Bora Bora - The Society Islands just get better!

Whilst in Huahini we met some fellow Ovni owners who had spent several years cruising the Societies - they recommended we head for the Baie Apu and take a pearl farm mooring buoy, visit a vanilla farm and then head on to Bora Bora, which they considered the most beautiful of the Societies.  

We set off with Hugh and Annie up the road towards the Vanilla Farm, a small family run enterprise where we learnt that the Vanilla plant is actually a variety of Orchid, native to Mexico, Central America and Madagascar and Indonesia - early attempts to cultivate it in French Polynesia failed as the flowers, which only last one day, need to be pollinated by a specific bee that does not survive here.  A 12 year old slave in Reunion discovered the technique for hand pollinating the flowers in 1841 and the French imported them to French Polynesia.

The vanilla vines have to grow in shade - either on posts or on trees.  Left unchecked they will grow to enormous lengths with few flowers so they are trained back down the supports to encourage more flowers and keep them at the height a man can reach easily.

The plants are inspected daily, after 6 months on the vine the pods are hand picked at a critical stage of ripeness.

Freshly picked vanilla pods - then the work really starts ... First the have to be 'killed' by being spread out in direct sunlight for several days to stop the pods developing further and splitting.  They were also immersed in water at some stage as well.

After 'killing' the pods have to be '"sweated" which takes 3 to 4 weeks and involves taking them spreading them out in sunshine  and wrapping them up in the shade during which time they turn brown and get an oily sheen.

The final stage involves "Massage" which straightens the pods out and they are sorted according to size and general appearance.  Short, curled or split pods go to the USA mainly for use in cosmetics, prime quality go to Europe for culinary use.  Vanilla is the second most expensive spice - beaten only by Saffron.  French Polynesia ranks 9th worldwide, producing a mere 60 tons of vanilla annually - Madagascar is top of the ranking producing 3,500 tons.

After our lesson in the reason Vanilla is so expensive (you could buy 7 low grade pods for $20 at the farm) we continued on our walk across the island.  If it wasn't for the palm trees you could have been in the English Countryside!

Lunch Break with Annie, part way across Tahaa.  We were heading for a Viewpoint but the trees had grown up so much there was no way to see the view.

We only spent a couple of days in Tahaa, stopping briefly at its neighbour, Raiatae to collect gas and visit the supermarket.

We have American style aluminium gas tanks from the Caribbean, which naturally have different fittings to the local gas tanks - the way to fill them is to buy a large local one, attach a jury rig of tubes and fittings to connect it to our empty one and then suspend it from a halyard and wait for the gas to pour down and fill our tank.  One large local tank fills about 2 ½ of our tanks.  Best done in a well ventilated area away from naked flames!  Jade from Jadean is supervising the process.

No trip to Tahaa would be complete without a look in the water - we enjoyed some excellent snorkelling off the motus within the outer reef.

Huge anemone with three spotted dascyllus in the Coral Garden Pass, Îlot Tautau, Tahaa

Picasso Triggerfish in the Coral Garden

Fantastically colourful clams, hidden in the seaweed, Coral Garden.       (Annie's Photo)

Our next journey was just under 30 miles to the island that epitomises a Pacific Paradise, Bora Bora - surrounded by a crystal clear lagoon, protected by reef and several Motu (reef islands) and with a spectacular skyline. Despite the tourism,  the vast selection of pearl shops in the main town of Vaitape, it is a place that has to be seen to be believed.

The outlying reef can be seen enclosing the shallow (Blue on the above chart) lagoon.  The green areas are drying reefs, and the white is the deeper more easily navigable water. The red triangle is where we were anchored on 6 August 2017.

Nautilus Sailing under spinnaker towards the iconic skyline of Bora Bora.       (Photo from Annie, on Vega)

It's only as you get quite close that you see the ferocious breaking waves on the outer reef.  There is only one pass into the lagoon - don't try this in the dark!!

Our first night in Bora Bora we anchored off Motu Toopua just south of the pass - a snorkel off the back of the boat treated us to three Eagle Rays, two Stingrays and a Manta.  We then headed for the main town, Vaitabe, where we took a mooring buoy and headed in to the Gendarmerie as we now need to clear out of French Polynesia - quite a slow process, six forms to compete, several in triplicate, a letter handed back to us to take to the post office to post back to Tahiti, and instruction to come back in 24 hours for the rest of the paperwork!  We spent a very sociable evening in the MaiKai Yacht Club bar with Annie and Hugh from Vega, Barry and Kim from Jadean and Kerry and Ian from Weir Kraken drinking hugely overpriced beer! 

The beauty of Bora Bora is really appreciated from the surrounding lagoon - we motored cautiously round most of the island (the far south is too shallow for anything other than a dinghy) and enjoyed watching a local tour operator feeding the sharks - wearing a loincloth.

He had handfuls of small fish held over his head, he threw them in the water and the result was a positive feeding frenzy - the Tahitian Stingrays and Pacific Double-saddle Butterflyfish have come to join in the fun.

Black Tip Reef Shark with a Sharksucker

It's amazing how casual one can become about swimming with sharks!

Bora Bora isn't all about the sharks - you can also feed bread to the Scissortail Sergeants or just admire the coral.

Paddle boarding in the lagoon - hard to believe the colours are real, and as a bonus Eagle Rays and Stingrays glide around under you.

Not surprisingly it is a very popular tourist destination - these are the typical holiday cabins on stilts that can be seen along many of the Motu around the lagoon.

View from our anchorage on the East of the lagoon towards Tahaa

Bora Bora is without a doubt one of the more touristy places we have visited, there must be 50 pearl jewellery shops in the main town of Vaitape alone, but you can easily see why it's so popular, there is something for everyone - kitesurfing, diving, swimming, snorkelling, in the crystal clear lagoon waters to name but a few.  There is also the opportunity to spend lots of money, the prices are truly staggering.

Once we have completed the checkout formalities we will head on through the last of the Societies and on to the Cook Islands - the start of New Zealand!