Location 16° 32S, 151° 45W
Saturday, 09.08.2007

The Schooner Maggie B is steady in Bora Bora at the same anchorage 16° 32S, 151° 45W. We are on a lovely sand platform in about 20 feet of water. The area is about 200 meters by 300 meters, without any coral. We have an excellent anchoring system out, 120 feet of 1/2 inch chain, a 100 pound Manson Supreme anchor on the end, and a 30 pound “Anchor Buddy” about 17 feet down the chain from the bow.

As the Maggie B works back and forth, the chain rakes the bottom. the other night we had a bit of a system go through and we had 20-25 knots of wind from all around the compass. The Manson Supreme reset perfectly and didn’t move more than a few feet in any direction. In the morning (I swim to check the anchor every morning), the bottom looked like a Japanese Zen garden that had been raked in a perfect 100 foot circle.

The local rays seem to like the raking that the anchor chain does. They search for goodies just under the sand and then suck them up, ejecting the sand out of their gills. The depressions that they leave are the size of large soup plates to small woks. The spotted Leopard rays spread out their normally narrow nose to something that looks like a sapper’s mine detector as they coast along close to the sand hunting their prey.

There are many flounders along our sand platform. Normally they are invisible, but they can’t effectively hide where the sand has been raked by the movement of the chain because though they have the color right, they can’t match the ridges.

We are near the famous Hotel Bora Bora. Their over-water bungalows are the most expensive on the island. We, however, have the perfect over-water bungalow in the Maggie B, though the beds aren’t King-Sized and romantically draped with mosquito netting.

It is interesting to see the current dance program at the Hotel Bora Bora. All of it is quite authentic as different troupes compete for the 14 July festival. Ten years ago it was mostly girls, with just a few guys dancing. Now there is lots of emphasis on the traditional male exploits, like fire dancing, spear throwing and rock lifting. They even do a “haka” imported, it seems, from the Maori.

We are quite excited by our next expedition. A nearby island is called Maupiti. It is remote and has a difficult pass. On Monday they are to choose the King of Maupiti, which happens only every 10 years. On Tuesday, they are going to do a traditional “stone fishing” where the whole community comes out to capture lagoon fish by slapping the water with stones tethered in traditional braids to herd the fish together. We are going over with a waiter from the Hotel Bora Bora who is from Maupiti, either in the “Maupiti Express,” the TaraVana, our friend Richard Postma’s catamaran, or in the Maggie B, if we have a good local guide for the pass. It should be
epic.

All is well.