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Bora Bora - The Place
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Bora-Bora, the garden spot of the South Pacific. Or so the guide books told us. It really is a wonderful place to cruise. There are not many anchorage's around the island, and only one entrance through the reef to the inner channel. From there you can visit most of the Western side, and if you are strong willed enough, you can visit the back side or Eastern side of the island. You have to traverse a very difficult twisty channel to get there. At times we registered only 3", yes I did say INCHES, under the keel and no more than four to five feet on any one side. There is one spot where you have to turn the boat from hard port to hard starboard in less than 40 feet or you will hit a coral head. The channel is well documented on the local charter company charts (The Moorings is one) and the British Admiralty Government charts. The channel is not documented on the USA charts we carried. It tests your nerves but is manageable. We met a 53 foot boat, "Scoots" on our way back. She has the same draft as "Mouse Pad". Once there, it has to be the dreamland lagoon of all time.
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The Mantareys, some up to 12 foot across, swim carelessly through the pass every morning. They let you swim with them. Jjust watch out for the dive charters. Tthey get very defensive of you not being on one of their tours, greedy buggers!
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Please make sure that when you drop your dinghy anchor, it is on one of the sandy patches, not on top of a coral head. They will really bust your buns for that one
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The entrance through the reef
You can see the breakers on the reef in the distance
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From our anchorage in front of the Yacht Club we see the cruise ships anchored off the main town
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On our walk into town we see how the locals dry dock their boats when not in use
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Looking at the beautiful mountains on the island as we make our way round to the lagoon on the back side
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The edge of the inner reef
You can see the deeper channel behind with the deep blue water
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Another one of the incredible views of the sun setting over a small motu in the South Pacific
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1. Jerry in ecstasy after she had her big bowl of ice cream
2. Kevin and Vega ("Wind Dance") after their ice cream fixes
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As you can see by the expression on Lloyd and Caroline ("Wind Raven") they don't really like the ice cream and pie they had just eaten two helpings of!
This has to be the best ice cream and pie shop since leaving Cabo San Lucos, Mexico!
They also had some great bread. We took several loaves back to "Mouse Pad" with us.
The ice cream/bakery shop is owned by an English lady
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