Look at the shadow on the bottom of the boat in front of us. Now that's clear water.

Sunset dinghy cocktail party anyone?

Don and Deb from Buena Vista

Lisa and John from Orcinius

Jim and Karen from Sockdologer

This isn't fun anymore, let's go home...NOT

Just a big dinghy raft....with food and drink!

We were lucky. No wind and a gorgeous sunset.

It's getting a little dark, but let's do this again!

And the "morning after" coffee klatch on Charisma

We moved away from town and went “around the corner” to a most beautiful spot. It’s about 1/8 mile off the Hilton Hotel bungalows where people pay $500/night or more to experience paradise. Well, we are anchored in their backyard. The bungalows are out on the water and are very nice, but we’re right on the edge of the reef, so the water is stunningly clear and we have a view of the signature peaks of Bora Bora. All in all, a very nice spot. We spent much of the day snorkeling. First I dove the anchor. Then Buena Vista showed up so I stayed in the water to dive their anchor, then while I was waiting for them to back down on it, I saw what I thought was an octopus in a coral outcrop under their boat. I was going to dive and poke it, but thought I’d wait until they shut off their engine. Good thing. The “octopus” was actually a large (4-5′) Moray eel who was jealously guarding his domain. Don (Buena Vista) and I dove it later on and the eel would come out and chase us away.

After a break for lunch we went back in the water and swam all around the reef by the boats. After an hour of that, Don and Deb from Buena Vista got their dinghy and the four of us went ½ mile to another spot and snorkeled some more. I can honestly say; “I’m pooped” after spending upwards of a couple hours in the water.

Cocktails tonight should be fun. There’s about four boats here, all of whom are friends and we were thinking how are we gonna get all these people together on one boat for sunset cocktails. My solution? A dinghy raft. We’re all going to make our cocktails (Charismas for us of course), then get in our dinghies and drift about 20 yards back behind our boat into six feet of water near the reef, throw out an anchor or two and raft up to watch the sunset. Should be unique!

OK, so now it’s 2200 and we’re doing dishes from dinner (well, Ann’s actually doing them, I’m writing). The dinghy extravaganza was a big hit. We had four dinghies attending: Buena Vista, Sockdolager, Orcinius and Charisma. Each couple brought their own drinks and a snack. We were anchored in the middle of the Pacific Ocean having a cocktail while rafted together. OK, so we were inside the barrier reef of an island in the middle of the Pacific. It was still way cool. The sun set and the moon came out and the eight of us sat in our little rubber boats. In Paradise. We saw a couple manta rays jump. We could see the sandy bottom. We had our cocktails. Everyone said it was the most unique cocktail experience they had ever had and wanted to do it again.