearing this sound coming from under the boat that sounded identical to a whale's blowhole. Jan said it had been happening for an hour and 'you'd think there was a whale right beside the boat". We shrugged it off as just water getting trapped below the boat and shooting out when the boat rocked. Jan went down to bed and I started my watch.

This 'blowhole' noise kept happening in fairly regular intervals at the beginning of my shift, I was confused because after 4 months on this boat, this was the first time I had heard this noise. Also, I don't think that air CAn get trapped under the boat due to its shape, there is nowhere air could get trapped. I still shrugged it off, even though the sound startled me every friggin time as it was so sudden and loud and on all sides of the boat.

It started raining after while, so I cocooned myself up in a towel to keep somewhat dry. I was comfortable and didn't want to move, but I noticed the wind suddenly shifted and the sail was flapping around, so I broke free of my cocoon and flipped on the spreader lights to bring in the sail. The spreader light shines down from the mast onto the sail and the deck and is really bright, so it does a good job of illuminating the whole deck and some of the water surrounding the boat. As I was pulling the sail in, I suddenly see out of the corner of my eye, just 5 feet from where I am sitting, a massive body rise up from the sea and blow a huge spout of air and water, and hence make that sound I had been hearing. So there it was, a giant whale swimming alongside our boat, blowin' air for the past hour and a half. I jumped so high, I could have repaired a halyard at the top of the mast while I was up there.

I ran down below and woke Jan and Gary, grabbed my waterproof camera and flashlight, and bolted back up to the cockpit. I shone my light into the water beside the boat, and set it to its highest light power. The whale seemed to be attracted to my light, because he kept coming up on the same side of the boat, right where my light was. He was a good 30 feet long and had the general body structure of a humpback. He was greyish in colour with some white spots amd had a very pointy snout. I tied myself to the boat and hung my body over the side to get some good close-up video of him coming up for air. I even braved shoving my hand underwater to get some shots of him swimming below the boat. Unfortunately, even with all that light we were shining on the water, the GoPro is absolutely terrible at night shooting and there is little salvageable shots from the hours of video I took. The sound turned out though, you can here the blowhole making its sound, and then us screaming with excitement immediately after. Here, sadly, are the 'best' two shots I could extract from the video:

The whale followed our boat for a total of 3 hours and came up for air every 2 or 3 minutes, so we got to see him many times. It was a magical experience to say the least and one which I believe is extremely rare. One of the many great animal encounters on this trip.

Bora Bora to Palmerston Atoll: Day 1

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

We left around 8:00am this morning and had to stop at the fuel dock before leaving. The dock itself was this jagged, rickety, wooden thing with bolt sticking out everywhere. In addition, there were mooring balls blocking a decent approach to the dock, so you had to come in at a near 90 degree angle and fishtail up to the dock. It is the only fuel dock in Bora Bora, so be warned fellow sailors! Maybe walk or dinghy to the dock before hand and set up some of your own fenders on it to avoid scratching your boat.

Also, as we were finishing up, and Gary was returning the diesel hose to its holster, the hose broke apart at a joint and started spraying diesel fuel all over Gary, the dock, and into the water. I expected more from the great Bora Bora in terms of a fuel dock.

The seas were a bit rough coming out and there wasn't much in terms of wind. We put up the genoa, mainly to steady the boat, and just ran the engine all day.

My night watch shift is from 11pm to 3am every night, which breaks up my sleeping time, but at least there is still some dark after my shift that I can sleep.

Bora Bora: Day 5

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

We have decided to leave tomorrow, so we spent the day mostly getting the boat prepared for the next passage and doing some provisioning.

We had lunch at the MaiKai Marina and it was terrible. The waitress spilled Gary's drink on me, our food took 2 hours to come out, and the portions were tiny. I was still hungry after and had to eat when I got back to the boat. We paid nearly $30 a plate too. MaiKai is a great and cheap place to moor your boat, but avoid the restaurant!

Monday, June 10, 2013

Bora Bora: Day 4 - Discovery

Monday, June 10, 2013

We paid a taxi to tour us around the island this morning. The first stop was at a protestant church. As we learned, Bora Bora is a Protestant island whereas the Marquesas are mostly catholic.

