Day 9: 18 Night Transpacific Cruise - Bora Bora

The day we've all been waiting for:  Bora Bora and Patrick's excursion! Warning: picture heavy!

Again today we were up before we reached Bora Bora. We only had to travel 164 nautical miles so we only cruised at 10 knots (I have no idea how much that is in regular miles). Bora Bora is exactly how I remembered it too!

We had coffee and a quick breakfast before getting ready and meeting everyone in the Schooner Bar at 8:00. Juan Diego (our wonderful concierge) & I had worked out that once I had checked everyone in, I was to give him a call and he'd come walk us down to the tender like we were a tour. Everyone was there on time and it worked beautifully. The only bad thing is Juan Diego's boss, Cara, wouldn't let him go with us - even though Valerie & I had been asking her since the beginning of the cruise.

Vaitiare (Patrick's daughter) met us and we took care of business (I had collected all the money on the ship ahead of time for her; she gave me a sarong and beautiful necklace) before we loaded everyone on the canoes & catamaran (Patrick went on the catamaran since he had cracked ribs; Vaitiare came in our canoe while Teddy drove it).

Vaitiare sitting in our canoe - picture by Tracy

Our first stop was the sharks! There weren't as many as I remembered from 2009 but I got some good shots of the black tip reef sharks.

Then all of a sudden bigger sharks showed up. Scared me to death. I high tailed it to the nearest boat, which wasn't one of ours. The driver of that boat said it was okay because they only eat white people! Haha! Anyway, these were grey nurse sharks and apparently they're okay too. Hmm?! My pictures weren't the best, but you get the idea!

After our shark visit, we headed out to see the stingrays - which are my favorite! I didn't get good pictures at this stop and these pictures are courtesy of Tracy and Valerie!

As I looked at the above picture, I noticed the shark underneath the stingray! The black tip reef sharks were all around where the stingrays were as well.

Our final snorkeling stop was the coral gardens. Again, I didn't get very good pictures and again "borrowed" these pictures from Tracy and Valerie!

I learned a very valuable lesson - even though my Samsung S7 has a wonderful camera, once it's in the little waterproof bag, and in the cooler water, it's very easy to change modes while underwater. Somehow I was always turning my camera to selfie mode.

Or I ended up with a 60+ burst of the same shot - nothing! From now on, I'll bring my underwater camera even though it has less pixels!

Jim & I also bought prescription snorkel masks before we came on vacation. What a difference they made. Jim doesn't have to deal with putting in contacts and I don't have to squint to see what I'm looking at!

Once we got to Patrick's private island, we were fed a wonderful lunch with beer & champagne and water & pop for the kids. One of the guys did a fire dance after we ate and Vaitiare did a hula dance. And then there was some general goofing off!

Patrick:

Captain Jack:

Jim going after Captain Jack!

Drinking champagne and beer!

On our way back to the ship, Teddy let Dean drive the canoe while Teddy played the ukulele and we all sang!

YIKES, Dean, get your hands on the steering wheel!

Final views while being taken back to the ship: 

Once we got back to the ship, we went for a swim & had a snack before heading to our cabin to get cleaned up and have a rest before drinks & dinner. We were going to try and catch the show, a comedian, but were just too tired. I think we were asleep by 8:30 ... and this is what we saw outside our balcony before we shut the lights off!