Thursday 25 September – the Hermit Islands, a big atoll

It was great to wake up and see the Hermit Islands from a distance. It then took for ever to get to the pass which was on the far side of the atoll. We had a gentle wind all morning around 8 knots most of the time but with the current we were doing between 5-6 knots, so a very gentle sail to the pass. As we got near we saw three banana boats screaming in from the west, they were coming from the Ninigo Islands our next destination. They got close asking if we had any fuel for them, they wanted 2 stroke, but took our petrol anyway, just hope it works for them. Turns out they are from the Hermits, they have been playing in a 50th Anniversary football match in the Ninigo islands. They said they came second, I didn’t dare ask who else was playing, it is quite far from any other islands.

We finally dropped anchor at about 3pm in The Manta Ray pass. Not ideal anchoring, around 16ms and we couldn’t see the bottom, and there is plenty of coral about. We are crossing everything we don’t get a snarled anchor chain, as the current roars through here, we have floated 3 fenders, so hoping for the best. We went in to see Evelyn who lives here at the pass, she is mentioned in our cruisers guide, sadly her husband Bob who was the manta expert and could always find them, died a couple of years ago. She was very welcoming, with grandchildren screaming around. All her 6 children live here with her, it is not a village just a family homestead, but feels like a small village. A crowd arrived in a banana boat from the main village on a neighbouring island, they asked to use our wifi and in return restocked our coconut supply which was very welcome. We could just get PolePole’s signal on the beach.

It was boiling hot and Rowan was exhausted having done a long shift from 11pm, he did a bit of binge watching of movies and had a few cat naps. Luckily he went to bed at 6:30pm and had a great deep sleep until 11pm. We flopped into bed after the last episode of King and Conqueror, very grateful that we have aircon in our cabin to cool it down.