The weather looked like there would be little wind, but we tried anyway. We had a great sail to the edge of Bora Bora before the wind died, so we pulled in for the night. The next day wasn’t any better so we hung out, and finally left the next day along with Danseuse de La Mer and Dragonfly. We had light wind spinnaker sailing during the day, but the wind would die for part of the night so we motored a little. It was a great time for KT because there were no swells and she felt like this was the best trip so far. The third night out Dragonfly suggested we start a comedy hour and Janna started it off with a bang. She has sooo much energy and threw it all at the telling of her disgusting joke. It was great and I have never heard such a good a joke teller!! The next day, during my morning watch I had a small bird land on the boom. I went to check him/her out and he/she flew up and landed on my shoulder and just sat there exhausted, as we stared at each other. It was a surreal experience. We caught a fish the next day and KT did the normal “I’m sad for the fish” routine. He was thrashing about and I asked KT to grab me the cheapest bottle of booze so I could pour it on his gills to put him out of his misery. Well it turns out that she grabbed the cheap Mexican Tequila, but it has this stupid pour cap required by the government. Well it was stuck, so I tried to suck on it to free it, and got a nice shot of booze. A fly on the wall (wind screens) must have thought it was the craziest thing, watching some lunatic catch a fish and immediately start chugging on the strong stuff. The wind started picking up to 20+ so we had a good final couple of days sail into Suwarrow (although the seas got pretty big and short). Continue reading "Passage to Suwarrow"...
We ended the day with a gift of macaroni and cheese from Island Sonata. It’s amazing how the simple things in life can make you happy. KT was in heaven!! The next day we rented bikes from Club Med (our land base) with Island Sonata, Ascension, and Whisper. Wow, are we out of shape. Our butts were sore within two miles as we struggled around the island. It was interesting to see the difference between the back side of the island where the locals live and the front side where the main town and tourist centers are. We stopped at various sites and had some great views we could have only seen from the bikes (or a very long hike).
The next day was Robin's (from Whisper) birthday. The girls had a swim team meeting and enjoyed sites of a moray eel, trunk fish and a stingray all within the anchorage on the various coral bommies that littered the bottom. I was trying to weave Robin a head piece like KT’s (after all she did coin the princess term that has stuck the entire trip). I wasn’t having much luck so I wove her a princess fan out of a palm frond. I saw one the day before and thought it would be fun to try. KT came back and asked me where I bought it, she didn’t believe that I made it. Oh well!! We had Island Sonata and Whisper for homemade fondue, for some reason the recipe we used required 10 times as much cheese as it called for but it was a hit and we may have future investors in our fondue restaurant when we get back (one of the many crazy ideas we have now that the “slate” of our careers has been cleared). We continued the birthday celebration on Island Sonata with a music night, and wrapped up another full day in paradise.
I had been having some issues with my bladder, and tried to discuss my symptoms with people at the party. Hey, without complete medical care we all need as much support and sound boarding as possible. It’s amazing the things that become table conversation out here, which most normal people would feel strange talking about to their doctors behind closed doors. Oh well, turns out it looked like I might have a bladder infection, which of course is uncommon in men (because of the difference in the length of our urethras compared to women… see there I go). Anyway someone told me I should definitely get it looked at because it can turn into a kidney infection, one woman ended up in the hospital with IV antibiotics for a week to get that taken care of. Yikes! The next day I went straight to the Doctor's office, I had to hitchhike around to the other side of the island, but luckily this time I got a ride quickly. Fortunately the symptoms were worse than they had ever been so I could pin point them to the doctor (who spoke broken English). She said she thought I had an infection and gave me a prescription for some anti-spasmodic, antibiotics, and some pain medications (all for $35). It provided almost immediate relief. We spent the next couple of days relaxing around the boat, emailing from Club-Med and trying to get Emerald on the SSB (we were waiting for them so we could go to Suwarrow).
We moved back to the front side to start our final provisioning and preparation for the 700-mile trip to Suwarrow. After the shallow water experiences of the backside of Bora Bora, the “shallow” reef pass on the front side of the island could be taken at full speed. KT started slowing down as was typical in twenty feet of water, I was like “What are you doing?”.. “Slowing down like usual”, “Come on, we’re in 20 feet of water.. Full speed”. It’s funny how your perceptions change as you experience things ... after the blows of Maeva Beach, my tolerance for winds has increased to 30 –35 knots (provided there is not a lot of fetch for the waves to build up).
