Ian Arrives

Ian is my brother's oldest son.  He works for a non-profit in Austin, Texas, directing programs focused on HIV testing among various at-risk communities:  LBGT, LatinX, and others.  He is bright, empathetic, and a genuinely nice guy.  He's the only member of his generation in our family who's ever visited us here, so we were thrilled when he enthusiastically joined us here on Bora Bora. 

As I've mentioned, the airport, an updated version of the airstrip carved on a motu on the lagoon's edge during WW2, must be reached by boat.  This is the ferry that delivers passengers to and from the airport.  Ian is in a green shirt on the top deck awaiting docking.

Ian arrives, masked as required, and glad to finally arrive.  He's in the green shirt, of course.

Ian on the foredeck, admiring the surroundings. We're still in the mooring field near the yacht club and he's minutes from his arrival on Wings.

As I mentioned in a blog, we took newly-arrived Ian on a dinghy tour of a nearby bay.  There are a red-hulled and a blue-hulled freighter that bring cargo to Bora Bora, and this is the blue one, the Hawaikinui.  Note the ramp on the stern.  At present, she's offloading deck cargo, but soon will motor forward, move over to her starboard a bit, and drop her ramp to offload pallets of cargo.  Feeding the locals and all of the guests in hotels requires a lot of food.

The famous Bora Bora skyline behind the freighter as she moves to offload cargo via her stern ramp.

Here's a nice shot of the freighter's bow as she slowly moves into position for her ramp lowering.

Now in position, her ramps is lowered and the forklifts enter to remove cargo stored on pallets.  Note the hose drooping from her stern deck and that is filling the three tanker trucks. Often, there are vehicles in her voluminous cargo hold, too.

Ian is making himself at home in the aft berth. His berth-mate is our life raft.  He's easy-going so there's no problem. 

Bill is carefully boarding the dinghy from Wings' deck as he and Ian motor off to snorkel.

Ian joins Bill in the dinghy.

With Bill at the motor, he and Ian head for the coral garden.  There's a surprising amount of still-living coral there. 

 

The coral garden is in that light-green water in front of them.  Note the black pole at right that delineates the danger area posed by the coral. 

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