July 10 - 22, 2008: South Pacific Rarotonga, Cook Islands (S 21 12’ W 159 47’) http://maps.google.com/maps

We left Raiatea on Thursday July 10, 2008 for the Cook Islands. The weather was clear with about 10 knots of wind from the East Southeast. The seas as you can see were relatively calm. It was as beautiful a day as any sailor could ask for.

The trip didn’t stay that way long. On the 11th the ride got very rocky but the weather stayed good. If you didn’t have your sea legs it wasn’t going to get better with age.

Most of the yachties going east from French Polynesia were going to Samoa via Suvarov. The word was that the harbor in Rarotonga was too small and if there was any freighter traffic you had a good chance of having your boat damaged or you may be even turned away by the port captain. Boats behind us asked for updates when we got there. Other than the harbor size Rarotonga had a good reputation for provisioning and getting repairs done. We were looking forward to seeing what lay in store for us.

By July 12th the wind was blowing in the high teens and we were making good way but by the next day the wind started to die so we started motor sailing. On the 14th the wind was down to 5 knots and we had to motor the last 45 miles to Avatiu Harbor where we were greeted by the sight of a shipwreck at the harbor’s entrance. Not exactly a welcome sign to mariners looking for a safe harbor!

We later learned the captain had been taking the ship out to sea to avoid being caught in the harbor during a storm but lost it at the harbor entrance.

We arrived at the dock at 1030hrs on the 14th of July and to our surprise found only three other boats.

It wasn’t the most convenient way of getting to shore but it worked. All the checking in was done in about 5 minutes in one place and totally hassle free.

The climate was almost temperate a pleasant change after being so long in the tropics. There was no humidity and the temperature never got hotter than in the 80’s during the heat of the day. Everyone spoke English (its a New Zealand protectorate) and the town looked clean and friendly.

It turned out being a virtual paradise and a very affordable one at that. They had everything we needed and the prices were almost cheap after what we had experienced in French Polynesia. If I had only known I would have spent much more ap after what we had experienced in French Polynesia. If I had only known I would have spent much more time in the Cook Islands and much less in French Polynesia

Rarotonga is also an airline hub so Mark and Sam were going to get off here and return to the States. Dave Berke was going to fly in from San Francisco and make the leg to Australia.

Rarotonga in my opinion is one of the best islands in the Pacific. It’s beautiful with plenty to do without being too touristy yet not undeveloped. The restaurants are great and the stores have just about everything you’d need plus it’s much less expensive than Hawaii or French Polynesia.

One of the interesting things we saw was a vaka that had been built and was getting ready to sail to Pago Pago to be part of the Pacific Arts festival. A vaka is a traditional catamaran that was used to populate the Pacific islands way back. We later saw it again in Pago Pago. They hit some storms on their trip but made it safely. In a lot of the islands we visited the people were trying to restore their lost arts and traditions vaka sailing being one .

The diving was good but not great. Its amazing how spoiled you become. The water was on the cool side and the dive boats were like giant jet skis.

I really, really hated to leave Rarotonga. I think you can see why. Vowing to return and with a less than elegant departure we got underway and set our course for Pago Pago.

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June 28 – July 3, 2008: South Pacific

Bora Bora (S 16 30’ W 151 45’) http://maps.google.com/maps

On June 25th we headed to legendary Bora Bora about 30 miles west of Raiatea and Tahaa. We were looking forward to returning to these two islands with Mark because so far they had been the best of what French Polynesia had to offer. The islands had enough of an infrastructure to make life pleasant without the commercialization and tourism to take away the magic. But we were looking forward to seeing what Bora Bora had to offer. Visually it is a stunning is island but unfortunately except for the clarity of the water and the diving, it ended up being very anti-climatic, more about that later.

We dropped anchor off Bloody Mary’s at Point Raititi and soon found ourselves in the middle of Bora Bora’s annual Heiva celebration pirogue race. The 48 year-old multi-year champion lost out to a 17 year old. The Heiva coincides with Bastille Day but since French Polynesia as never gotten its independence they had to call it something else. It goes on for weeks and has inter-island competitions with events ranging from pirogue racing to traditional dancing. It is not to be missed!

We quickly settled in and were eager to do some diving and exploring the island. Both the diving and snorkeling were magnificent. It was like swimming in an aquarium. As it turned out it was some of the best diving we’d be doing in the South Pacific. It was like swimming in an aquarium. As it turned out it was some of the best diving we’d be doing in the South Pacific

Bora Bora is losing its coral though because of global warming and a creature called a Crown of Thorns. It is a type of starfish that eats coral and has no natural predator other than the Trident shell (that’s the shellfish whose shell you see the natives blowing in the good ole days). The Trident was very good eating and now they are virtually extinct giving the Crown of Thorns free rein.

Bora Bora is the Monte Carlo of the South Pacific with a virtual who’s who of yachts. This is Tom Perkins personal watercraft called the Maltese Falcon. We’d be on its tail since the Marquesas having caught up with it in Papeete and now Bora Bora. Here it was being chartered for I believe only $25,000 a week. Its next port of call is San Francisco.

The smaller vessel to the stern off the Maltese Falcon is a Russian industrialist owned power vessel called Ice. The satellite tracking domes are something else. What I learned on this trip is that there is always someone else who has a larger boat.

If you can believe this, there’s not much of a town on Bora Bora. The town is called Vaitape and consists of one medium size grocery store a post office, gendarmerie and a few souvenir shops. There was more to see and do on Raiatea and Moorea. The World War II ruins are nonexistent and like everywhere else in French Polynesia everything except the French bread costs a fortune. There are though a bunch of really nice bungalow hotels built over the water that cost you $1,000 a night.