Rapturous!

Update March 31

We are still in lockdown at a mooring ball near Marina Taina. The lockdown has just been extended until the end of March. It is doubtful that the Pacific Islands will open up to cruisers in the near future maybe not for the entire season. The only place for us to go would be Hawaii. However, at the moment we're better off here so we will hang tight.

The infection rate has remained pretty low. There are now 37 confirmed cases on Tahiti and Moorea- with only 1 case so far in Rangiroa. One person is hospitalized and another was released,presumed recovered, yesterday. About 420 people are in quarantine.

We go snorkeling almost every day. It's actually funny to watch the liveaboards get their exercise. The gendarme quittin' time is about 4:30. The teenage boys on the catamaran near us wait until the last patrol and then jump joyously into the water, usually naked. Dinghies drop from their Davits and wetsuited divers head out towards the reef. We just swim from our boat. Noone comes anywhere close to others so we are all respecting the spirit of the law. The coral isn't great this close to the marina and we don't take the GoPro but there's always something new to discover. Turtles and spotted eagle rays are quite common. A couple of days ago we came upon a sleeping lemon shark. It was at least 8 feet long and granite grey colored with a big flat head. It was lying on the sand half hidden by a Coral head.We've never seen anything like it. We had to use a fish identifying book to find out what it was. The problem is that it was definitely not yellow but the shape and behavior was exactly as described online. The GoPro would have been really useful and we should go at midday. Well, we've got plenty of time to change our routine.