Bora Bora, BaBy

Bora Bora Yacht Club mooring field

Bora Bora - so good they named it twice?! - is the last of the Society islands we officially visit, as we now have very few days left on our FP visa. We have had strong easterly winds for some time now, which makes it a quick trip across the 28nm to Bloody Mary’s anchorage, Bora Bora.

Bora Bora is the western most of the Society Islands

The wind's strenghthened some more as we came around the western side of the island as we hardened up, with wind blowing the tops of some big breaking waves, which mark the edges of the reef entrance. We come through the pass, small motus on either side, and we are greeted by the towering green peaks that have become so familiar. We head around to Bloody Mary’s mooring field. It is howling 20+kts through here and the BBMS RIB is quick to drop by and collect the CPF4000 fee. Pretty steep but we have no choice, its all mooring buoys in Bora Bora (apart from 2, very marginal free anchorages). We head into the gendarmerie and start the French Poly check out process, which takes a few days as paper needs to physically go to Tahiti and back! There are seven forms to fill out! Hmmm - We only had one when we arrived!

Heiva Bora Bora

Heiva is a Tahitian tradition that celebrates life. The word “hei” means to assemble while “va” means community places. Singing and dancing are the most popular performances during Heiva, but the outrigger canoe races also attract a lot of enthusiastic support. This event brings together Polynesians every year, helps keep the traditions and culture alive, and is a unique and magnificent celebration to behold. Village groups practice all year round for the annual competition, the smiles on the faces attest to the genuine joy of their performances.

Heiva dances were forbidden during the 19th century by English missionaries who believed that these demonstrations were an erotic form of debauchery. There sure is a lot of gyrating, sweating and shaking of tail feathers involved in the dance routines. In 1985, French Polynesia gained political autonomy from France and they started organizing Heiva again. We were delighted to be able to catch a performance, having missed it during our time in Tahiti. Below are a few highlights of the lively and energetic performance.

The town has a festive atmosphere with evening food stalls and carnival games. We came across one of the Heiva teams doing some last minute practice which was fun to watch. We took our seats in the small "grandstand" and enjoyed truly memorable show. The first group was mainly singing with some basic dance moves, a bit like Physie. Such beautiful voices and sheer enjoyment and pride on the faces of the performers.

The second set was the "dirty dancing" with 3 costume changes, lots of hip shaking & ass wiggling from the ladies and knee-knocking from the fellas. Absolutely fantastic. Amazing to think these are not professionals, just regular "village people" with day jobs who do this as a hobbie or pass-time to maintain their culture and keep story-telling traditions alive. Such passionate performances. 

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The long way around

Our route around the island

There is a beautiful anchorage on the south east corner of Bora Bora and we decide to go take a look. Although its only a couple of miles from the BB Yacht Club where we are moored, we can't get to it by going around the south end of the island, we have to schlep all the way around the northern end of the island, and down the east side. The wind is quite strong and gusting in the low 20s and we have to motor as we have some tricky navigating to do, inside the fringing reef. There are several motus that surround the island, forming part of the fringing reef and they host the large and luxurious resorts and hotels, with their trademark over-water bungalows.

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We pass one of the “free” anchorages which just seems to be in the middle of the channel, not too far from the popular “Manta ray cleaning station”. There are lots of small tourist boats here and plenty of people in the water, and I wonder what the manta rays make of this. Apparently they (the mantas not the tourists...) come here to have the smaller, scavenger fish clean out their mouths for free, in exchange for not eating them!

Pointy thing

Beautiful Taurere Anchorage

We head for a very narrow channel through some rocks and reef - it looks impassable on the satellite images but actually turns out to be well marked and just deep and wide enough for us to shimmy through. We wind our way through the channel markers and continue on to the SW anchorage called Taurere, where we pick up a mooring buoy. It is lovely and we decide to stay for a couple of nights. The water colour is amazing and there is a huge, shallow area around the shoreline. After lunch we go looking for a place to snorkel and find a lovely spot just off the small motus right on the southern tip of the main island.

I wondered why the snorkelling spot had been called "I love Bora Bora" but its pretty obvious when you get there! Underwater the words “I love Bora Bora” are written in rocks. Further on there is a love heart with half a coconut inside, which the fish are feeding on. There are some nice fish, a few medium sized clams and some ok coral, but we have seen alot better. It’s pretty cold in the water due to the strong winds so we don’t go ashore here.

​We motored back towards town in the morning, stopping and filling up with Duty Free fuel along the way. After finalising our check out process, we did a final shop and had dinner ashore. A lovely but very substantial meal! We stopped by the Heiva stage to watch for a while but we were too full to stay for long and headed back to the boat instead.  The next morning, we noticed that SV Cloudy Bay had gone and thought that they must have left overnight. Then saw BBMS RIB pick up Cloudy Bay’s mooring ball and chain. Next we heard on the WhatsApp chat group that they dragged at 2am, waking up dangerously close to the reef with the buoy and chai still attached. Fortunately they could drop the mooring and motor across to Bloody Mary's and pick up a buoy in the wee hours. Yikes! Lesson for us all - always set an anchor alarm even on a mooring buoy!

Navigating through the reefs

​It’s time to move on

Keith goes ashore to get a final loaf of lovely French bread, the last we will have for a while, and we head over to the Motu anchorage to spend the day there. Its a bit closer to the exit and this afternoon we depart on an overnight passage 125nm further west. The guys from SV Susimi drop in to say hi. It’s still blowing 20+kts and it is starting to do our heads in but at least we will have good wind to sail with. We have spent 3 amazing months in the incredible and diverse islands that make up French Polynesia, but it’s not quite farewell just yet… so stay tuned for one final, sneaky stopover!