2011 Cruise, Oct. 1, 2011 Day 15

Saturday, October 1, 2011, Bora Bora, Day 15


We arrived off Bora Bora at about 7 AM and were anchored with tenders shuttling passengers to shore. The last tender from shore is scheduled at 3:30, so it's a short day here at Bora Bora.

I didn't put anything in the blog about it, but last week my mother, Glenna, had a fever and Barbara and Dana took her to Quick Care. She was admitted to Spring Valley Hospital with the beginning of Pneumonia. Good news today. She is being released to go home.



With Tim, Beth and our head waiter Victor.

We started our day with a light breakfast and went ashore with Tim and Beth. We were anchored in Vaitape Bay and went to a white sand beach about 10 miles away, Matira Point. The water was crystal clear and shallow for at least half a mile from the beach. There was a cache at the restaurant we planned to go to later. My GPSR battery went dead and the spare I brought was also dead. The nearby gift shop didn't have AA batteries. I walked about ¾ miles to a store and bought some. Then I found that I somehow had erased the cache.
We stopped at Bloody Mary's on the way back to the ship and met Bill and Sherry. Gerri bought a t-shirt and I ask the clerk if he knew about a nearby geocache, he didn't.

We got back to the tender dock, I decided to go to the ship and get information on the cache, the others stayed ashore to shop. Armed with the coordinates, the cache description and hint, I took the shuttle back to the restaurant and looked for the cache. From the description I was in the right area but didn't find the described cache. And, I hate DNFs, especially ones that I pay money to get to.

When we got back to the tender dock, I decided to go to the ship and get information on the cache, the others stayed ashore to shop. Armed with the coordinates, the cache description and hint, I took the shuttle back to the restaurant and looked for the cache. From the description I was in the right area but didn't find the described cache. And, I hate DNFs, especially ones that I pay money to get to.

Back at the ship I got back together with Gerri and we had a late lunch. We looked out at Bora Bora and agreed that it was the most beautiful place we had visited so far. Too bad we weren't here longer. Either or both the stops in Moorea and Tahiti could be shortened or eliminated in favor of more time on Bora Bora. I took several pictures of the island and harbor from the deck above the bridge. Gerri, Tim and Beth joined me during the sail away.

I hope that our pictures do the area justice. Where the ship was anchored the water was the deep blue I usually associate with deep water. When the anchor was weighed and the thrusters working, sand was stirred up. Looking out around the ship as we left we could see several small Islands and the different colors of blue indicating several different depths. The colors run from the dark blue through turquoise all the way to almost seeing the pure white of the sand through the crystal clear water. In several places we could see out to the reef that surrounds the island. The surf breaks on the reef and is sometimes quite high and in some places the reef can be seen above the water level. As we left the harbor the wind was from behind us at about 30 mph, water was spraying west in a mist from the top of the surf and waves.

The reef that protects the harbor has a very narrow and shallow opening. According to the Captain the channel only allows a meter of clearance below the hull.

After the sail away we went back to the cabin to clean up and rest up for supper.

We sailed west into the setting sun. Tomorrow we are at sea. I forgot to get the ship's position.