April 11
Today we snorkelled right outside the pass into the lagoon at Manihi. It was fabulous. The coral wasn't very colorful but the variety and density of the coral was impressive. The number and variety of fish was amazing. There were schools of bright purple fish, neon blue trimmed fish, yellow......the variety of fish swimming altogether was wonderful. We were swimming through schools of fish. After that and an exciting run back in the passage in an outgoing tide (not easy!) we swam in the shallow water and saw one reef shark who promptly left when he saw us.
For lunch we went to the Manihi Pearl Beach Resort. It has over the water huts, beautiful beach bungalows and lovely restaurant, grounds.....the prices are very high, an over the water bungalow is over $800 for a night for two people. We won't be booking a room there any time soon, sadly.
Tomorrow if we can raise anchor without too much trouble we may head to Ahe for a quick snorkel then head on to Rangiroa by overnight sail. Another WorldARC boat was planning on leaving this morning and had quite an ordeal getting the anchor up - took hours. Hopefully we can hoist it without too much trouble. (the anchors get wrapped on coral heads and it's really hard to untangle and raise the anchor sometimes)
So it's been a great day and now we're tired and ready for a good night of sleep!
Pauline