March 16, 2018 – Bora Bora, Society Islands

Bora Bora was a disappointment today. Ever since we left the Cook Islands, we’ve been cruising with dark, cloudy skies and periods of heavy rain. There was some initial optimism this morning when Crystal Symphony cut through the reef opening at Bora Bora and dropped anchor in the bay opposite Vaitape, the island’s main settlement. The island was formed by volcanoes, and during some brief breaks in the clouds, we could see the two volcanic peaks – Mt. Pahia and the highest point, Mt. Otemanu (2,385 feet tall), jutting up in the center of the island.

For the next four days, we are scheduled to visit three of the islands in the Leeward group of the Society Islands – Bora Bora (1 day), Moorea (1 day), and Tahiti (2 days). They form part of French Polynesia, an overseas collective of France. The currency in use is the French Polyne­sian Franc.

We have visited these three islands three times each over the years, once on our honeymoon in 1974 and again in 2006 and 2013. On the honeymoon, we even bicycled all the way around Bora Bora (17 miles). For that reason, we had not made any shore excursion reservations for today. Our basic plan was to wait until about 11:00 to go ashore, wander around, and then find our own way to Bloody Mary’s, a well-known restaurant/bar not too far from the tender dock

Bora Bora is a rather small island, home to 8,000 people – a blend of Polynesian and Europe­ans, mostly French. The island is surrounded by a lagoon and coral reefs of the barrier type. We’ve read that the lagoon inside the coral reef at Bora Bora is three times as large as the land portion of the island.

The shore excursions scheduled to depart the ship by tender in early morning left to go ashore. But by about 10:00, the rain started up again, with strong winds and big waves. We were sitting down in the Crystal Cove reading our books when we heard that all further ship-sponsored shore excursions were canceled for today. We decided to wait until after lunch to make any further decisions on whether to go ashore in the rain.

Then it was announced that a high school group of local girls would be coming on board ship to do some Polynesian dancing at 2:15 in the Crystal Cove. We saw them up in the Trident Grill ordering 13 cheeseburgers and fries, followed by ice cream at the Scoops Ice Cream Bar. I guess that’s a favorite lunch even out here in the Central South Pacific. Their show was pleasant. It wasn’t a professional group; but, they were having fun, and our fellow passengers enjoyed it as well. Even Captain Larsen (Master of the Vessel) and Shane Morley (Cruise Director) joined in the dancing.

By then it was too late for us to go ashore. Maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow in Moorea.

Last night we went to the Churrascaria (Brazilian) specialty restaurant for dinner. We’ve been to each of the four specialty restaurants twice since coming onboard Symphony a month ago. Our favorite is Prego (Italian), followed by Churrascaria (Brazilian), and then Silk (Chinese). Umi Uma (Japa­nese) is very popular on the ship, especially for Sushi, but we have trouble finding anything to order on the menu (other than Australian Wagyu Beef). Of course, most of the time we like to go to Waterside Restaurant (main dining room), which is also very good for dinner.

Jim & Ginny