Diving – Adagio’s Voyage

The Friendly Islands

We left Niue on a two day passage for Tonga. It was an uneventful and easy passage, which we were pretty grateful to have had after some other boats we know that had some rough passages in this area of the South Pacific. We were also very excited to catch a yellowfin tuna on our first day out providing a delicious sashimi dinner!

We arrived in the Ha’apai group in Tonga, which is essentially the middle group of islands that comprise Tonga. Tonga is known as the Friendly Islands, and indeed the people we have encountered have been genuinely nice and helpful. The Ha’apai group is not very heavily populated, and most people living here live in small villages on remote islands where they do not see many outsiders and supplies are hard to come by. We traded some t-shirts and fishing gear for bananas and papayas with local fishermen. And, Mike in his usual Pied Piper manner made friends with all of the children in one of the villages playing on the beach and jumping out of a tree.

We were surprised not to find too many sailboats in the Ha’apai group, other than our friends Marcus and Diana on Allora, whose daughter Maddi was visiting them. So, most of the time we were two boats alone in the anchorage which suited us just fine. Although some of the anchorages are a bit challenging, the effort was certainly worth it to see some of the most beautiful islands and sunsets we have seen to date in the South Pacific.

The challenging conditions meant we had to be willing to anchor in spots where we dropped anchor up close to reefs, which is only ok in the right conditions. If and when the wind shifts we had to be ready to move on a moment’s notice to not end up with our boat on the reef! In one anchorage we kept watches all night to make sure the situation didn’t get dangerous. And, on another occasion we had to pick up anchor at midnight and move when the wind did a 180 degree shift. In that case, a squall came through and the wind shifted around bringing big waves pitching the boat up and down and putting us way too close to the reef. Luckily, we got the anchor up without any problems and made it to a safe anchorage by 2am. Not the most pleasant night, but sometimes you have to be willing to take a chance in order to see some of the most amazing places.

This time of year is also whale season in Tonga. The humpback whales come north from the Antarctic during winter to mate and calve. And, in the Ha’apai group the whales were everywhere. We had whales come by our boat in anchorages, next to our dinghy when we went out exploring, and breaching out of the water to put on a show every time we sailed between anchorages. We could not get enough of these magnificent creatures all around us. We especially loved the young ones that were just learning to leap and splash and play. They were the most curious about us and our boats.

In addition to all the whale watching, we loved the untouched and unspoiled nature of the Ha’apai for the excellent diving. The water is colder here and that means new and different corals and reef fish. We’ve loved all of the soft corals with their different colors and textures. There are also lots of anemonefish (like Nemo!), and we even saw our first zebra shark!

For several weeks, we jumped around from anchorage to anchorage, snorkeling and diving and whale watching. It would be impossible to describe each of the unique places we visited, so I’ll describe what was definitely one of the most memorable days.

We anchored with our friends on Allora near an island called Fonoifua which is surrounded by other smaller, uninhabited islands and reefs. We started the day by doing some exploring in the dinghies to try and find a good dive spot. We had whales around in the distance and it was a perfectly calm and sunny day. We jumped in the water at various spots to check it out, which is where we saw our first zebra shark and also some painted lobsters. (I didn’t get pictures of the lobsters, but they are worth googling.) We finally decided on a plan to do a dive at a nearby island in what looked to be a good spot.

After getting all the dive gear together, the five of us headed out to dive. The random spot we picked turned out to be spectacular. There were interesting coral formations with all kinds and colors of coral. The fish life was great, including spotting a giant trevally. And, one of the best things was hearing the whale songs on the entire dive. We didn’t see the whales on the dive, but we could hear them. They weren’t too far off, because the sounds were pretty loud under water. The most amazing was the deep sounds made from some of the males which was so loud that it vibrated in your chest, almost like someone had the bass on the speakers turned up way too loud. It was fascinating.

We all emerged from our hour long dive thrilled and wanting to do it again, but one tank was all was had time for that day. Mike had brought along a fishing rod and planned to troll back to the boat from the dive, which was about a mile trip. We weren’t really expecting much, but about half way back to the boat, the line started pealing off the reel, and we knew we had a good fish.

I yelled “fish on” at our friends who zipped back over to catch the fish action on video. It was clearly a strong fish, and at first we worried we might have hooked a shark. As Mike started reeling it in, we peered over the side of the dinghy and could see it was some kind of tuna. But, just as we started to see the fish, I also started to see a shark following the fish up. We have lost more than one fish to a shark in the past, so Mike started trying to reel it in as fast as he could. Our dinghy was full of all our scuba gear, so it made it a bit challenging for him to maneuver in the boat. But, soon enough we had a good size dogtooth tuna in the dinghy! We were all so excited for a good tuna dinner. And, it was a fantastic end to a perfect day.

