Author: Scott
The last two days were our last two full days on Bora Bora. It is strange to think that we are actually leaving French Polynesia soon. We should find some relief from the inflated prices, we will get a break from struggling with French, and soon Tourism will greatly decrease leaving a greater mixture of locals and cruisers.
Monday started by easing into the chores of leaving. We spent the morning cleaning and while Pam was cleaning the deck her jar of cleanser jumped off the boat for a swim. I immediately went to the rescue in the dinghy which still had no motor on it and chased the little yellow plastic rascal across the anchorage. When I finally caught up with the pest I was a good fifty yards down wind of Tournesol, and I started my long and grueling paddle against the wind. I later found out that I made good entertainment for the other boats who sat back and watched the entire performance. Well, at least no one can call the Tournesolians anchorage litter bugs. When I finally reached Tournesol, I held the plastic bottle high in the air and proclaimed that I was indeed the victor. The rest of the morning was spent ferrying water, getting ice, and offloading the trash at Bloody Mary’s.
Just before noon we dropped the mooring ball at Bloody Mary’s and motored two miles to the north to the Bora Bora Yacht Club, so that we could be closer to town for checking out… The trip over went well and we were able to easily hone in on a GPS position given to us from Novia’s last visit to the Yacht Club. We slunk around the anchorage until we spied a mooring ball that was close to the dock, and managed to snag it on the second attempt. Just as we were getting settled I looked up to see a big giant trimaran bearing down on us and I casually told Pam that we were about to be run down. It turned out that the tri was actually Moxie, and they just wanted to wish us a hello as they were heading out to see the island.
Novia pulled into the anchorage about a half hour after us and we decided we would all meet at the Yacht Club for lunch. Lunch turned out to be quite tasty; no cheeseburgers were served at lunchtime, so I had to settle with a yummy steak sandwich and delicious fries.
After lunch Pam and I walked into town and it took a good half hour. The walk allowed us to get a glimpse of the island. Along the way we passed an area where some locals were burning trash, and you would have thought there was a forest fire. You could see and smell smoke from quite a distance. Our main priority in town was to check out with the Gendarmerie and finally get our bond held hostage back, which we hoped to use as our spending money in the Cook Islands. When we reached the Gendarmerie with only about half an hour to spare to get to the bank so we could claim our bond, and of course fate chose this instant to hide all of the checkout forms from the officer. We were left for what seemed like ages while he scurried around looking for forms. I finally asked if he would stamp our bank receipt so we could get our bond and then we would return. Looking relieved the officer quickly agreed and stamped our forms and we were off to the bank. Things at the bank went smoothly although we thought their procedure for returning our bond was interesting, one teller returned our bond in Pacific Francs and another teller then recounted the money and converted it into New Zealand dollars for us. I guess this is one of the checks and balances the bank uses to insure accuracy, and of course charge us a big fat commission fee to convert our money into useful currency. We left with our bond and we were a little poorer due to the commission. We headed back to the Gendarmerie. When we returned we were given a photo copied form with all the spaces filled in with liquid paper, and this would serve as our official departure form. In Bora French efficiency collies with South Pacific Laze fare. We were just happy to be reimbursed and released from the country.
On our way home we stopped by the store to pick up something light for dinner. We settled on baguette, cheese, and some of Pam’s favorite slimy, stinky mussel treats (Yummy, you would think we had a cat on board). Dinner was nice and very French chic with bread, wine, cheese, and Pam’s cat treats.
Today we were up with the chickens or more accurately the roosters. The departure frenzy was mounting with lots of errands on our list. We walked back into town, checked out the other grocery store (and they also had cat treats), and bought lizard pareo for me (who would have ever thought that I would want to wear a skirk, but when in Rome…). We asked for directions to the coiffure while we were paying at the pareo store and a customer asked us if we wanted a ride. While pulling out on the street we were almost sideswiped by another car but the rest of the trip was painless and efficient. We got our hair chopped and I got a foofy head massage while my hair was washed. We pranced through town sporting our new dos, and stopped by the store to pick up some cat food and groceries. Back at the Yacht Club we got everything on board and moved into laundry mode.
Anne from Novia currently had prized possession of the single laundry machine, so we quickly prepped the laundry and rushed over to be next in line after Ann. Now laundry is pretty rudimentary at the Bora Yacht Club. There is only one machine that fills with water very slowly, so the routine is to bring buckets of water in from the bathroom to feed the machine and help it along. Each load of laundry takes about an hour and then there is no dryer so you rush your laundry out to the boat to dry in the sunshine. Just as our laundry was going in, Stephanie from Mico Verde showed up and she took the next spot in the laundry queue. To pass the time we all had a little refreshment at the Yacht Club and waited, and then waited some more. When the laundry finally finished we whisked it away to the boat for the hanging.
Out last dinner in French Polynesia was at the Yacht Club. I had steak with mushroom sauce and Pam had chicken and shrimp curry, onion soup and puffed pastry with spinach and scallops for appetizers. I topped off my dinner with a nice hot cappuccino and we shared a decadent gooey pear tart with crème fresh
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