We had to be at the Beluga dive dinghy dock at 7:15 for our day trip. We were very grateful that we were not on their other dive boat, it had about 6 young Chinese tourists and a few Americans, all with huge cameras that did not look water proof. We just had the Finnish couple from Zelda, and then we picked up another 3 passengers from their boat in an anchorage. When we got close we saw the boat was called Raindancer which was the name of the boat that sank after hitting a whale on the Pacific crossing behind us. It turns out it is the crew from the sunken boat. By the time they reached land on the rescue boat, the skipper had already put an offer on a boat in NZ. They flew straight to NZ from the Marquesses, where their rescue boat left them – the first land after crossing the Pacific. They have been recovering and sorting out their new boat ever since, they called the new boat the same name. They got fully paid out by insurance and managed to get a lot of sponsorship and free goodies as their story spread around the world media. The girl, who we think is going out with the American skipper is Canadian and was in the Canadian army, a tough cookie. She must have had all the male troops in a state as she is gorgeous. The other crew member was a German psychiatrist. It was fascinating talking to them about the whole episode, the boat sank in 18 minutes and they were rescued in 10 hours. The boat was the skipper’s house so he lost everything he owned. They have sailed up from NZ a few weeks ago, it sounded like a rough passage. They plan to stay in Fiji for the hurricane season. There is an area where they dig pits for the boats and fill around them with soil, sounds incredible.
Looking for whales in amongst the islands
Loads of stunning islands
Amazing colour water of the breaking waves
We set off on our swim with whales trip and it was not long before we came across our first Mum and calf . Only 4 people were allowed in the water at a time, and as the whales were moving at quite a speed, we were in and out the water all morning. We followed them for quite a while before heading to another area in this huge archipelago. We found another Mum and calf, the calves are very white when they are young and easy to spot. They had a group of small dolphins around them that came and played in our bow wave. There was so much activity going on, loads of birds about too. The guide reckoned the calf was only a few weeks old. We spent a lot of time following them and I did get to the stage where I thought we were maybe harassing the poor mum. I was glad to leave them in peace. We spent a few more hours looking for whales, we saw some breaching in the distance. The photos will do it more justice than my description, but it felt like a real honour to be swimming near these majestic creatures.
The baby is so white she is easy to pick out
This cheeky boobie was obsessed with the tip of the antennae on the boat!
Gorgeous water
What a beach!
An inhabited island, which was unusual
We dropped off the Raindancer crew back at their boat, which just left the 4 of us on board, we asked the captain if we could have a quick snorkel at Swallow cave, which was right on our way back. It is one of the major sights here and is good in the afternoon light. It really was spectacular swimming into this enormous cave with the light filtering through the crystal clear water. The mouth is about 6 m wide and 4.5 m deep, an easy swim into the cathedral like cave. Moving further inside the entrance, the wall drops away steeply into the bottom of the cave which is nearly 20m deep and is pretty barren. The Finnish couple are serious free divers and were going right down towards the bottom. The cave gets its name from the murmuration of massive schools of bait fish in the same way flocks of swallows do. Rowan saw a big school when we entered and I saw a small cluster of these bait fish just as we were leaving. It was a great way to end an amazing trip.
Entrance to Swallow Cave
Shafts of light hitting the bottom of the cave
The afternoon light makes it look unreal
Rowan decided we should leave the town anchorage and go back to the anchorage we first arrived at, as there were only two boats there, Raindancer and the South African boat Onyx. It was a great decision to go back to this beautiful calm bay for the night , it was a gloriously peaceful evening.
Making our way back to the anchorage at Port Maurelle
Only two other boats in the bay, 13 when we were last here
This old barque/schooner in the neighbouring bay
Blissful end of the day with an ice cold G&T!
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