We were only given a visa for 30 days upon arrival in Ha’apai, so after a few of weeks we had to leave to go up to Neiafu in the Vava’u group to get a visa extension. It was hard to leave Ha’apai, but we were excited to check out a new part of Tonga. More on that next time…

~katie

Magical Niue

After lots of exploring the caves and chasms by land in Niue, it was time to see it from another viewpoint. We booked our first dives with the Magical Niue dive shop and excitedly jumped in the water. All of the dive sites are very close to shore because of the steep topography of the island. But, what is impossible to see from on top of the water, is that there are a myriad of caves, arches, caverns, swim throughs, etc. deep underwater. Most of them you would never know were there if you didn’t have an experienced guide to show you.

Our first dive gave us just a taste of what was to come. (I think they were trying take it easy on us at first!) But, the second dive really tested your senses. If you have any kind of claustrophobia, these dives would not be for you. It certainly got my adrenaline rushing when we had to follow each other single file through a narrow chasm in the reef with twists and turns. When we got to the end, the first person had to swim over the chain to turn us all around. There was some light streaming in from up above, but I’m still glad I had my light with me. And, it also helped to see all the brightly colored soldierfish and squirrelfish that like to hang out in the dark crevices.

After our first two dives, we immediately booked two more dives for a few days later. As we were getting our gear on and listening to our briefing for this next dive, I got a little concerned when Rami, our guide, says he only takes experienced divers on this next dive. Uh, ok. Mike and I were the only two divers who did not have our Advanced or Rescue Diver certifications. But, I guess he saw us dive the last time and thought we were capable enough.

Rami explained that this dive would be a little intimidating. We descended to thirty feet over which there was large chasm in the reef. It was about fifteen feet long and three feet wide at its widest place. We were then to descend in this crack in the reef to 90 feet at which there is a large cave at the bottom. I have to say I was a bit intimidated at first, but then it was just amazing. At the bottom was a large cave that then opened up to ocean floor, so you could swim out the bottom of it. (Unfortunately, all my cave pictures came out dark and blurry!)

After swimming out of the cave, we swam through numerous other chasms and swim throughs in the reef until it was time to ascend and head to the next dive site. At the next dive, we were going to head into a true cave. It was low tide which meant the cave would be filled with more fresh water than salt water creating blurry vision and we all needed lights to enter.

We descended to about thirty feet and followed Rami as he disappeared under the rocks. After swimming quite a ways with rocks overhead and following the lights in front of us (since everything was blurry), I could see that Rami had ascended to the surface inside the cave. We all came up and looked around the large cave with our lights as there is no opening in the cave to let in natural light. Rami explained that coconut crabs often hide in this cave, but we didn’t see any this time. The fresh water on top was much colder than the warm ocean water. So, we didn’t stay too long and descended back down to exit the cave.

We followed Rami through many more chasms and openings in the reef. On this part of the island there was quite a lot of surge, so we weren’t able to go through some of the more narrow openings. At one point I was just hanging onto to a rock to keep from flying into the other divers. It was a bit amusing, but it meant the end of that chasm.

The underwater topography is truly amazing in Niue and nothing like we have ever seen. There are some nice corals and reef fish, but these dives are all about the scenery and underwater adventure.

Our time in Niue is starting to come to an end, but we’re trying to see if we can squeeze in one more dive before we have to leave here. Niue has seriously been one of the highlights of our time in the South Pacific, but we’re also looking forward to seeing Tonga next.

~katie

Diving with Dolphins

After leaving Fakarava, we had an easy overnight sail to Rangiroa. Rangiroa is one of the atolls in the Tuamotus which we weren’t able to visit last year. So, we were excited to explore a new place. Our friends Diana and Marcus on Allora came along with us, and we were very excited to run into our French friends Caroline and Philippe on Ivadel when we arrived in the anchorage. We first met Caroline and Philippe in Mexico and reconnected with them last year in the Marquesas. Upon arrival, they told us that they were in Rangiroa so that Philippe could complete his dive master certification at one of the local dive shops.

One of the reasons we really wanted to visit Rangiroa was for the diving. As many dives as we have done in French Polynesia, we have never seen dolphins in the water. We see dolphins from the boat, but it seems to be really rare to see them snorkeling or diving. However, Rangiroa is known for some local dolphins that either tolerate or actually like playing with the divers. We’ve had friends tell stories of dolphins coming right up to them like dogs wanting to be petted. We had no intention of actually touching a dolphin, but I really wanted to see them while diving.

