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American Spirit II - Day 106; Computer Problem, Belvedere View Point, Looking for the Waterfall, Top Dive & Stephen Cooks Fabulous Dinner; Saturday, April 19, 2014



Up at 6:07 AM. Turned navigation computer on at 7:28 AM and couldn't get the cursor to work. Microsoft had just 'updated' some programs. Thanks Microsoft. Joel finally fixed the problem by pushing the 'windows' keyboard button and doing a regular shutdown using something other than the on/off button.

We left for an island tour in the Avis rental at 9:00 AM. We drove by a spectacular view spot where busses and cars had pulled over to take pictures. A high overlook over the ocean, with fabulous colored reefs and thatch huts (hotel rooms) over the water. These thatched huts have glass for some of their floor space, so you can see fish swim by from your room. How cool is that! An expensive resort. Probably the most expensive one on the island. The view was spectacular, and included some anchored sailboats and a pass thru the reef.

Our next stop was to The Belvedere View Point. The highest point on the island overlooking both Cook's Bay and Opunohu Bay next to it. After traveling over dirt and rock strewn roads that a car should not be driven on, we finally found it. Along with every passenger of a 2,000 person cruise ship anchored in the bay to our west. If you've ever taken a cruise, you know what I mean. The point was 790 feet high, and gave us a spectacular view not only of the two bays but Mt. Rotui between them, elevation 790 meters or over 2,400 feet. . Mt. Rotui is the sacred Mountain of the Ancient Polynesian's. After that we drove to the 200 foot waterfall listed in one of our brochures. Had to pass over a bridge and down a road where a sign said 'Attention, Passage Dangereux.' You don't need to be fluent in French to know what that means: Attention, Passage Dangerous. Yes it was. We finally sighted the waterfall, which the upper part we could see appeared to be dry at the moment. However,we could hear a lot of water running somewhere. Lot of jungle. We parked the car and hiked a quarter mile, with no luck of finding a position that offered a good view of our objective. Walked by some potted marijuana plants in someone's back yard. Oops. We think we attracted the attention of its 'owner,' who checked us out using his motorcycle. We had to cut out hike short in order to get lunch and make it to our Top Dive appointment at 1:45 PM in time.

Lunch at a roadside restaurant at 1:00 PM. Joel and I had hamburgers and French fries. Stephen had some sort of raw fish and white rice. Good meal.

We arrived at Top Dive at the Intercontinental Hotel at 1:50 PM five minutes late. After Joel and I rented cut off wet suits, we got in the boat with five other divers, three of whom were from the cruise ship in port. Four of those five had Go Pro cameras like I had. The dive equipment was all first rate; however, the air gauge was in 'bars' and not in 'pounds' like in America. A little different, but no problem. At 50 bars you were on reserve, versus 500 pounds with a US type device.

We dove to 67 feet, and went up and down some small canyons, seeing 3 green small (2 - 3 feet diameter shells) turtles swimming. Visibility was not great, with about 70 feet maximum. Compared to Rangiroa in the Tuomotus, visibility, coral and fish numbers were lousy. And we didn't see any sharks. Bummer. Joel and I stayed down 25 minutes, with the other divers staying down much longer. We were back at the resort by 4:00 PM, where we had a couple of cocktails before departing back to the Bali Hai Hotel. We arrived there at 5:30 PM and enjoyed a cocktail hour with Nexus and Hebe until 6:20 PM. Once back on the boat, Stephen had made a Chicken Curry sauce and white rice. Joel then cooked the chicken on our outdoor grill, and after adding a fruit cocktail, French bread and a glass of wine, dinner was served. Great meal. Thank you Stephen.

After dinner everyone was too tired to watch a movie, so lights out at 8:15 PM. I knew that in going to bed that early that I'd wake up by 3:00 AM.

Brian Fox

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