After a couple of days near Motu Toopua (on the front side), we decided to move to a mooring at Bloody Mary’s for Emeralds anticipated arrival. Bobulona called us and told us a boat was leaving and we immediately hauled anchor and motored over. We jokingly suggested they sit on the mooring while we were motoring over ... luckily they did - turns out they had to turn four boats away while we were “getting fuel”. We played Homies (like Mexican Train Dominos but we don’t have trains so we use these Homie figurines), on Island Sonata while enjoying some amazing banana cake that KT made. We spent the next day provisioning some more and enjoyed another Bloody Mary’s dinner to celebrate Emeralds arrival. The next day we moved back out to Motu Topua where we spent a couple days prepping the boat while KT pre-cooked all of our passage meals (so she doesn’t get sea sick). All we needed now was a good weather window and we were on our way.
We spent the next day doing some last minute emails and more town stuff. I had just taken my last scheduled antibiotic (they gave me a ten pack and told me to take eight). I don’t like drugs of any kind so I stopped …LUCKILY. The next day I woke up and was in pain again, and took another trip to the doctor. She examined me and suggested I might still have a kidney stone stuck in my urethra. I thought no way, it had been over six weeks, and doubled check with emails and phone calls to Flipper and Dr. Stan. The only way to be sure was to go to Raiatea or Tahiti for an ultra sound (they don’t have the equipment in Bora Bora). I looked into ferries, etc but decided the safest plan was to bring the boat in case some bad weather came through. Back Track to Raiatea
On Saturday we watched Emerald, Equanimity, Ascension, and Endless sail west without us. I heard them describing the awesome sailing and had to give them some flack for “rubbing it in”. The next day we motored “backwards” towards Raiatea with Bobulona (who was planning on leaving their boat for a trip to Hawaii) and picked up a mooring ball at CNI. We spent the afternoon walking along the shore where we saw 1000’s of crabs along the road in little holes. We had sunset drinks on the dock in front of Bobulona and met Sea Bride (a Tayana 37 about to finish a 10 year circumnavigation) and Dragonfly. Graeme and Janna are about our ages and would be great to hang out with. It is amazing how many younger people are out cruising, and how well everyone gets along.
We spent the next day hiking around town looking for the hospital, only to find out that the only ultrasound technician was on vacation for the entire week. We finally found another outfit and made an appointment for Wednesday (he was also on vacation). We saw Raya on the town dock and said hi as they invited us on board. They are an older Dutch couple, who designed their own boat and have sailed it around Cape Horn and spent a season sailing in the fiords of southern Chili. They also traveled all the way up the west coast and spent some time in Northern Washington/Canada. They don’t mess around; they are planning to sail non-stop from Cape of Good Hope to Europe (about 6000 miles). They both have lots of energy and love to talk, I can’t believe they actually like very un-crowded anchorages, and spent six months cruising without seeing another boat; maybe they are trying to catch up. Turns out they know our friends from Stardust.. it’s a small world out here. We finished the day with dinner and drinks on Bobulona with Dragonfly.
We finally got to see the doctor on Wednesday and he immediately saw the Kidney stone on the ultra sound machine, stuck right there at the end. He did a whole bunch of X-rays and injected dye into my veins so he could watch the flow through my system, into my kidneys, and down to my bladder. It was amazing to see that it all happened so fast. The X-rays showed that my right urethra was partially blocked and that I was VERY lucky that I didn’t head out to sea in my condition. He gave me some more anti-spasmodic medication and more anti-inflammatory medication, and told me to drink some special water (lower pH??) in a couple of days to see if I could flush it out (that was $600). Our outboard died on the way back to the boat so I had a boat project to occupy my time, but we didn’t do much while we were waiting. We had dinner on Dragonfly and they were planning on leaving on Saturday or Sunday… great we'd get to watch them sail off too!! Well I drank my water like a good boy and the stone finally passed, I was glad to be free of it and the pee filter to catch the bloody thing. I woke KT up and told her we could go. I rode to town with Graeme to do our final provisioning while KT pre-cooked all the meals again (for the second time). This time we were going for sure.
