What does Trafficated mean?

Kjell O. Stave

Boring-Boring?.

      Having survived my first sail alone i am now at Bora Bora. I have now had two day-sails and one overnighter alone in the boat. It is not ideal to sail alone, especially close to land but it does not have to be very dangerous, one just has to take more precautions and start 'wasting' electricity on new things like navigation lights etc.

I will stay here for another week or two before i set sail for the Cook's. Aitutaki will be first landfall there. (480 Nm)

Bora Bora:

     Bora Bora, the place is supposed to be one of the most beautiful islands in the world. Sailors i have met are saying that it is polluted and full of tourists and very expensive. My verdict is that it is not polluted nor full of tourists but very expensive, yes. The store is not that frightening but internet (40 cent pr. minute) and hotel rooms are. There are no normal hotels here only over water bungalows and a normal one is about 1000$ a night. There are no cheap hostels or two star motels so the only other way to visit is by youer own boat, 0 dollar pr. night on anchor in 2,6 meters of crystal clear water. Another fun thing about being on anchor is to anchor between the sunset and the hotels, then the guest's who have paid 1000$ for one night will have me in between them and the sunset, and as you know we all have the same sunset and they are still for free...

      I was looking forward for the overcrowded tourist place because i was hoping to find a place to meet people who speaks English and maybe find a European/American bar. I have enjoyed being with French speaking people for 5 months now and are starting to understand something in French but not enough to have an intelligent conversation and Although i finally found a great disco in Papeete i still had the same language problem, no matter how much i tried (or drank) i could not get the conversation past 'i am' & 'you are' & 'living in a boat'. The only one's that understands me are the bartenders, i think the beer language is universal. All you have to do is point to the tap and do a fake drinking out of a beer jug motion and a cold one will appear in front of you soon.

     Back to the Bar, i mean hunting for people to have intelligent conversations with. As i should have known tourists are not in season here now and the hotels are almost empty, the few that are here is (as i also should have known) people who can afford the 1000$ bungalows and that normally means people over 50 or honeymooners. Not the same age group or agenda as me!. When things like this happens it is good to have other cruisers close by. I was hoping to meet Paul and Andrea here and i had just tied up to the mooring at Bloody Marys Restaurant (They have free moorings for bar guests) when they came tapping along the beach (probably looking for free fruit trees). As happens their boat was just around the corner so the next day i moved over. We are now sitting in 2,6 meters of water and i found someone to talk to after all  :-)

     The only thing with Paul and Andrea is that we have a tendency to make each other do physically things that is supposed to be good for us. The other day we told each other it would be a a great idea to climb the mountain on Bora Bora! what do you know?, the next day we are early up and climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing. It was straight up in full on jungle environment with all the extras, muddy, hot, sticky and sweaty. I thought i had brought enough water but after two hoers in this place i found myself trying to fill the water bottle from dripping leaves. Luckilly for us the reward in form of a great view was stunning and lucky for you i took some pictures of it so you dont have to do what i did ;-)

More Sting-rays.

     In Bora Bora they are better at preserving the environment than the other islands, this is because of the tourists of course. Because of this there are more stingrays here than i have ever seen before. They are preserved and i have no plans of killing more but look at the last picture here, they could not tease me more or get closer to Spetakkel. 

     All in all, if you have plans of visiting French Polynesia and you arrive by plain and only have 14 days to spend i think you should NOT spend all the time in the same islands. The islands are so different and special in their ways that they all deserve a visit. As Paul said yesterday 'i could easily have spent 3 months in Marquesas and 3 months in Tuamotos'. This is true but if you only have two weeks at least make sure you dont get stuck in Boring Boring for the whole trip....

Kjell O. Stave