Latitude: 17 10.309 S
Longitude: 177 11.233 E
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| Glorious Sunset |
We may have refreshed our memories yesterday with why we love to sail, but last night was not an idyllic memory. Fortunately, the anchor alarm only went off once when the boat drifted beyond the perimeter we had set. But what kept us from a good night sleep was the constant rock and roll of the swells coming in from the west. After being in the flat waters of a safe harbor, we had forgotten about the constant movement of the boat while at anchor.
The stars last night, however, were fantastic and the sea was calm enough even with the swells to see the reflection of the stars twinkling in the water. We woke up with a beautiful apricot dawn,
enjoyed a leisurely morning on the Lido deck (fan tail of the boat), sipping coffee, eating our cornflakes, and reading our books.
We caught up with the boat driver Leve. He was looking for the Mantas so that he could bring some divers and snorklers out. We searched with him for awhile. He showed us where the pass was and suggested we drift through with our dinghy as the current was fairly swift. We spent the afternoon, doing three drift snorkels through the Manta pass.
The fish and coral were beautiful, but we didn't see a manta ray and were pretty disappointed. We caught up with Leve at the Manta Ray resort about 3:30. We were just getting a glass of cold white wine and a beer. He called us by name and told us that he was taking a group of snorkelers out and would we like to follow him. He was going to call his ancestors to appear...the ray! Well, okay!
We left our wine and beer with bartender and told him we would be back later. We hopped in the dinghy and made our way out to Manta Ray pass one more time. Leve and the snorkelers jetted in front of us and we followed in their wake. We tied our boat off to the dive boat as Leve called the rays. Manhoney, head manta finder slithered into the water and snorkeled around while we all waited in silence. Then he gave us the sign to get in.
Sure enough, a huge black manta was only 10 feet below us. His fin/wing span had to be twelve feet across and his eyes stuck out in front of him like head lamps. It was thrilling! We swam along with him until he went too deep for us to see. Mahoney, born in Manta, can hold his breath up to five minutes underwater, and we saw him dive easily to thirty feet. He was almost as amazing as the ray. We gave Mahoney a ride back to the resort as the snorkeling guests were still in the water, and Mahoney needed to get back and help unload the supply ship that was coming in. We asked if they were able to see rays everyday? No, and today's ray was the first and only they had spotted. We felt very lucky, but obviously Manta Ray Bay is named for it's home team.
When we dropped off Mahoney, we sat in the remainder of the sunlight, sipping our beer and wine. We watched as seven young men formed a "bucket brigade" to unload the supply skiff. From the boat to the beach, they tossed boxes, sacks, and bundles of goods with practiced synchronization from one man to the next.
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| Everything is Imported to these Outlying Islands & Garbage is Exported |
The clouds are developing over the island this evening. It's been a beautiful day and the sunset was magnificent.
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| Red Skies At Night, Sailors' Delight! Not Always True. |
All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.
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