May 11, 2014

We love this bay!

We had our traditional Sunday morning pancakes, also to celebrate Vitality's birthday. Vitality is 4 today!! After breakfast, we went kayaking over to our snorkeling area. Cassidy jumped in and reported very few fish or plankton and no manta rays. It may not even be worth getting wet she said. Courage took the dinghy out to the bay's entrance and found rays, so he came and picked us up and took us over. We were in the kayaks being towed by the dinghy and he said put on your goggles, they are here! I was gearing up when I hear Innocence yelling about her goggles. I saw them sinking and jumped in to get them. My camera was on my wrist, so I tightened it real quick, set down my mask since it wasn't on yet, and dove in to get the goggles that were about 2 feet under now. Apparently in doing so, somehow my mask fell off the kayak and sank. So, I saved her goggles, but lost my mask and tube. Very frustrating. I tried to swim over the area where we had been, but by the time the dinghy had moved on, then drifted, it was hopeless.

So we saw some mantas, had a nice time, and then another boat came over to see if we'd been successful. And a third dingy came. We'd lost the group of mantas, so thought that part was over. I was using Intrepid's goggles without a tube, so I swam back to the dinghy as others were swimming inward to the bay. I motored our dinghy to the group and they reported they had 10-15 mantas feeding in a group! It was awesome! More dinghy's/kayaks were arriving. Courage came and gave me his mask and tube and I went in. It was great!! I also saw a jellyfish that was clear and had electrical signals moving down its body. I'm not sure the physiology of it, but it sure looks cool. I did get a jelly hit to my ankle out swimming as well. These are the risks you take for such a great experience. As Intrepid summed it up, "first it was a plankton party, then a manta party, then a people party." Most of the anchorage was there and we had an amazing experience!! Tons of photos by everyone! Integrity was swimming with one and came up shocked, "he swims faster than I do!!" I love his surprise at that.

So, we all went home wide-eyed with another great manta swim. I loaded my thumb drive with photos of people from other boats with the mantas and we swapped photos. A couple more kid boats arrived this afternoon and the kids went to shore and played for hours!! It was great! I was able to clean up some, then wrapped presents, blew up balloons, made pizza for dinner and cupcakes for after. I doubled the pizza recipe since the kids had a light and early lunch before hitting the beach and had been playing all day. I figured they were famished. Not so much, they ate less than half of what I made. I also made two boxed cake mixes of cupcakes to bring to the beach bonfire to celebrate for Vitality. That was a good call; they were all eaten, along with a bag of marshmallows. There were 14 kids on the beach at the campfire. So, they made a kids fire and adults fire and played for a couple more hours. One of the new kid boats here has 3 boys, 10 and 7 year old twins. Perfect for our boys! They arrived, hitting 40 knots of wind, had a late lunch, so hadn't had dinner. I made her come pick up a pizza on her way home. I can't use all the leftovers or store them safely. Hopefully they liked it, if so, it was like a Dominos pizza of the Marquesas. No dishes either. I told her it was my Mother's day gift to her. There must be some reason I made so much! It all works out.

We came home from bonfire and opened a few presents, watched an episode of Wild Kratts at Vitality's request, and we are beat and going to bed!! It was a fun day and a beautiful place. We were going to leave tomorrow to go officially check-in to the country, but with the 40 knot winds out there, does not sound like a good trip. We only have about 10 nautical miles to get to the other island, we can see it from here, but there's a channel we have to go through. If you get the current, waves, and wind against you (pretty much if it's blowing, it'll be against the way we are headed in this channel) it can be a very unpleasant motor against it all. So, we will stay another day in paradise; play with the new kid boats, then possibly go the following day depending on weather and mood.

Adding to the "Bay of Birthdays" one of the 3 boys turned 10 May 2nd, and a new boat with 2 adults have birthdays May 3 and May 13th. It seems every boat here is celebrating a birthday this month and in this bay!! How fun! We're going to need more cake if we stay!! Apparently there are some lime trees inland a bit, so it may be that we are making birthday key lime pies for everyone rather than cakes, as we did for my birthday. I loved it?? Courage brought home some "pamplemousse" (gi-normous grapefruit) that was growing on the island.

Something funny is happening with these stronger winds, we are pulling hard on our anchor and bridle, and then suddenly it gives and jerks us forward again. Hasn't really happened like this before, but I'm being tossed around. More than once today I almost ended up on the floor, and Cassidy, Courage and I have all had to take at least 2-3 steps back to try to keep our balance when it happens. It's a little funny, almost unpredictable, except when the wind is blowing harder, it could happen at any time. Just to keep it interesting I think.

I think I'll pull in the clothes on the line outside; I'll sleep better since it sounds like a windy night, and then I'm going to hit the sack. Planning another manta morning, we'll see if they co-operate!

Shannon