Bora Bora is a beautiful island … a combination of the Tuamotos with its white sandy beaches and turquoise clear waters, and the Marquesas with majestic mountains and varying colors of green. After all that motoring it was a relief to sit in the calm and quiet anchorage of Motu Toopua. We spent the next two days mostly lounging around the boat. Chris kayaked over to a nearby hotel to ‘borrow’ their email services (attempting to blend in with the other guests who were paying $1000 per night!). And I began “swim team” … my new daily exercise program (one year having passed since the twins I feel that I can no longer call this extra weight ‘baby fat’). Robin from Whisper joined me, and so far we seem to have a somewhat decent consistency record! We also enjoyed appetizers and rum drinks aboard Billabong with Robin, Duncan, and Duncan’s visiting sister (Susan) ... yes, I realize that rum and apps are counteractive to swim-team!
Monday was a bit more hectic … it was time to try and cash in our bonds and coordinate paying for our dinghy (which had arrived in Tahiti) so that it could be shipped to Bora Bora. Chris was up early (as usual) and headed into town (with no dinghy and one kayak lost it was easier for him to go alone). Town was quite the trek from where we were anchored but he made it … only to discover that in order to get back my bond money I had to be present (even though my bond was paid with Chris’s credit card). Chris called me on the VHF from town asking me to try and find a way in … hmm guess I’ll just start swimming??? Luckily, Whisper was going snorkeling so I hitched a ride with them to a local hotel on the Motu and from there took the hotel's water shuttle to town (more than one person asked me how I would get back to Billabong, but I figured we’d deal with that later, right now we just needed to get our dinghy paid for so it could be shipped). We made it to the banks just before they closed for lunch … all in all the entire process went extremely smooth. We called Michelle to let him know the money had been deposited, and to our delight he told us that the dinghy would be put on the 4pm cargo ship to arrive in Bora Bora by 2pm the NEXT DAY!!! We also lucked out running into Bobulona in town, so I was able to hitch a ride back to Billabong. That evening we joined Donna and Ralph aboard Ocean Girl for a few sunset drinks.
The next morning Chris went with Bobulona to the shipping docks to check out what he would need to pick up our dinghy later on. As it turned out the ship had already arrived. There was some language difficulties but good fortune was one our side and they were able to tell Chris which container our dinghy was in … even BETTER it so happened that they were opening that particular container! Chris returned to Billabong with our new dinghy in tow. We instantly threw on the engine and zoomed around the anchorage, huge smiles lighting up our faces! It’s amazing what having easy accessible transportation provides … this was better than getting my first car back when I was sixteen. We made Ocean Girl climb in so we could test out if the dinghy would plane with four people (it did). The next few days we couldn’t help but smile every time we went somewhere!!! After days of debate we settled on the name Boomerang. We figured we cursed our first dinghy with Myles Away (because it is now literally miles away), so this time we wanted something that would encourage it to stay around. Spirit Wind (a couple we met in Mexico) actually gets the credit because we learned from Whisper that they kept calling Billabong Boomerang, when we heard Boomerang we thought PERFECT ... it's another Australian word and boomerangs always come back!!!
Midday we moved Billabong to the mooring balls in front of Bloody Mary’s restaurant. It was the first time Chris and I had ever picked up a mooring … I was quite impressed with my driving, I approached the mooring such that by the time we hit the ball Billabong was going just about zero knots. PERFECT – my sailing instructors would have been proud. Chris seemed a bit impatient up on the bow, wondering if we were ever going to actually get to the ball … okay, perhaps I slowed down a bit early (but better too slow than too fast was my theory)!
