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Tuesday July 24, 2007

Good morning Moorea. The temperature is a 74° F today and we are ready for adventure. We consider going east to Cook’s Bay where the most village shops and restaurants are located or going east where we swam with rays and sharks. Donna remembers the pearl jewelry store next to the café in the village nearby. We load in the dinghy and enter the narrow shallow channel through the reef. We spot a sea turtle and several of the rays we befriended the other day. We pass the first resort where there is more activity than I have ever seen at any resort. There are people out on the porches and docks of nearly every thatched roof guest house. People are swimming, snorkeling and canoeing everywhere. The beaches are full of families, kids building sand castles and mothers sun bathing. Unlike the fancier resorts elsewhere on the island the families seem to outnumber the couples, those that look like newlyweds.

 

Soon we pass the spot where we swam with sharks and rays. There are two tour boats that have unloaded a fairly large number of tourists in snorkel gear into the chest deep water. We slow down and come as close as we safely can to take a look. We pass into the circling sharks near where the tourists are handling the rays. Maybe we will come tomorrow; the rays are getting too much attention and may not be that interested in us later.

 

We exit the water at one of the resorts and check the menu for lunch later after we shop in the village. Shopping for pearls is made easier for the non-shopping guys because the shop provides coke zero, water and beer free to customers. They tell us there is a sister shop in the USA. All the signage is in English, not French. I think we are the targeted market. Donna and Nancy shop. Nancy buys a pearl, but Donna does not find anything that motivates her to buy. Pearls are just not her thing; she prefers diamonds.

 

We return to the resort beach bar for a lunch. The restaurant is very French; most of the patrons are French families on vacation. However, each menu item is explained in English for the those that do not understand French.

 

Back on Bella Donna we have time for a quick swim and then John and Susan from Silkie come over for a sundowner and dinner. They have been here almost 2 weeks waiting on a new battery. They got word today that US customs is holding it up for some reason. They need it in order to continue. We asked when they started their circumnavigation and they answered they had a false start in 2005; they got as far as the Panama Canal before turning around and going back to Florida because they “found they had only half a boat”. We were confused as to what they meant by half a boat. We thought it was missing some equipment or something. It turns out they found long cruising was very uncomfortable on a mono hull. They sold their boat in Florida and bought a catamaran. They found they are much happier and left in 2006 for the Panama Canal again.

 

God Bless Bella Donna.