On the launch pad......prepping for the Bora Bora to Pago Pago jaunt

Mooring field perfection in Bora

We've arrived at what will be our final stop in French Polynesia, ironically a mooring ball we used for eight weeks in 2021. While conveniently close to nothing, the mooring is equidistant from fuel, groceries, restaurants, immigration officials, and an A+ swimming hole, so it's perfect. As we run our final errands and prepare to sail, Crabby is getting a lot of exercise, as everything is one to two miles away.

When last we left you we were working hard in Huahine:

Tom... working hard

Watching the clown fish and anemones

You can't believe these fish are real

Who wants to do boat work when you can look at this

Leaving Huahine was hard - the last two years have had so many highlights and Huahine was definitely one of them. As they say all good things must come to an end and we had business to attend to in Raiatea. That business was a return of Kirstin's Dad to French Polynesia - this time in a cruise ship cabin. We explored Raiatea together for two days and then the boat was off to new adventures.

Thankful right now that French Polynesia has no snakes

Looks like a bunch of rocks to you but the largest archeological site here

New island together - same Hinano beer

After waving goodbye to the cruiseship we hightailed it back to Bora. In some ways this seems like the perfect departure point from French Polynesia. We know this place well but needed another Bora fix.

Ah Bora - it is good to be back

Bora this time is not all play. There has been a lot to do, as this next move is not trivial. We will be sailing west for about 1200 nautical miles (9-11 days) during the latter stage of the Pacific cyclone season. The changing of the seasons usually implies fickle wind, so we are taking on copious amounts of diesel just in case. Although sailing with the wind at our back, we might find ourselves unwilling to go slow due to a weather threat, so we need to be able to motor long distances just in case. All told, we will have almost 1100 liters of fuel on the boat; as much as we carried for the 28 day Panama City to Nuku Hiva sail in 2020. And getting it on board is tedious........one mile dinghy ride with seven empty jerrycans (140 liters), then the one mile ride back with the dinghy seriously overloaded.......very slow. Then repeat.

The work has been piling up. Close inspection of the running rigging (ropes used to hoist and control sails) resulted in a lot of replacements. The sun, wind, and rain eventually kill even synthetic rope, and it seems that everywhere we have looked, something else is worn, frayed, or too stiff. All of our projects seem to collide in the galley and cockpit; our boat looks like a workshop, but hopefully we will have everything back together by this Wednesday (our expected departure - yes, like in less than 48 hours).

Kirstin has been making and freezing our favorite passage fare; jambalaya, chili, etc. It does throw off your stomach though- smelling food and then not getting fed. When she isn't cooking she has been diving and caught a real oddity on her GoPro - an octopus swimming in the open. 

Youtube video - click on the picture to play video

Checking out of Bora Bora has reminded us how special these two years have been- staying in one country but exploring over 20 islands. As we approached the police station to check out, we were met by a gun toting young lady who spoke zero english and was quite confused with our request for check-out documents. Fortunately, her supervisor saved the day and helped us process our paperwork. And yes, it is a real 3-part carbon paper driven system here in the South Pacific. 

We've visited all our favorite restaurants here including Snack Matira, where oddly the proprietor hugged us as she remembered us from 2021, asked after our daughter Emily and brought over two Coke Zeros before we had even sat down. At Lucky House, we got an indifferent reception, but some amazing pizza which we have developed a complex choreography dealing with how to get it "to go" using the dinghy.

View of Bora's other side- we actually navigated this mess and enjoyed 8 days there

It hasn't been all work here though; we've taken the boat on a perilous lagoon sail (with sometimes less than 12 inches of water under the keel) just to find the perfect teal blue mooring field - accurately called the Swimming Pool Anchorage. The tight fairways have taken us quite close to the "over the water" bungalow hotel rooms - almost close enough to snatch the chocolate off the pillows as we cruise by. 

One wrong turn and L'ORIENT is literally crashing someone's honeymoon

The only way through here is to motor uncomfortably close to the bungalows

Bora Bora is oddly much more popular with Americans than the other FP islands

And the sand bottom is as perfect as the water

Bora Bora is uniformly beautiful, and despite the authorities raising the mooring ball "rent" to a preposterous $36 per day, we still love being here.

Teal blue water with a Carolina blue sky

Bora Bora's famous profile

Assuming our satellite system continues to work you can monitor our journey to American Samoa: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/LORIENT/. Tom and Kirstin, you may ask - why are you stopping at such an obscure US island? Three things: 1) Boat part delivery from the United States Post Office - domestic rates and no customs duty 2) The chance to say we visited the least visited US National Park (and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere) and 3) We hear there is a Mexican restaurant there. Goodbye, French Polynesia! We loved every minute.