That night we splurged on an outstanding dinner at Bloody Mary’s with Whisper, Bobulona, and Bobulona’s two guests Harvey and Ann. We had known of Harvey and Ann since La Paz, Mexico, when we talked to them on the SSB. They were in Mag Bay on their boat (Calabasa) along with our friends from Sea Pilgrim. Since Sea Pilgrim didn’t have an SSB radio, they had contacted us from Calabasa. Greg and Lisa (two of our friends in Ventura on Panacea) had also met Calabasa when they had cruised Mexico the season before! Harvey and Ann also taught Sea Pilgrim a version of Canasta that they had then passed on to us, and we are now hooked. In other words, we were quite excited to finally meet them and were once again amazed at what a small world it can be!
Dinner blew our daily (possibly even weekly) budget, but it was fantastic! We shared a tuna appetizer, followed by fresh fish entrees, and some of the best cheesecake of my life (perhaps it had something to do with not having had cheesecake in many many months). The restaurant had a great atmosphere with dark wooden tables and stools, and a sandy beach floor (you check your shoes at the door). It was the first restaurant I’ve been in where the men, wearing short red sarongs with no shirts, were more scantily dressed then the women.
Wednesday morning we went looking (hooray for having a dinghy again) for a good snorkeling spot. We didn’t have a lot luck, although when we dropped in at one tourist spot we were instantly surrounded by tons of tropical fish … apparently used to being fed (they would get so close and were so trusting that I was actually able to touch one). I felt a little giddy-happy at being completely surrounded by so many fish! Unfortunately, there is a lot of dead coral, which is heartbreaking to see. We hear stories of even the dive instructors standing on and touching the live coral. That, along with all of the new hotels being built (which all stand over the water), seems to be taking its toll on nature.
After snorkeling we moved anchorages again, this time moving to the anchorage in front of the town so that we could easily get diesel and provisions. It was another first for us … first time anchoring in 83 feet of water! It was odd, especially after having been spoiled over the last week with all the shallow waters. Knowing that Bora Bora was such a tourist center I had expected a much larger town. While it is overrun with tourists, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Bora Bora still has a small-island feel. The downside of a small town is, of course, less supplies and higher prices (I actually paid five bucks for single cantaloupe!). Moving to the back side
We only stayed one night … it was not a very comfortable spot, with tourist boats zooming in and out, slight chop, and general discomfort about the depth. The next morning, we moved around to the other side of Bora Bora, settling down at Motu Toferi. It was another turquoise clear anchorage in shallow waters (about 11 feet). The pass was curvy and shallow, but we managed to not scrape bottom! Roger and Nancy from Equanimity invited us over for a potluck dinner along with Bobulona, Jadara, and Flusofeta. With exception of Bobulona, we had only briefly met everyone else, so it was wonderful to meet new people and hear of their experiences.
Friday we decided to go ashore and see if we could find a bike rental place. After a lot of walking we gave up, deciding that the rental shop must be farther South. We did however come upon a guy selling banana stalks from his yard and were thrilled to purchase one (oddly you can’t buy bananas in the store).
The next day we set off on a new search, looking for sandy beaches and good snorkeling (as described on our charts). We seemed to keep missing the sandy portions of beach, both times we came ashore and walked across to the outside of the Atoll we hit rocky craters. We gave up on the beach and went looking for some good coral. We dropped in at one spot which looked like it had some potential, and although I briefly spotted a single black-tip shark, the fish were minimal and the coral dieing. The second spot we dropped in at was much better, tons of live coral along with numerous fish. We had heard there were also manta rays in this area (in the deeper channel between the two reefs we were snorkeling), but we didn’t spot any.
The snorkeling was good enough that we convinced Whisper and Island Sonata to dinghy over (they were anchored at Motu Piti Aou, just South of us) and join Ascension and us the next morning. This time the snorkeling really paid off. From the start we spotted a large manta ray about 45 feet below us and a curious (and rather large) barracuda kept following us around. We also sighted a spotted eagle ray and then, for the grand finale, two gorgeous manta rays circled below us (at about 30 feet). These two rays had markings that Chris and I had never seen. It was as though their backs had been tattooed with intricate designs in white ink. And let’s not forget all the little guys, the hundreds of tropical fish that occupied ever space around us.
