Bora Bora farewell

Friday April 8th. 2011.

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Woke up this morning to another glorious day, the Royal Princess was anchored in the lagoon at Vaitape and with blue sky, green mountains and many shades of blue sea, could this be paradise? If there is such a place surely this is it! We let the tenders get all the tour people ashore while we had a leisurely breakfast with friends from Melbourne and Gibsons BC.

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At 9.30am we were ready to leave the ship and head to a beach, the tender took us to Vaitape pier and there we boarded a shuttle and for $5 each we took the 20 minute ride to a white sandy beach.

There we slapped on the sun screen and donned our "rashies" but in our haste to get to there we forgot our reef shoes. This turned out not to be a big problem as the water was crystal clear and only waist deep for a good 100 yards out.  The temp. of  28 degrees Celsius  was perfect.

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It was good frolicking like big kids and hard to believe that only four months ago I was reluctant to swim again, 3 years after my surgery. In the last 4 months I've "swum, swam, swimmed" with dolphins, sharks and hand fed sting rays, It's great to be alive and fantastic to do all these things. These Islands are pure magic and Bora Bora in particular a rare gem set among such delightful isles.

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I've found the local inhabitants to be gentle people and far removed from their ancestors who were fierce warriors. Today music and dance is what life centers around, traditional Tahitian dance is taught from primary school on up and they love to perform these time honored movements.

Sadly we leave here within the hour, I know I'll have a tear in my eye and memories that will stay with me for as long as I'm this side of the grass.

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Captain Jerman has just announced that he is about to weigh anchor and set a south easterly course to Pitcairn, some 1340 nautical miles to cover in 3 full sea days. Tonight the swell will be approx. two and a half meters or around 8 feet, just enough movement to rock us to sleep. Dorothy is having a nap and I'm going to stand at the rail of our balcony to watch the sail away. Oops she just woke up so we'll both be at the rail.

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Until the next post, be good to each other.