Raiatea to Bora Bora

The Westerdam entered the lagoon at Bora Bora shortly after 0600.  The skies cleared somewhat overnight, but the wind was still brisk.  The first tenders went ashore by 0700, and Miriam and I went ashore with Craven’s at 0815 for a 4WD offroad tour of Bora Bora.  There were 6 people per Land Rover and with the top covers down, we had great views of the local scenery as we climbed up steep dirt tracks to some spectacular views of the peaks on Bora Bora.  We also stopped at an artist’s house where hand painted Pareau’s were made and then a black pearl farm.  In the afternoon we went back into town and made reservations to eat dinner at Bloody Mary’s, a seafood restaurant about 10 KM from the ship.

There almost no pleasure craft in the lagoon.  One exception is a Nordhavn 76 “Legend of Capricorn” from Brisbane, Australia.  We were surprised at the number of resorts that were closed, some due to typhoon damage and some to the downturn in tourist business due to the economy.  We have come to the conclusion that this is not the time of year for cruisers, if the winds and seas of the last week are any indication.

Dinner at “Bloody Mary’s” was great, with fresh caught seafood.  Miriam had white albacore and Patrick had wahoo for entrees, while both of us had two versions of tuna, “big eye” sashimi and albacore kabobs.  We finally got back to the ship shortly before 10 PM, with NO lines for the tenders.  The tenders will run all night for the really hard core party people.

Spectacular Peaks on Bora Bora

Our 4WD transportation

The lagoon at Bora Bora