Bora Bora, Loveliest Island

After sitting at anchor for 5 days in Tapuamu, we longed for a change of scenery, and we chose Bora Bora. As I've mentioned, many feel that it's the most beautiful island in the world, and there's no doubt that it's beautiful. 

Their dinghy has a dinghy!  Perhaps they have a visitor, but it is a funny sight.  The lovely motor yacht is about 100-feet long and has a pleasing design.  She's on her anchor in one of the few designated anchor-only locations.

This is the Bora Bora Yacht Club.  Expect no blue blazers nor club commodore.  Mostly, it's a highly rated restaurant, but it also caters to cruisers, offering showers, Wifi, and laundry services.

Our dinghy, tied to the Bora Bora Yacht Club dock.  It's quite a view!  Out in center is a large freighter negotiating the complex entrance to the lagoon.  We're looking South in this photo.

And here is Wings, tugging on her mooring.  As you can see, we're looking South, here, and the tiny point of land in that direction provides unexpected shelter. 

Lovely Conni sits in her skivvies and reads during the hot mornings. Sometimes we can work, often it's too hot at 0900 and we just hide until later afternoon.

This is Vaitape, pronounced, "Vi-a-top-e", and the main village on the island. The harbor is tiny.  The stern protruding from the left is from the ferry that transports people to and from the motu that has the airport on it.  It's an old WW2 airport, carved from the coral motu by SeaBees and refurbished as Bora Bora became a tourist destination.

Lovely Conni strolls along the dock in Viatape.  We were both taken by the beautiful, and beautifully maintained motor boat.

She looks like a pre-war yacht design to me, but she could be a replica.  She's beautifully maintained, as you can see.  Our guess was that she delivered guests to a posh resort. 

Conni is strolling toward the Aloe Cafe, where we enjoyed some iced drinks and Internet.  This is downtown Viatape.  Just look at that mountain!

Was this worth posting?  Stuff like this points out the cultural differences, I guess, and always attracts my eye.  Auto Hot Dogs?  Are they selling both?

The main store in town is Chin Lee's.  It seems that every Polynesia town has an Chinese grocer who's doing well. 

This is why we stay here.  What a view!  Wings hangs on her mooring as we return from our dinghy run to town.