The next stop was at the remains of an old temple along side the water. This rock had a hieroglyph of a turtle. The turtle was considered a sacred animal and would ONLY be eaten by chiefs on special occasions. I learned they also eat dog here...

We hiked up a really steep trail that led to an old American cannon from WWII.
It was huge.

There was also an ammunitions bunker.

And a machine gun bunker that soldiers would shoot out from.
Supposedly, when the tsunami hit, all the villagers retreated up this mountain the escape the onrush of water.

It offered some beautiful views of the bay and the famous over-the-water bungalows.

Our friend tried teaching me how to play the Veevo (nose flute). They believed that the mouth was used only for speech, so they would play this flute by blowing out their nose.

He also tried to teach me this bird-call whistle that, again, you operate with your nose.

Here are some shots of the iconic Mount Otemanu.

And we got to see some of the fruit that are local to Bora Bora including Noni Fruit, Soursop, and one whose juice I have learned goes great with rum, papaya:

This here is the famous beach on the south side of the island.

We finished off our day with lunch at Bloody Mary's, which is supposed to be the go-to restaurant here. It is quite famous among tourists who stay at one of the many water-bungalow resorts.

Quite a few famous people have eaten here.
Note that both 'Megan Fox' and 'Steven Stills' appear on the list twice...?

It was a big hut with an all-sand ground and whose patrons were all American tourists.

I had the Mahi Mahi Reuben. I love reubens and get them whenever available. I had never expected to be ordering one way out here in the middle of the ocean. Nor did I ever think I would be eating a fish reuben.

There was a mango tree out front of the restaurant, which also goes great with rum.

And this crazy fellow.

Bora Bora: Days 2 & 3- Exploration

Sat/Sun, June 8 & 9 , 2013

For those planning to sail through French Polynesia, DO NOT accumulate laundry and expect to have it done at a laundromat on one of the islands! It is grotesquely expensive, not just in Bora Bora, but in Tahiti as well. We just spent $150 to do sheets, towels, and a small amount of clothes (at $30 per machine load - and their machines are TINY).

Another piece of advice, propane/butane is not available anywhere outside Tahiti, so check your cooking fuel levels and re-stock it before leaving Tahiti! We did not do this and are nearly out of cooking fuel. We are unsure whether to go BACK to Tahiti solely for this, or to just keep going forward and hope for the best.

Saturday night was some sort of party night here. There was a pool party at the marina, which had a DJ blasting tunes until 1:00am. Earlier in the afternoon, we had a couple 'party' boats pull up to moorings around us filled with younger people partying. The one boat was this rusty old piece of junk that had clearly been neglected (surprised it was able to sail offshore at all), which was blasting music with drunk people screaming (and had a naked baby - also partying). We watched their multiple failed attempts to catch a mooring ball and not drift into another boat. People were jumping off the boat to swim even before they were hooked (including naked baby - with no life jacket). This was very unusual as from what I've seen, marinas tend to be full of older people and families that frown on the noise from a boat just running their engine (our refrigerator is old and requires running of the engine every now and then to chill it - we have seen many of these frowns). 

After a very lively Saturday, we got up and did some exploring in the dinghy around one of the motus surrounding the main island. 

We brought the snorkel gear and found a pretty good spot where the coral dropped off like a cliff into really deep water. It is around these sudden and significant changes in depth that you find the most sea life. The water was a bit foggy and the sky was cloudy, so the pictures didn't turn out too great. But we still had a good time and saw some pretty fish.

Some zebra fish. (I don't know if that is their name, I just made that up)

And an eel poking his head out.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Bora Bora: Day 1 - Arrival

Friday, June 7, 2013

Sailing Across the Pacific Ocean 2013 (Part 17) - Exploring Bora Bora


Bora Bora came into sight early this morning, and within a few hours, we were at her doorstep.

The channel was well marked coming in and was wide enough that you had little to worry about. Unlike the other islands of French Polynesia that we have visited, Bora Bora seems to have some low-lying, all beach 'tuomotus' surrounding the main island. I think this is one of the big appeals here.

We had called ahead and reserved a mooring ball at the Mai Kai Yacht Club & Marina. It wasn't difficult to find and someone came out on a dinghy to help us tie off when we arrived.

