Mantas

The main event of the day was swimming with the mantas. We dinghied to the pass just north of us and soon found two large manta rays swimming backwards and forwards in the narrow patch of water between the reefs north and south. They were clearly visible from the surface with their wing tips frequently in the air.

We anchored the dinghy and jumped in the water. As hard as we swum we were going nowhere as the current was pretty strong. Helen found the water too choppy to reenter so she handled the dinghy taking me up current to the mantas where we both drifted past them. The water visibility was pretty poor so Helen had to spot them and give me directions to swim. After repeating this whole process a few times I managed to get close to them on a few occasions and managed to take a few photos.

Unlike the mantas we saw back in Maupiti last year these were black top and bottom making them look like living stealth bombers.

Swimming in the current I soon became tired. We took the dinghy half way back to the boat where we both entered the water and drifted over the reef in what was left of the current. The visibility here was much better than the pass and the reef quite colourful. At one point we spotted a huge, and probably tasty, grouper.

That was our main activity for the day. In the evening we started watching the Game of Thrones series. This was interesting, in a way, as we are both still reading the book. The production was pretty close to the book and in no way spoiled the read. It’s an interesting way to absorb a story.

Today we don’t have a great deal planned. Having seen the mantas we’ll move the boat. Chances are we’ll only go about 4nm to the north to a new anchorage.

The weather, recently, has been terrific and, fingers crossed, it looks like we’ve plenty more of the same ahead of us. Even when we were back in Denaru for the dentist visit we had clear blue skies so it’s definitely a change in the weather. Can’t complain.