Pot Luck

We've moved down to another shallow anchorage (around 3.5m depth) in clear turquoise water at the south-eastern end of the Bora Bora lagoon. We're about 800m from the shore so the palm trees are providing a little bit of shelter from the 25 knot wind blowing from the east. It's slightly odd to see the anchor chain, straining against the pressure of the wind, pulling almost horizontally from the bow but the anchor is buried deep into the soft sand so  we feel very secure.

 

Nearby there are about eight or nine yachts whose names were familiar to us from VHF radio calls but whose owners we hadn't met. However, Irene from an Australian catamaran called Kiapa came over shortly after we dropped anchor to invite us over for a Pot Luck supper so this situation quickly changed. Pot Lucks are a great cruising institution where a boat broadcasts the plan over the radio and then crews from all the boats in the anchorage meet at the chosen spot, bringing with them their own booze and a bowl of food (typically a salad) to share. Last night the location was a beach where the house-holders had built a few tables with grass roofs; they welcomed us to use these and even lit a bbq (in an old washing machine drum) for us on the beach. We took a couple of beef steaks (imported from New Zealand and delicious) so had these with a selection of seven or eight different salads  and ate very well.

 

It was a very good evening and we met crews from American, German, Australian and New Zealand boats. Conversation is easy at these events – you start with a common bond of the sailing trip and quickly move into the other topics. There's a lot of shared knowledge at these gatherings so we have made some good contacts and will no doubt see many of the boats again as we head west.

 

Talking of heading west, we're ready to hit the high seas again (after a final re-stock of food and diesel) but the weather isn't really on our side at the moment. We're currently waiting for the weather to improve a bit (lots of wind just now but then confused and light winds coming mid-week) before we set off toward Raratonga in the Cook Islands and it looks pretty unsettled for the next 7 or 8 days. So we may be here for a while – but there are worse places to be stuck than Bora Bora!

 

Finally, Happy 18th Birthday to Goddaughter Amy! Hope that you have had a great day and that you received our email.