Famous Bora Bora Hotel, which served Pam her first piña colada in 1969!
22 March 04
Kathy's journal notes, continued:
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Famous Bora Bora Hotel, which served Pam her first piña colada in 1969! |
Pam and I both woke before sun up and went on deck to watch the sunrise over Matira Point. This was the day that Pam took her colorful series of sunrise pictures. Chris dropped Jon, Sue, Pam, and Kathy off at Matira Point to explore, with the mission to find bicycles and find water, since the desalinator still wasn't working. We found Pam's old boy scout camping spot, now a public park with a little man sweeping and tidying it up. It still had the building with the showers on the side, so Sue asked the man if we could fill some jugs for the boat. He was very agreeable about it. Only one problem: the park was a fair distance from any dinghy tie-up spots, so we anticipated a big job lugging the amount of water we envisioned needing (a pint's a pound, the world round, and we wanted a lot more than a pint).
 Jon peeled a fallen pamplemousse for us all |
We failed to find the turn off that Pam remembered as a trail up the mountain to one of the WW II gun sites. We found a store that rented bicycles for the morning or the day, and made enough enquiries about hours and cost to plan the next day's adventure. We also visited the Bora Bora hotel, Pam pointing out the building where she drank her first piña colada and heard the radio news about the moon landing back in 1969. Walking back to the dinghy, we found a pamplemousse tree with several lying on the ground around it. Jon picked one out and opened it up, handing each of us a big juicy section. We sat on the edge of the field eating with the juice running down our arms. Sue went to find the owner of the tree to see if we could take any of the others lying on the ground. It turned out to be the Matira Hotel, and the owner told us to take as many as we wanted. We found a plastic grocery bag and filled it with the firmest ones we could find.
Walking along the beach, we found a small building belonging to a scuba diving business -- giving Jon a chance to inquire about diving -- and also to ask if we could get water from the spigots on the side of his building. We thought Jon was making a very cagy approach to asking for water by first making the man believe he was a future customer, but Jon claimed he really was interested in finding out about diving. The man agreed to let us get water, but asked us to keep quiet about it so that every boat in the lagoon didn't ask him. The location was much better than the boy scout camp, being closer to places where the dinghy could tie up. Jon radioed Chris to come pick us up.
 Kathy got the hang of snorkeling right away |
Back at the Ocelot, we had homemade cheesy bread for lunch, and then an early afternoon siesta. Then we went out and tied up to a buoy for snorkeling -- strong currents but lots to see, including a giant moray eel and an octopus. Kathy's blood sugar dropped and she became confused. Pam detected that Kathy was swimming aimlessly about and didn't seem to respond to the "oh look!" calls. Pam steered Kathy back to the dinghy and helped her in, and then called Jon and Sue with her piercing whistle. Dinner was Bangers & smash -- Chris the chef -- with Gordon Lightfoot as the backdrop music. We looked at pictures that Jon had downloaded from the camera from the snorkeling adventures, some of which he labeled with names. Sue soaked shells in fresh water to make the hermit crabs come out. When a few did so, we figured out why you can't just yank them out of the shells by their claws. They have big bodies that fill the shell.
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