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Paw Paw - Log Day 163: "Pearl of the Pacific"



Bora Bora,  known as the " Pearl of the Pacific ".  For us though, our first night here was anything but pearls. 

We had the worst storm that either of us has ever encountered. Worse than any storm in South Africa that we can remember. Worse than any monsoon storm in Phoenix. Worse than tropical storm, Raphael, that we experienced while in St Martin. Worse than the one we just endured in Huahine.

Besides the howling wind, the thunder and lightening could have woken the dead. The torrential rain was so bad we couldn't even see the yachts on the mooring balls next to us and, at times, we couldn't even see beyond the perimeters of Paw Paw's hulls. What made it the worst is that all of this lasted the entire night. It was never-ending!

With all our onboard systems shutdown and our battery bank isolated to help limit damages if we had a lightening strike, Elaine, unable to stand it, eventually went down to her cabin, close d all the blinds, crawled under the covers and prayed for daybreak. Roy, on the other hand, like a sentinel, continued to stand watch to handle the situation if we broke off the mooring ball, as some yachts did.

Fortunately, all we suffered was a lack of sleep and some very ragged nerves. Nothing some sunshine and a mid-morning nap couldn't cure. We did, however, decide it was a good idea to get off the yacht and enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Maikai Marina and Restaurant, following which we took a stroll around the immediate vicinity.

First impressions is that Bora Bora is not as sophisticated as we had expected, but seems to suffer from the same socio-economic issues as we saw in Raiatea. Apparently the island is still trying to recovery after it was severely hit by the down turn in the world economy, evident by a number of resorts which closed down as well as the empty business premises we saw. Also, the scenery is not as dramatic as Moorea, but the c olour of the water is very unusual. It's not the vaying shades of turquoise we saw in Rangiroa or the other Society Islands, but rather varying shades of deep blue.

That said, we'll be here for a few weeks and we're hoping to enjoy what the island has to offer while we pray for an upturn in the weather.



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