We decided that since the bike rentals were further South, as was Robin (whose birthday was coming up on Tuesday and we were planning a party for), that we would move Billabong down there as well. Although we knew the channel was easily passable (seeing as hundreds of boats before us had gone through, including at least five the day before), it still didn’t stop us from being a bit nervous as we curved through what felt like a rat maze, trying to remember what all the various markers meant and which side the safe water was on. Luckily the pass was short and ten minutes later we could relax as we went from 10 feet of water to 35. After anchoring (now near Motu Piti Aou), Island Sonata called us for some Canasta.
It was such a liberating feeling to finally pull up anchor out of Maeva Beach in Tahiti. I thought it would be a struggle because of how hard we were set but the anchor came up smoothly and we made our way up the anchorage to the small southern pass. We waved goodbye to a couple of boats and said FINALLY to a couple of others that were hauling up anchor besides us. There was no wind for sailing so we motored the 23 miles to Oponahu Bay. As we saw after the blow in Fakarava there were at least 12 boats on the move to Moorea. Moorea was beautiful with Cooks Bay (miss-named because Cook actually visited Oponahu Bay) further to the east. We anchored just inside the reef in 12 feet of water. Not only could you see the bottom, you could see all the chain out to your anchor. It felt SOOO good. We played cards on Island Sonata, it wasn’t even a question they just showed up and brought us back to their boat so we could finally finish the game we started before the last blow. The next day we got up and went to a place where the tourist feed the stingrays.
This text will only appear on after the reader clicks "continue reading.." Delete if NOT needed
It was truly amazing. We were standing in about 4 feet of water. They would come right up to you, ride up your front until they were almost “standing” in front of you like they were ready to dance. They would open their mouths, which are on the bottom, and take whatever piece of fish you had right out of your hand. You could pet them and scrape their backs, which they seemed to enjoy and left cool patterns in the sand silt that covered them. It was quite an experience to watch people who were at first rather taken aback by their aggressiveness, to finally sitting there laughing and dancing with them. We headed back to the boats for an afternoon of wakeboarding and knee boarding behind the dinghies. It was fun but I was sore and tired after only about 5 minutes, hey this paradise living is harder than it looks. That night we finished the day with a girls/boys night on Waking Dream and Billabong. I guess a couple of the boats needed some same sex bonding time. We ate dinner and played poker while the girls did the same on Billabong. I think there must be something in the theory behind drinking and gambling, because I stayed the soberest and lost the most, while Ben was hammered (and didn’t even really know how to play) but kicked everyone’s butts. Oh well come to think of it I never really paid up!!
On Monday, we walked to the local resort, amazing at $500 a night, to reserve some motor scooters for the following day. We kept walking into Cooks Bay to visit the Pineapple processing plant and sample some of their juices. It was funny, they gave you all the free shots of booze you could drink but the samples of fruit juices (which they actually made) cost $1. Oh well, after taking the cheep way out, we continued walking to the head of the bay and saw a couple of boats we knew anchored deep within the bay. They had a great view of the mountains but the water wasn’t as clear as our anchorage and some moved over later the next day.
We hopped on our scooters at around 8:30 the next morning. Waking Dream, Island Sonata, and us each shared one with our significant others. They could move pretty fast and kept up with the local traffic. We even took them “off-road” and they handled it fine until I popped my fuel line and it almost drained the tank, just barely missing the hot exhaust (now that would have been interesting). The best view was from Belvidere, which was on a mountain between the two bays. The foliage was amazing; pine trees in some places, cool Joshua like trees with large fields of pineapples in between. It was a great way to see the whole island, although we were exhausted by the end of the day (hey keeping that throttle pinned down all day is a lot of work). I can’t imagine how tired we would have been if we actually rented bikes like I wanted to initially. There were some very cool anchorages that Waking Dream will get a chance to explore during their visa extension time, and the southern edge of the island looked like it had some HUGE surf. We ended the day with a combined dinner on Billabong, as we prepared to say goodbye to Waking Dream (who we probably won’t see until New Zealand or Tonga). They left early the next day, and spotted whales right at the entrance to the bay (oh to have a dingy). We hung out on the boat and lazed around while we prepared for our trip to Bora Bora. We knew it was time to leave when I woke up the next morning to two huge cruise ships arguing who was going to anchor where within the bay.
