Friday 26 September – we become the internet cafe, payment in coconuts

It wasn’t long before the boats arrived to ask for wifi. Some are brilliantly polite and bring bowls of fruit, coconuts, eggs, greens and others bring nothing saying they ‘want wifi’, no pleases or thank you. So they get a little lesson in manners too! Interestingly there is a big senior boarding school here, a lot of them are here from the big island Manus we sailed passed. The students seem to vary in age up to their twenties.

Rowan had a long snorkel early in the morning looking for mantas, I was a little concerned as he went around the corner to where I had spotted on the No Foreign Land app that there were crocodiles. I was very glad to have him back safely, sadly he didn’t see a manta. He was very dismissive of it until he messaged Patrice a French sailor we befriended in Papeete, who did this route last year, and he sent a video of his girlfriend snorkelling in that same spot, who saw a crocodile and they have it on video! I think it made Rowan think he would not swim so far from the boat again.

It is incredibly hot and we are very grateful for the awning on the front although I need to work on putting some layers on it to give it denser shade. We saw Claudette arrive, she has had a good journey, although still suffering from her cold. She has gone straight to the remote anchorage in turquoise water that Patrice (who she also knows well) recommended, on the outer reef of the atoll. We will go there tomorrow after having one last early morning look for mantas.

In the afternoon we went for a long snorkel both sides of the pass and swimming across it to confirm that it is deep enough for PolePole to go through tomorrow. It was a great snorkel, we drifted with the dinghy, there is a strong current as the water channels between the islands, also having the dinghy with us means we can jump in quickly if we need to. There were lots of fish and some a good size too. There were lovely pockets of good coral but sadly plenty of damaged coral too. The water at times was cloudy with bits (nutrients) which is the stuff the mantas love to eat, but not great for visibility. We saw a turtle but no mantas.

It was another lovely evening, a happy ending of the internet cafe hours. The last lot left as it was getting dark. Apparently the main village used to have cellular reception, but has not worked for the last two months. It baffles us how all the teenagers and adults have phones out here, rather sad as they almost become zombified when they connect, I am sure it is going to have a huge impact as it exposes them to the big wide world which for centuries they have been so totally cut off from.