Even writing it makes me shiver! I cannot stress how much it was a dream coming true. French Polynesia was the #1 place in the world I always wanted to go and Bora-Bora, in a way, symbolizes it.

The one reason we could make it to French Polynesia was due to sailing. Otherwise we couldn’t afford it, even in a million years.

Making it to Bora Bora just had a special feeling to it!

I mean, we hear and see so much about it. It had to be different. Honestly, I just heard so much about it that I expected an extremely touristic place. But it was not at all.

We left Motu Cerant (on the east side of Tahaa) at about 7 AM and arrived in Motu Toopua (southeast of Bora Bora) at 1:30 PM. There was great weather and a lot of wind during the crossing. We sailed downwind on an average easterly wind of 20 kts (max 28 kts) and at an average speed of 6 kts (max 10 kts). We had the second reef on the mainsail for most of the crossing. It was our first real sail on the boat and we didn’t want any surprises.

We approached Bora-Bora through its only pass on its west, called Passe Teavanui. It was quite easy, the pass is well signalized and is pretty wide.

The anchorage west of Motu Toopua is ridiculously beautiful and the ground is excellent for overnight anchoring. We had a few neighbors and approached them asking where the snorkeling spot was. They said it was basically everywhere and pointed us in the direction of another dinghy towards the outer reef.

When we approached the dinghy and older fellow said “they are here”. We didn’t know who were “they” about the time, but after seeing so many in Rangiroa I figured “they” were sharks. There were rays though! Lots of rays.

During the briefing, Olivier told us the rays were not dangerous and were playful. He told us that they would come onto us and give us little “kisses” (they kinda attach to you and suck your skin). We haven’t seen anyone doing that, so we weren’t really up for it.

There were uncountable rays around us and they would swim towards us any opportunity they had! It was so much fun… I was really scared, although Bella was more. We had a blast trying to escape the rays amidst quite a lot of current.

We went back to the boat and decided to sleep at a mooring ball and have dinner out. Also we were trying to rush things up a little bit so that we would do Bora Bora in 3 days and have one extra day in Raiatea.

We went to the Maikai Marina where we got a mooring ball. The restaurant was closed and looked like it wasn’t open for a while. Google says it is permanently closed, although the charter company said it would be open and someone in the village said it would open on the next day. Thus, we went for a walk in Vaitape Village. It was absolutely deserted, no one on the streets. We only found a food truck court with two food trucks open, but decided it would be better to make a nice barbecue aboard.

The village was not charming as one would imagine. I guess people in Polynesia don’t look as traditional as touristic places do. Although everyone is very very friendly! Also, you’re there for the natural beauty more than the cultural.

On the next day we were going round the north of Bora Bora, soon after leaving the anchorage, roughly in front of the Teavanui Pass, we saw a very slow catamaran in circles.

What happened next was something we I really wanted to happen to us: being welcome by a family of dolphins.

Ok, we all know they’re actually protecting their babies and females, still it is so beautiful to see!

I had no second thoughts: Immediately attached a cable to myself, put my fins on and went swimming alongside them for several minutes while bella took this awesome pictures.

Right after we went round the north of Bora Bora to its east side, passing all the famous resorts like St Regis, Four Seasons and Intercontinental. It was beautiful to see! We got a great anchorage and absolutely fell in love with it. We even decided to spend the night. It is very close to the lagoonarium (check our youtube video) just out of the St Regis hotel.

We had breakfast on the way and were excited to checkout the lagoonarium, and it was awesome! It costs about 25 USD. We were received by a very funny local guy called Robert (using one of those local thongs) and he treated rays like normal people treat dogs. He played with them very securely. He is very enthusiastic and we had the opportunity to play with the rays and swim with enormous sharks (~2m long) and lots of fish. They even gave us some fruits and coconut water.

Afterwards, we heard there was a snorkeling spot where Manta Rays went to feed. It was a drift snorkel, due to lots of current. We did the “circuit” twice, saw a lot of divers down there, but no Manta Rays. The visibility wasn’t great though.

At the end of the day, we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets we’ve ever seen. After all, it was Bora Bora, the gem of the south seas, and the sunset behind it. We attached a hammock to our headsail and mast, opened a Hinano beer and relaxed for a couple of hours.

Finally, we decided to call the hotels to check whether it was possible to have dinner on one of them and the Four Seasons had room on the bar (which is not one of the main restaurants). After a 2 nautical miles completelly blind dinghy ride we arrived there.

I really wanted to see Polynesian live music, dance and fire dances since departing to French Polynesia. Once we were inside, we saw that the main restaurant had traditional dance and music going on. Immediately we infiltrated as guests and watched the show followed by a fire dance show. I can’t say how happy I was to finally catch one of those and do it in such a dream resort!

By the end of it we had a cold Hinano on the bar and a delicious, but ridiculously pricey, beef!

The ride back was funny but easier (since on the way in we didn’t know the hotel).

On the next day we were to leave back to Tahaa. It was our longest crossing (~37 nm) and upwind. And we had one of the most well slept nights on the trip!