It was 140 miles and we tried desperately to sail. We only averaged 2.5 knots for the first 6 hours and gave up when hit the swell outside the lee of the island. We then motored all night until we arrived at Huahine at around daybreak. The wind picked up (to about 10 knots) so I raised the sails and we bore off for Bora Bora. Almost immediately it died so we were back to motoring ... 26 hours all together. What really sucked was we got about 20-25 knots of wind just as we rounded the northern tip of Bora Bora and had to motor into it, along with 6 foot swell just to get into the pass. We found a nice little spot in the lee of a motu, right off the outer reef. It is rather protected from the wind so it is starting to get a little crowded.
Well we finally got off the boat and went into town to get tickets for the big dance festival. It was still blowing 25-30 but we knew we weren’t going ANYWHERE (our anchor set by two blows) and we needed to get off the boat. By now it was Friday July 9th, and we had been here two weeks!! Time for some fun. The artisans’ festival (the real one) had just started so we decided we would go and check it out. We finally found the right bus to take us out of town to the festival; it was a new modern bus that was only $1 instead of the $1.30 we were paying for the le truck!! Figure that one out. The festival was pretty large, with representatives from the Marquesas, Tuamotos and the Gambiers. I really wanted to find chief Marc to see if he had the bone carvings for us. I did a fast track looking for him while KT and Corbie methodically went booth to booth (funny I thought the guys were supposed to be the organized ones and girls just kind of shopped hap-hazardly). Oh well. I found a couple of booths from Fatu Hiva but they didn’t know Marc, turns out they were from the other village on Fatu Hiva, the one we didn’t visit.
Marc was on the other side of the tent and he recognized me immediately. I showed him my bone carving and he said he sold three of them the night before (before the festival was even open). He also sold of the hatchets he made and a bunch of other things. I quickly ran over to KT and told her I had found Marc and that she should come over immediately. They wanted to finish their row and by the time they showed up (only 5 minutes later) Marc had sold EVERYTHING to a hotel in Bora Bora. Luckily Island Sonata had bought a tiki from Marc, but they were the only ones. KT was bummed. However I did find the woman from the village who I was going to buy the drum from (until Matarua said they wanted it but didn’t end up getting it). We even tried to get other boats that went back later, to pick it up for us. Sitting right there was the EXACT drum we had been pining over since we left it behind 11 weeks before, without hesitation we bought it. KT bought a bowl, also from Fatu Hiva. Of course I ran forward like a little kid, not wanting to miss anything. I ran into a guy we met on Oa Pou, who did some amazing wood and stone work. He was all dressed up in Native garb and was excited to see someone he recognized. This time I grabbed KT and Corbie and brought them over. Corbie was really looking hard at a necklace and I was checking out some of the flower stone (only from Oa Pou) and Marquesian jade necklaces. I figured I had enough but they were so beautiful. Turns out that Ocean Girl and Dances de La Mer bought them for their husbands. Mary wasn’t sure so she put it down to think about it, and we talked. She turned around and it was gone, she freaked, the minute the person who was looking at it put it down again she jumped on it like it was a Million dollars ... “Mine” she said!! We finished our tour and bought a beautiful platter and a wood/bone fishhook carving for a wall hanging. We were excited and a little broke, but satisfied that we had a good collection of things to go with our memories.
That night we went to the dance competition. It was very interesting to watch as they told their stories through dance. There were a bunch of different scenes where large groups and then some individuals performed their portions. It was amazing to watch as they moved in ways I didn’t think the human body was able, it reminded me of Circ de Sole’. I swear one woman was going to blow out her hips and poke some ones eyes out the way she moved so fast. It was hard to get the whole gist of the story but it was entertaining (when the spoke they spoke in Tahitian and French). They also had a chanting portion but that got old after the first 5 minutes. We were all rather tired, cold (if you can believe that) and the seats weren’t padded so I was like a little squirmy kid with ants in his pants. We settled into the boat for a good nights sleep, and a trip to Moorea planned for the next day (would we FINALLY be able to leave).
We are Chris & KT Myles aboard the Sailing Vessel Billabong (a 44 foot sloop). We set sail from Ventura, CA in Dec 2003 and spent 5.5 years and 33,000 miles sailing the world. Learn more about our adventure through Our Blog
