Best Island Ever!

Once again we have found the best island ever!  Part of it was the perfect weather also!  As the tide went out tide pools filled with special fishes materialized into the best bathing pools, the soft sand was a delight to running feet, and the many secret pathways were perfect for playing hide and seek.  Then to top off a great island adventure we had a bonfire and marshmallows!!  Who could ask for more!

But every day the children ask, "When is Mama coming home?" and "Is this the island that Mama is coming to?"  So with the perfect wind blowing we are now heading to "the island where Mama is coming to" and an island "with ice cream".  It will be another overnighter with an early morning arrival!

Courage

Ha'apai

We are still island hopping slowly working our way south.  Most of the islands have nice sandy beaches, so we are loving it!  When climbing into the dingy we like to walk along the pontoons to our respective seats. It is tricky but always fun. Yesterday when doing the dingy walk the dingy moved the wrong way and after a couple of seconds of teetering went right into the 81 degree water!

I usually try to go swimming at least once a day, but swimming twice or three times is even better.  So we will be doing a lot more "dinghy walking"!

Courage 

Big Waves -

The waves are getting to be pretty big.  We pretty much have no protection from the west, and the waves are rolling right on it. The movement is fine on the boat, and the crashing waves are beautiful, and quite useful for showing where any reefs are, but landing the dingy is not working. The three big children love the waves and are able to recover when tumbled, but the little ones have it a little harder when I am swimming them in through the surf. The good news is that the beaches are nice soft sand, so the landings are not painful but the sand in the hair and ears is not a favorite.

We are now anchored at an island that is completely deserted! We are waiting until morning for exploration!

This morning the other island had many baby black-tip sharks. They were about 2 feet long, super cute, and willing to come within a couple of feet of us. They appeared to swim lazy circles around the island, maybe two feet from the shore!  It is nice to be back in shark-infested waters again. We have not seen a shark for a very long time!

Courage

Special Island

We have found our very own special island.  Nobody lives here so there are birds nesting, lots of ghost crabs, pretty shells, and hopefully some flying foxes. They are supposed to be around here, but we have only seen them flying, not up close.  So we will be exploring the inside of the island tomorrow.

The shore has a lot of pumice rocks that very recently washed up. I believe they are from the volcano that started erupting back in December.  We are hoping to go sail past the erupting volcano to see how islands are made.  Should be fascinating!

Everyone is doing great, and we just found a secret stash of brownie mixes, so dessert is going to be excellent for the next few days!!

Courage

All Dressed Up and No Where to go!

She is all dressed up and ready to go. I am not sure where she thinks we are going, but we are in the middle of the Pacific.  She even has her backpack and suitcase.

Ha'apai Group of Islands

We had a great sail down here with very light winds of about six knots throughout the night, and then a perfect 15 knots for the daylight stretch through the reefs.

The first fish that we caught I was winding in slowly, mainly because we were still sailing at 7 knots, but we were also enjoying the thrill of fighting our first fish in quite a while!  Then this 8-foot shark did a sideways attack and just barely missed our dinner!  The fish though was having nothing to do with this, spit the lure out, and disappeared!  About half an hour after that we caught another one, this time we had rehearsed our action plan, Intrepid turned us into the wind so that we were just making headway, Integrity got the garbage can ready to put the fish in, and Innocence had a towel for me to use when I grabbed the fish! It was a beautiful yellowtail tuna!  We had pan-seared tuna for snack, fish tortillas for lunch, and plan on having fish something for dinner!  Everybody loves a yellowtail!

We have a great horseshoe shaped soft sand beach here, and the three older children are boogie-boarding while I take a rest.  It is nice to be me!!

Courage