This marina is beautiful and has a ton of free services, including free wifi (all for less than $10 a night!). For comparison, we were paying $6 an HOUR for internet at all other islands we've visited in French Polynesia. The marina has a real 'expensive' feel to it without actually being expensive. There is a really nice restaurant/bar with live music.

And one of those fancy 'infinity' pools.

We walked around town a bit and ate at a small restaurant called the Aloe Café. Oddly, everything we have seen up to this point has been LESS expensive than the other islands we have visited. We had heard and read so many horror stories about prices here defying imagination. Maybe because we are staying a little outside town, maybe the prices are jacked up just around the expensive tourist resorts.

So far so good here in Bora Bora!

Moorea to Bora Bora: Day 1

Thursday, June 6, 2013

We left Moorea around 1:00pm. Like usual, I am sad to leave Moorea, but am really looking forward to seeing what all the hype surround Bora Bora is about.

We passed a few of the other Society Islands on the way. Here is Raitea, the second biggest of the Societies.

It was just a quick, overnight passage and mostly downwind. But the seas were pretty rough, we had 10 - 15 foot waves with a really small period, so they were rocking the boat like crazy, even though they were on our stern.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Moorea: Day 10 - Last Day in Moorea...

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Well, today is our last day in Moorea. I have fallen in love wit this majestic place that we keep calling 'Valinor' (the land of the God's from Lord of the Rings that the Elves sail off to in the end). We have been to quite a few beautiful anchorages on this trip, but this is the first that has hundreds of flower heads floating in the water all around your boat.

We were treated to a nice full rainbow on our last day here.

Tomorrow, we have a short, over-night passage to Bora Bora (about 120 miles).

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Moorea: Day 9 - God's Aquarium

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

After yesterday's failed snorkelling attempt, we decided to check out this place called 'Lagoonarium' that we saw in the Tahiti/Moorea brochure you can get here. It looks really touristy and crowded in its advertisement, so we weren't super keen on it, but it ended up being one of the best experiences so far on my trip. The snorkelling there bested even the great Galapagos.

We were expecting to basically be motored out to a good snorkelling spot and just getting dropped off for a few hours (as we didn't read into the Lagoonarium at all before going). What actually happens is, it's an all-day sort of thing. They motor you out to their little private island where you are greeted by some very friendly people and the island's dogs.

They take you for a short tour of the island before letting you run free.

Each party gets their own private little hut for the day to store items or to get out of the sun if need be.

There is a bar/kitchen area where they have free coffee/tea/water for everyone (no booze though, you have to bring your own), and they supply you with lunch.

And then there are really cool little sitting areas everywhere with hand-made furniture out of various pieces of driftwood.

And then finally, the island is surrounded by rich reefs that are densely populated with a huge variety of different fish, rays, eels, sharks. It's like being in a natural aquarium. They have a huge network of ropes that float along the surface, so you can pull yourself along and not have to swim against the current (the current is rather strong here). If snorkelling is not your thing, they also have free kayaks for your use.

And now for the snorkelling, there was this one ray that was almost like a pet to them.
He would swim right up to you, climb up on you, and allow you to pet him.
And here he is petting me.

There were huge schools of fish everywhere, surrounding you.

And the odd isolated unique looking fish.

And of course, my favourite, sharks. 
It started with just one shark hanging around, but by the end we had dozens swimming around us.

I even got to pet an Eel.

The crazy guy who worked there would hang on to the sting ray who would propel him around the reef. Unbelievable.

It was like God's aquarium in there.

We had a short break where they showed us different types of starfish. This one is really good for the reefs, eats all the junk off the ground. It is called a 'shark's pillow'.
This next one is bad as it eats the reef itself. It is also highly poisonous.
He kept wanting me to touch everything.

And just when you thought all the fun was over and you were being shuttled back, they bust out the body-boards.

And this was all for just $25.00 per person!! They could have been charging $100 a head for the experience. Saying it is a good-value excursion is a grotesque understatement. I could not recommend it enough to anyone visiting Moorea!

We also were treated to an amazing panoramic viewpoint on the way back. This is a view of the east side of the island.