Today from Bora Bora we set sail back to the main islands at 10am.
And for 3 hours we braved the rocky seas as I watched the whole boat except me and our skipper Borna fall like flies. I hope my Disney and 90s throwback music helped. Hakuna Matata.
What a relief when the tossing and turning stopped as we began to sail across a translucent lagoon surrounded by coral to the Eastern side of Taha’a.
We then anchored off Motu Céran at 3pm for our closing party.
This is where you take all the group photos to your heart’s content at sunset, never knowing when you’ll ever be together all at once at the same time again.
It only took 3 yacht weeks to make it happen but GUESS WHO WON REGATTA THIS TIME?!
And so celebrated our victory and new friendships beneath the palms of this uninhabited island in paradise and before a Polynesian dancing feast.
And for a feast, we were fed very very well:
After the performances and our final dinner, we left the island back to our yachts at 8:30pm, starting with a few drinking games before dancing the night away and toasting to the adventures we’ve shared and the adventures still yet to come.
The next early morning at 7am we sailed back to our base marina at Raiatea where we prepared to say “Na Na” in Tahitian to all the friends and family we made the past 7 days.
By midday we kicked back at Amelia’s stay for the night watching the world go by from the airport before boarding out departing flights out in the afternoon. I had a minor scare when I was the last to leave on late afternoon island hopper flight from Raiatea to Bora Bora to Papeete, where my plane broke down when it landed in Bora Bora, forcing us to disembark and wait an extra 2 hours for a replacement craft from Papeete to retrieve us.
Although this snafu made me miss my 9:35pm onward connecting flight from Papeete to LAX, I was luckily rebooked to what just so happens to be a second and the last overnight flight from Papeete at 11:50pm. If that one hadn’t be available, I would’ve been screwed to lose an entire extra day in trying to get back home. Crisis averted. Next time I may avoid booking the very last island hopper as it’ll probably wear out by the end of the night.
Back to the west coast!
- At time of posting in Motu Céran, it was 27 °C - Humidity: 76% | Wind Speed: 23km/hr | Cloud Cover: clear