Mid morning we upped anchor and quickly raised the head sail to plod slowly up inside the reef. We had about a knot of current so despite less than ideal sailing conditions we managed to average around 4 knots. We were on the lookout for a spot to go snorkeling before lunch. In the end we decided to anchor near the green marker south of Motu Vaiorea – that’s the little island to the west of the gap between the north and south islands comprising Huahine.
After waiting out some rain we headed over to the green marker to see what the conditions were like. The bottom looked fair but the current made the spot untenable. Should have thought about that. We headed over to our plan B which was on the south side of Motu Vaiorea. Here we found a nice shallow area with plenty of living coral and fish. We had the spear gun with us which Ben and I shared. There were no suitable fish to eat so as usual we ended up taking the odd pot shot. Ben managed to bag a fish which was promptly scoffed by an eel which yanked it right off the spear. While out we saw the largest and most fascinating sea slug we’ve seen to date. It was nearly two feet long and covered in star shaped protrusions. It’s underside had thousands of little red legs. I have no books to look this creature up but hopefully one day we’ll be able to identify it.
After lunch and a rest we again raised the anchor and hoisted the head sail only and sailed to Fare. We had a little mishap on arrival. We hadn’t raised the dinghy and had towed it from our dive spot. When close maneuvering on the motors we pull the dinghy in and tie it close to prevent the line from getting wrapped in the props. Once we had anchored I asked Ben to release the dinghy. Which he did. While focusing on other things we received a call on the radio from Shirley on The Road to say our dinghy was adrift. Her husband Taffee was already in his dinghy and chasing ours down which was rapidly making distance as a result of the winds we were in. Fortunately all ended up well.
We met Shirley and Taffee again at Happy Hour. We learned that the dancing we’d been told about was live music instead which we weren’t so up to. After Happy Hour we went for some local food before heading back to the boat for the evening.
Weather permitting, today we’re heading over to Raritea. We managed to speak to Sea Mist on the SSB yesterday and have agreed to rendezvous where they are so we can hand over a dive computer Ben brought from the US.
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