It’s been a while since the last blog, so I’ll catch up on the
activities of the past few days.

We did indeed escape from Musket Cove on Thursday 9/28. After winding
through the passage south of Malololailai Island, we turned north and
put up the sails. Wind was about 10 knots and we sailed a broad reach
and wing on wing dead downwind as we threaded our way through several
reefs and small islands on the way to Waya Island. After a couple of
hours of sailing, the wind died and we motored the rest of the way. We
arrived around 4:30 at Nalauwaki Bay on Waya Island, set the anchor and
had a swim around the boat. We hoped for some time ashore the next day,
but the gusts whistling over the hills and into the anchorage were
strong enough that we left the dinghy lashed down and had another day of
card games on the boat. By this point, the crew was getting pretty antsy
to walk on dry land.

Yesterday, 9/30, the wind was back down so we motored the 7 miles to the
anchorage at Drawaqa Island. We arrived early on a calm and sunny
morning with half a dozen other boats in the anchorage. We launched the
dinghy and motored to Manta Ray Resort to find out about snorkeling with
the Manta Rays and make a dinner reservation. The crew enjoyed their
first walk on land in 6 days.

In the afternoon, we snorkeled 200’ from the boat to the reef just off
the island. The snorkeling was great. Visibility was excellent and the
bright sun shine brought out the colors of the water and the sea life.
There was a wide variety of healthy coral and other invertebrates. There
were plenty of colorful reef fish. The highlight for me was seeing a
school of squid. They were in a line abreast formation, instead of the
usual mob formation of the other reef fish. The larger ones were about 9
inches long, and seemed curious rather than afraid of snorkelers. They
were silvery and translucent with large eyes.

In the evening we dinghied to shore and had dinner at the restaurant. It
was a nice dinner, and a little strange to be around so many strangers
after a week alone on the boat. We dinghied back to the boat in the dark.

This morning we heard the conch shell sounding from the resort, the
signal for the guests to get ready to go snorkeling with the manta rays.
We’d ascertained yesterday that it was ok to follow their boats out to
the pass and drift snorkel (pulling our dinghy along) above the rays.
The mantas use the pass slightly after high tide and it was about the
right time, so we got ready to go snorkeling. A panga from the resort
with one person aboard headed to the pass on a scouting expedition. On
his way back, we waved him over and he reported that there were no
mantas at the pass this morning. The next high tide today is after dark,
so we may have missed our chance to snorkel with the manta rays.

On the agenda for today is more snorkeling, a dinghy ride to the beach,
and possibly a hike on the island. Morale remains high!

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