Bora Bora ahead (May 20th) (from Jared)

It's May 20th and I find myself celebrating my birthday as we get underway and put rudder to Bora Bora and begin our 3-4 day journey to Rarotonga. As we leave port, "Happy Birthdays!" come from the good crews aboard "Crazy Horse" and "Wild Tigris". Great sailors and even better people. We have diverted a bit from the Arc itinerary to head directly to Suwarrow. Our good friends, Jeanne and Mike Beswick agreed to accompany us to Raratonga and left on Tuesday aboard their vessel "Jeannius". We had planned to leave on Wednesday, but as the Captain had been having what we thought were premature ventricular contractions, we stayed another day to get him worked up. It was a great birthday present as Dad was given a clean bill of health after being forced by doctor (and crew) to wear a heart monitor for a day and return to have the rhythms evaluated. Total cost for ECG, 2 consults, and a good work-up: bottle of good French Bordeaux and a yacht club t-shirt. Knowing the Captain has a clean bill of health: priceless. With sails up, good-byes being said over radio, and spirits lifted from good news from Doc; we begin to make way out of harbor but before we cleared the pass, a loud piercing alarms comes from the engine room and strikes as quickly as a tiger shark launching itself from the depths to its unsuspecting prey. A hose has torn on the engine's heat exchanger, leaking coolant over the floor of the engine room. The engine has overheated and the alarm dissolves our good humor...for an instant. Oh well. We can't be bothered, at the moment. We are behind schedule a day, Dad's hell-bent to get on the deep-blue, and we need to reach the next experience. It will get fixed and we are, after all, a sailing vessel.

We make it a rule on this boat not to fixate too much on what needs to be done, nor let the insanity of what is a boat in terms of maintenance and upkeep prevent us from basking in the glory of the moment. We could have spent our day being bummed about the engine problem at hand and not being able to fix it readily as we are making 8.5 kts. and heeling a wee-bit. Instead, Mom treated me to a bag of birthday goodies. Oreo cookies, Cheetos, and a pearl(not that $50,000 one, aww shucks :). In French Polynesia, the cheapest of the three being the pearl... and it's a nice pearl. I have managed to tone up a bit on this trip by spending more time in the water than a fish and eliminating garbage (not the pearl) like this out of my diet, but hey, it's my birthday and sailors get weird food cravings. The Skip fixed me a rib-eye and peas and rice for a birthday treat. I'm in heaven but now I need to swim a few laps around the boat (while underway ;). Thanks, Guys!

Bora Bora was sublime. Whether you are into trying on a $300,000 string of Tahitian black pearls at the famous Robert Wan's (like Mom did), having a cold Hinano beer with a sesame-seared Ahi appetizer at "Bloody Mary's" while trying to catch a glimpse of Paris Hilton up to her latest antics, diving with 9 foot lemon sharks that swim by you with mouths agape that seem to be wondering why you aren't the guy from the tour-boat with that smelly bag of fish, learning about the art of grafting black-lipped oysters to culture pearls at a local pearl farm, or simply practicing keeping your feet together as you dive off the boat in the clearest gin-blue waters of the world; Bora Bora is as close to nirvana as one can get in this lifetime. It really does have something for everyone. I still find myself thinking of that one pearl at Robert Wan's that was priced at $50,000. What does one do with the one perfect, black pearl? I loved trekking up the steep, volcanic hillsides and finding an old U.S. W.W. II artillery battery that has long since become rusty and almost swallowed by the jungle. Large gun, probably 10-inch bore, pointed out to sea, reminded us of different times. In some concrete near the base of the piece, we could see where some soldiers and sailors had etched, "May, 1942. U.S. Army and U.S Navy" into drying cement. Inspection of the barrel showed the rifling, though rusty, to still be in excellent shape. Way to go, Steel-Town, U.S.A.!

As we watched Bora Bora, shrink into our wake, it hit us that this is the last of French Polynesia. We threw flowers in our wake to remember our dear friend, Mona. From the Marquesas, to the Tuamotos, to the Society Isles; we have been blessed with the new friends we've made, those we've gotten to know better, magnificent sailing, and beauty that knows no limits everywhere we look. French Polynesia has been blessed by some of God's finer brush-strokes on this magnificent canvas called Earth. Looking forward to the marvels and beauty that await us. As always, love and miss you all. Te amo, Merce. Brown-Eyed Girl out ....