Remember that movie? Remember the bit where old Sean is sneaking through the deep water canyons to evade the chasing subs?

Well, we did something like that yesterday, albeit on the surface. After a week in Cook's Bay we headed around the corner to Oponuha Bay or, more accurately, inside the lagoon at the top of the bay. The entry was marked but thereafter it was eyeball. "brown, go around" Blue, push on through" was the order of the day. At a knot or two we followed the 30 metre "canyon" around and into the pool at the end. The canyon walls shot up abruptly from the seabed, to just 1 - 2 metres on either side. A bit nerve wracking but we made it into the pool meeting up with some other cruising buddies meeting up for sundowners with the azure blue water, slowly drying out around us 'till we were surrounded by coral reef.

Dead calm all night to the point I was convinced we were aground. Running around the deck with my lead line at 02:00 proved we weren't. Just our long keel making us sit differently to everyone else. Oooh the strain. So I went back to bed.

This morning we headed off down the lagoon, check it out on the Google Earth map, to swim with the rays and sharks.

Folk were feeding them. The rays would eat out your hand. The sharks just kept looking at juicy legs but none made a move.

Pics when we next hit wifi.