Sunday 14 May – close encounters with a Moray Eel

It was another stiflingly hot day with absolutely no wind. Sadly this has brought out the flies and the noseeums and we are both covered in bites. This meant we were ready to jump into the water to snorkel early! We remained inside the atoll again as it was stunning, loads of fish and clear water, without too much current. I spotted a big Moray Eel which Rowan got a great video of, I kept well clear this time. Just been reading up about Moray eels and it says they can travel 6500kms looking for a mate and can grow to 4m long. Oh and don’t get near their teeth!

At 11am we had a break and went to visit Valerie to pay for our mooring ball and pick up my pearls. It was an excruciatingly long, slow business as Gaston had not made the holes yet. Rowan in desperation went off and had a snorkel and came back half an hour later. We were just about done! The young French couple had joined us purchasing pearls so it took even longer. But we did get an extra pamplemousse for the 3 beers we took them. We are in rather short supply of beers ourselves, down to the last 2 Panamanian beers. Things like beer and alcohol cost an absolute fortune here, and are highly desirable. The Arc asked us not to give locals booze, but Gaston and Valerie looked like they could handle a couple of beers no problem, unlike the poor lady in the Marquesas. Once done we went and had another snorkel with the midday sun, it was getting harder with the current.

In these calm conditions it was a good time to get laundry done, I needed to get all the mattress and pillow protectors washed from the guest rooms before we head home. Good to get it out the way. As we watched another stunning sunset, a huge big luxury sailing boat arrived, it anchored about a km offshore, obviously too big to come in. Only the young French couple are left in the lagoon with us and they are departing at 1am.

I went down to wash my hair at about 6pm and when I came back up Rowan suggested we leave now for Rangiroa. The wind has disappeared for tomorrow, so we would have to motor anyway. It made sense, so within 10 minutes, with just a touch of evening light we got our lines off the mooring ball and we were off into the flat sea. Luckily we could follow our path that we came in on, so we knew we would be ok. I did the first shift until midnight catching up on admin, also it is a perfect time to make bread, the only time we can put the oven on, as it is way too hot during the day.

Our lovely spot

Rowan towing me home for the exercise!

I love their big eyes, I think they are squirrel fish, goodness knows why they are called that!

Rowan’s great video of the Moray eel

Up close!

Our resident gang of Remoras under the boat getting the last of our water melon

They get a bit wimpy when the big dudes suddenly appear

Pink twilight colours catching the big clouds

Our French neighbours, the couple look like they are in their mid twenties living the dream. You can just see the luxury yacht in the distance behind them