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View from our hike in Bora Bora- it's winter here so a chilly 85 degrees
In our 10 years of being live-aboards, one thing we've learned is how to go slow. This wasn't always the case. Before we purchased L'ORIENT, we rented sailboats from Moorings and Sunsail a staggering 14 times; in Croatia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and all over the Caribbean. Our motto was "every day a new island". This was necessary because in 7-10 days, we had to give the rental boat back and return home to our jobs where we made a REAL difference in the interior design and healthcare finance industries. |
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| Look Mom, no hands ! |
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| A little emptier than most beaches in August |
But now we're retired active seniors and we've learned that the slower you move, the more you see. Some of our sailing friends poke fun at us for being on the same mooring ball in Bora Bora for 5 weeks without moving.
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| We are the white boat on the right - home for five weeks |
But across 5 weeks, you find the best hikes, most interesting scuba dive, yummiest pizza, best poisson cru, grocery store, etc.
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Poisson Cru and a side order of sunshine.
Crabby parked in front of our restaurant- no valet parking here |
Constant movement for movement's sake keeps you from exploring places in depth, meeting the islanders, and really unlocking everything a place has to offer. One historical tidbit we learned here is that there were 5,000 US soldiers based in Bora Bora during WWII - given the alternatives not a bad posting. When you fly into Bora you land on a US Army built runway and can still see concrete lookout towers and artillery around the island.
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| What every perfect place needs- some naval artillery. |
This go-slow approach leads to some unusual situations. Our favorite scuba dive in Bora Bora is so interesting, we've done it 10 times. Strangely, we now know where individual fish live, amongst the coral heads. We can actually find our favorite Titan Triggerfish when we want to pay a visit (although not too close because they're very territorial). Likewise, the stingrays have gotten used to us and even swim quite close to us now. Even the small yellow fish seem to recognize you as they swarm around your facemask. To them, you don't seem to have a mouth so how dangerous could you be ?
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| Our backyard view |
In other news, it's almost time ! Princess Emily is coming in less than 2 weeks and we're very excited. We've devised a complex logistical approach to picking her up in Tahiti.
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| Goodbye Bora for now - back in a few weeks |
Thereafter we will setting off on a tour of some of our favorite places in Moorea and Bora Bora.
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| View from the top of Moorea- fortunately our 125 cc scooter was up to the task of getting us here ! |
She's also bringing some much needed spare parts from the land of Amazon delivery, so we're excited about that too. We tease Emily about the difficulty she'll have someday with planning a honeymoon given that she's been to so many exotic locales on L'ORIENT. There's always Niagara Falls, I guess.
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| Not a bad place to wait for an arrival - Moorea looking back to Tahiti |
