Bora Bora 4th of July

Bora Bora, French Polynesia, South Pacific

What better place to spend the birth of our nation than on American Battle Fortress: South Pacific!?

The Bora Bora yacht club, owned by an American and a Frenchman, (PS – oh yes, there is a yacht club in Bora Bora and yes, we hung out there for a while and yes, we got some official stickers and finally, yes, it is as awesome as it sounds.)

Anyway, they were nice enough to throw us an “as American as we can be in French Polynesia” BBQ.

Some parts were spot on…if not a little odd for the backdrop.

Interesting side note, did you know that the American National Anthem is fairly rare among national anthems because it is a battle song?

Other parts of the party were…well, it wasn’t cowboy guitars around a campfire but it was a very good attempt:

And some things about Polynesia are just too good to change even at the birthday party for America:

Finally, some pieces of home cannot be replicated, you simply have to bring with you:

Sometimes, and more often on days like this, people ask us if we miss home.  In truth, we still haven’t completely left.  There is a unique comfort that sailors have: not only can they bring their home along for the journey, a mariner can bring their country with them.  You may not know this, but a registered ship is considered “land” of the country it is registered with.  As almost every boat we have worked on has been American flagged, it means that we have, in a very real and legal sense, been on American soil for most of this journey.  While it is strictly a technicality and we are not ready to come home yet we cannot deny there is a certain comfort to being able to sleep under the stars and stripes on the 4^th of July.

So light a firework and listen to that National Anthem once more people, it’s Independence Day!

PS – There are a lot of people out there right now sleeping in places they’d rather not be in order to secure the freedom that Americans in general and we specifically greatly enjoy.  Thank you for your sacrifice and may you soon wake up on your home soil.