Monday 13th August

Faanui Bay,
Bora Bora.
16 29.425 S
151 45.672 W

Abigail and I were up at the crack of dawn, we were going to pre cook a few meals ready for our next trip which we will be starting out on tomorrow morning. We chopped onions, opened cans, sautéed meat and vegetables, stirred in sauces and herbs and finally bagged up enough meals to cover at least four days worth of travel. At least we know that even if the weather is dreadful we will be able to eat something hot for dinner. Gerry, once he surfaced, topped up the fuel tank with the jerry can fuel and then made some water. By the time we had cleared up the mess we made it was almost lunchtime. We showered and changed into decent clothes and then sat enjoying fresh bread, cheese and pickles for lunch before getting into the dinghy and motoring into the town dock. We arrived at the dock at about 13.30hrs – half an hour too early to get our clearance from the gendarmerie, we hung about for the half hour, looking at the craft stuff that was for sale on the dock; a lot of it was lovely but it was made of shells or platted plant fronds which we were certain wouldn’t be allowed back into Australia. Finally the Gendarmerie was open and Gerry went to clear us out, having done that we headed to the bank to reclaim the bond money that Gerry had had to deposit for himself (Abigail and I didn’t need to post bond as we had EU passports). It took a while to get through the process but finally we got the money back and then made our way to the marine store where Gerry bought a couple of essential things that we needed for the boat. Our next stop was a café where we had a drink and then it was on to the jewellery stores to see if we could find some pearl earrings. Gerry got a bit put off by the prices and began to get antsy so we ended up not buying anything. Our last stop was the grocery store where we filled up a basket with the last minute things we needed for the trip. Having loaded the groceries into the back pack and carry bags we trudged back to the dinghy and then headed back to the boat. After unloading the bags, Abigail headed into the dock with the trash and her shower gear whilst I prepared a roast lamb dinner. Of course as soon as I had the oven going full blast it began to rain and we had to close the hatches down which made it very hot inside the boat. We eventually sat down to eat at just after 19.00hrs and by 20.00hrs all the clearing up was done; Gerry and Abigail were sitting chatting and I typed up notes on the computer. Our plan is to leave in the morning and head to The Cook Islands, we expect it to take 4 -5 days so there will be a bit of a gap until I write anything else for the blog