17 May 2010
It blew all night long but thankfully without the rain squalls. David was "under the weather" metaphorically speaking. He had an upset stomach from the night before and was not feeling up to making the passage to Bora Bora. I have the constitution of an ox and was therefore fine. He did however manage to flush the watermaker through with 50 litres of fresh water, thinking that the membrane might be clogged up with salt. That seemed to do the trick for it ran for an hour and a half and made 100 litres. So we are feeling a little bit more optimistic about it. We caught up on some lost sleep and enjoyed a simple evening meal of mince and tatties, retiring to bed early. Perhaps we are getting a bit long in the tooth for late night partying. However we did meet a very nice French gentleman at the party who kept telling us all evening how he was full of admiration for what we were doing but he was now seventy and too old. I pointed out to him that we had had three seventy year old skippers on our last rally. Age is not a factor. Determination, desire and soundness of mind and body are....
Catching up
We returned to Bora Bora and what a completely different sailing experience it was from four days ago. The wind, a steady south easterly force four provided us with a great sail, Voyageur at times reaching 9knots under full main, genoa and mizzen. If only it had been like that on the regatta. We heard that Ciao were the overall winners of the regatta so that was just brilliant. Picking up a mooring off the Bora Bora Yacht Club who should we see next to us but Dreamcatcher. Marie and Charles had finally caught up with us again after having their steering fixed in the Marquesas, followed by repairs in Papeete. They looked happier and more relaxed that we had seen in ages. It was so good that they are back amongst the fold for we have a certain affinity with them, along with Ciao, Jeannius and Chessie. We are all "double handers". We just made it in to the anchorage in time to watch the dinghy race held at the Bora Bora yacht club with the Sunrise crew winning first prize, Slyvie and Simon dressing up as the devil and an angel. David and I had to take a rain check on that one. He has to keep his foot dry otherwise we would definitely have taken part. Next time... Ashore in the evening we had a lovely barbecue courtesy of the Yacht Club with a salad contribution from each boat. It was the first time we had seen some of the other rally boats since the Marquesas and it was so nice to see the familiar faces again. We have now just one day, tomorrow, to prepare for the next leg to Suwarrow in the Cook Islands and beyond. So it will be a trip ashore for last minute provisioning, internet (we have not had a connection for many days now), the skipper's briefing and then something David and I missed out on the last time we were here, dinner in Bloody Mary's restaurant which is supposed to be a great experience. But they will be hard pushed to do better than the dinner we had in the Raiatea Lodge of one week ago....
Susan Mackay