Bora Bora
Tuesday, 28 May, 2025 | Moored off Bora Bora Yacht Club
The forecast wind was somewhat underestimated for our sail from Tahiti to Bora Bora. The sea state was also larger than expected, but nonetheless, the crew dug deep and we sailed our way through 20 hours to make landfall at 0800 yesterday.
The entrance to Bora Bora is very manageable, with a predicted outflowing current and in the lee of the prevailing winds and sea. We had planned to use a mooring buoy just off the Bora Bora Yacht Club, and there were plenty free when we arrived. As it transpires, anchoring is prohibited here and instead the Bora Bora mooring services manage five different sites, costing just the equivalent of $30 US per night.
The Bora Bora Yacht Club is a separate entity, but for a small fee allows dinghy dockage, showers, toilets, laundry, and rubbish disposal. The cost is subtracted from the bill if you choose to eat at the restaurant, which we did—and it was excellent.
Today the crew spent the morning ashore recovering from our fruity passage before a buffet lunch on board, then headed out to an organised snorkel safari. As I type this, I can hear them regaling tales of their adventure, which took them around the entire island and was seemingly a huge success for all.
Mary is prepping a dinner of fresh tuna steaks and new potatoes with salad as we make water and anticipate another spectacular sunset from Bora Bora.
- Emily
EmilyCaruso
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Quadruple digits!
We are still headed north away from Hawaii, though today we have started to veer ever so slightly east. Speaking of miles, we hit quadruple digits today and are currently 1051 nms into our journey to Alaska. The sea state continues to calm down, and the famous North Pacific high is just out of our reach. The next few days will be a delicate dance of riding the outskirts of the high while avoiding the pesky low pressure systems that are dancing nearby. In his very wise words, we need to get north but not too far north, stay south but not too far south, continue heading east but not too far east, and avoid going west but also stay west.
The basics
Nordic Falken and her crew have been in a steady course of NNW since the departure of Hawaii. But! The good thing of all of this is that the promised land on which the high pressure lies has been getting closer and closer, meaning in a couple of days we're gonna see the wind slowly veer all the way to the South, which finally should see us easing the sails and remembering the basics of human nature all over again. The crew have been amazing and we've had everyone come around to push through fatigue, seasickness and soaking wet clothes. On another note we left the tropics a while ago and we can really feel the shift of temperature, long gone are the shorts and foulies have been the norm. Not much more apart from this, my intolerance to upwind sailing still pretty much alive but doing it with a bunch of such amazing human beings makes it worth it worthwhile.
Pacific pace
After some initial adversity, we untied our lines and left the beautiful island of O'ahu behind as we set sail north on an adventure of a lifetime. And that is exactly what we are - a family of strangers brought together by a passion for sailing and a love for the sea. The passage, while at its infancy, has delivered. The wind and seas, stars and sails all set the stage for a fantastic journey. We will see you on the other side with many stories to tell.