Monday 22 May – snorkelling in the aquarium

Glen from CloudyBay came to join us snorkelling at the little motus at the pass which is called the aquarium. It was too much sun for Glen’s wife. Lots of mooring balls to tie onto, so they are trying to protect the area which is good to see. The fish life was fantastic, and the fish come right up to you, they have obviously been fed. Seeing such bright coloured fish up close in brilliant sunshine is dazzlingly magical. A shame that Rowan didn’t take the GoPro as one lot of fish were making enormous tight fish balls, over a meter wide. The fish swimming create patterns like murmurations, it is fascinating to watch. We can only think they do it for security, but for once I didn’t see a single shark! Some of the coral was in good shape, it just shows that if you cut out fishing from an area the fish thrive.

All four of us went to Relais Josephine on the pass, for lunch. A lovely shady cool place and a great way to watch the current change with the tide. Going from big waves to flat calm. We watched Patrick and Sara from the Swiss boat do a drift snorkel past us at slack tide and they still raced along. We had quiche with smoked fish on coconut bread which made a very exciting change from our regular diet of chicken for the last 4 nights!

We also had a nice bottle of chilled rose which meant we spent the rest of the afternoon back on PolePole like zombies. It is very hot at the moment without any wind.

We are waiting for suitable winds to make our way to Tahiti. Looks like we may leave Wednesday or Thursday.

Hope you can see the new moon