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The Windward Society Islands - Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora.
We left Moorea on Thursday and had a lovely sail of about 85 miles to Raiatea, a broad reach with a slight sea, arriving Friday morning. Raiatea is the second largest island in French Polynesia. It is surrounded by a reef and a lagoon. Here we went alongside the town quay at the main village of Uturoa, to refuel and go to the nearby supermarkets. Nancy and Jim went to church on Sunday morning, then we motored across to the small island of Tahaa, two miles north across the lagoon.
We anchored in the beautiful turquoise lagoon near a very exclusive hotel called Le Taha'a, $1000 per day, without meals!! There is a lovely coral garden between two of the small motu islets, where we snorkeled, fantastic. Next day we came back down the coast, taking a mooring buoy at the yacht club. We had dinner here and watched more Polynesian dancing. Three teenage boys, the youngest was only a boy, did a fire dance, they were very good. Returning to the boat after dark, William gave an amusing demonstration of how not to get out of a dinghy. His foot missed the ladder on the side of the boat and he was left suspended between the ladder and the dinghy, until the inevitable happened when the dinghy drifted outwards.
We sailed the 26 miles to Bora Bora, mooring at the yacht club, where we had a beer. The main island rises from the centre of a multi-coloured lagoon, surrounded by offshore motu islets inside a coral reef. We went to the principal village of Viatape to complete the obligatory paperwork. After this, we moved to a mooring outside the famous Bloody Mary's restaurant. It displays a long list of famous people who have visited since it opened in 1979. We introduced ourselves and had a snack and a drink at the bar, so look out for us on this list.
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