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Free & BrEasy - Another day in the office



Approaching the anchorage at Bora Bora we understood why it's a favourite place for cruisers to visit and has been called the "Pearl of the Pacific". Two mountains guard the lagoon giving an impressive undulating skyline. We were lucky enough to have a nearly full moon rising over the peaks so the skyline was visible even at night. The lagoon itself is big and deep with enough room for a battle fleet which is presumably why the Americans chose it as their South Pacific base during the war. The crowning glory of the anchorage is the Bora Bora Yacht Club which hosted a wonderful reception with delicious bar-b-q and rum cocktails. The club has recently been rebuilt after severe hurricane damage. It is a beautiful all wood construction with a high, wood tiled roof and a terrace made for nursing rum cocktails while watching out for the green flash as the sun sets. The whole fleet watched every sunset with Martin playing Scottish laments to the anchorage on his bagpipes and the fleet radio channel being used to inform us "two minutes to green flash".

We rapidly became accustomed to life close to civilisation. Fresh French baguettes every morning, swopping yarns with the rest of the fleet and provisioning. Mind you civilisation has its drawbacks. A spate of recent thefts from boats had us chaining the dinghy to the boat at nights and removing anything moveable from the cockpit. Bora Bora is a good place for diving and particularly famous for its Manta Rays. Since Free & BrEasy is a Manta 40, this was a must. Unfortunately, just like the shy dolphins in Rangiroa, we were to be thwarted again and poor visibility stopped us diving where the Manta's live. Confirmation that it was not a zoo! Instead we had glimpses of large Eagle Rays gracefully winging past. On one dive, whilst ascending, a 3 metre long Lemon shark appeared just behind Roger. We all looked on wondering what was about to happen, with Roger blissfully unaware! There needs to be an underwater signal for "don't look behind you"! Of course the Lemon shark decided against a Roger-shaped snack.

Far too soon it was time to set off for the next destination, a tiny deserted atoll 700 miles to the west, which is part of the Cook Islands. Just before leaving Roger fitted an additional supporting bracket to the autohelm hydraulic ram mount, which he had been able to get made in both aluminium and steel, by befriending local engineering workshops. One of these was the Coordonnateur at the College Cetad. This college has 900 students attending classes daily, roughly 10% of the population of the island, and as the Coordonnatuer pointed out it is difficult for all these young people to find work on the island, which is probably one of the causes of the many thefts locally. Anyway they were incredibly helpful in making the support bracket to our specifications and at minimal cost and so far it has solved the autohelm scrunch.

After a days sailing with Bora Bora far away we were already back into passage routine. Life is dominated by the revolving watch shift pattern and meals. The rest of the time is spent catching up on lost sleep, reading and long contemplation of the ocean. Naturally we fish and Alejandro caught a tuna within 10 minutes of casting the lure, much to Roger's delight! There is an appealing simplicity of the routine with no need for shoes, change of clothes or shower! In fact just like another day at the office except our office was the ocean! The occasional increase in wind strength or torrential downpours during a brief squall, keep us on our toes, but most of the time the boat sails herself with only a few tweaks on the rudder. Hence our dependence on the autohelm.
Bora Bora was our last anchorage in French Polynesia, two months after arriving in the Marquesas. Now, our favourite places like Fatu Hiva, Fakarava and Moorea, are just memories and photographs, with the strong likely hood of never returning. The cruiser moves on and so do our expectations of new places in the future. As we sail with the full moon behind chasing the sunset in front, we realise how incredibly fortunate we are to experience another day in the Pacific Ocean.

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