There had been a rather large south swell for a few days filling the lagoon which meant that the current in the pass into the lagoon was always going out. With wind opposing the current, this also meant that there were some rather large waves in the pass. Due to the conditions, and our desire to get the best shot at finding the dolphins, we decided to go with some local dive shops rather than attempt the dives on our own.

We didn’t waste anytime getting to the diving and scheduled a sunset dive for the same day that we arrived. On the first dive, there were no dolphins, but lots of great barracuda, a school of twenty spotted eagle rays and a fantastic end to the dive where we ended up in a huge school of thousands of small jacks of some sort.

The next day we were back at it with even more determination to see dolphins. We had a different dive guide this time, a young French woman who was the most at ease in the water I had ever seen. She just kind of floated with an occasional frog kick to propel her forward, unlike my clumsy diving where I’m always trying to dial in my buoyancy and not look like a flailing fish when trying to deal with current. I aspire to look so calm in the water!

Anyway, our guide suggested that our best shot at seeing the dolphins might be to go out a little bit further from the reef “into the blue.” After a “one, two, three, everybody into the water,” we descended into the blue. I had never had a dive like this where all around was blue. You couldn’t see the bottom or the reef off to our right. As we descended, I had to carefully watch my depth gage, because I had absolutely no sense of how deep we were with no reference points around us. Even looking up at the surface didn’t give you any clue as to where you were. It really did feel like floating in outer space. I thought it was awesome.

We swam for a while with some fish drifting by and eventually over toward the reef. All the while, we were constantly looking for the dolphins. As my air showed less than half a tank left, I was beginning to think that dive number two was also going to be a bust for dolphins. But, just as I was beginning to lose hope that we would see them, they appeared. The dolphins were above us toward the surface, but we could see a small pod of four or five. And, the most amazing part was a baby dolphin who we were told by the dive guide had just been born about 10 days prior. If it is possible to smile with a regulator in your mouth, I did it.

After three dives, the weather forecast was not looking too good to stay anchored up by the pass. We looked at sailing down to the southeast part of the lagoon where we would have some protection from the wind and fetch. That part of the lagoon also has large sand flats where Mike and Marcus were very excited to do some fly fishing for bonefish.

The boys had a fun time that week out every morning stalking the fish on the flats. Diana, who is an artist did an awesome mosaic on one of the sand spits which a bunch of shells she collected. And, one day Diana and I went out to do some fun photo shoots. Diana caught this cool photo of me and an a sting ray. (I now want a dome lens for my camera!)

She also got some awesome drone photos of our boats, that I’m thankful she shared with me.

The wind subsided and we headed back to the anchorage by the pass to do some more diving. We got in a couple more dives and even got to have Philippe act as our dive guide as part of his training with one of the dive shops. We saw the dolphins (and the baby) a few more times, but they never got too close to us. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get my close encounter, but we gave it our best shot.

We loved Rangiroa, and I could have stayed there a lot longer, but the time was coming for us to head back to Tahiti and to start to head west. Leaving the Tuamotus with no idea if or when we will every be able to return gave me a sad pang. I know that there is more to see out there, but it is hard to wrap your head around leaving a place that it truly a paradise.

~katie

Dinghy Walkabout

After leaving Tahanea, we headed to the atoll of Fakarava. Fakarava was one of my favorite places that we visited last year. The southern pass is known as one of the best dive spots in French Polynesia, if not the world. The fascinating thing about diving the pass is the wall of sharks. I posted a video last year of diving in the pass. If you haven’t seen it, click on the videos link on the front page of the blog and check it out. Hopefully, I’ll eventually get up another video from this year’s dives.

We arrived early in the morning and found an open mooring to pick up. And, as we came in we recognized another boat in the anchorage, Alondra. We got to know Ken, Edith and their two daughters last year and were excited to see them again. Ken and Edith are marine biologists and avid divers, so we knew we were in for a treat to dive with them again. The minute we said hello, we were already planning a dive with them.

There was a lot of incoming current in the pass, so in order to dive we tied up one dinghy to a buoy outside the pass and left another dinghy inside the pass. The plan was to surface in the shallow water near the second dinghy where someone could then head back and retrieve the first dinghy. It’s been fun learning how other people dive on their own without paying to go with a dive operation. It’s a little more work, but it is rewarding to plan and organize your own dives and then successfully fulfill them.

We descended down to the ocean floor full of coral and beautiful reef fish about 60 feet down and then headed to the middle of the pass where there is a deep canyon. The canyon is where all of the sharks hang out. Ken and Edith showed us where there was a cave located at 90 feet down. The cave didn’t extend far inside, but it provided a fun sandy spot to hang out and watch all of the sharks drift by. The sharks really do seem like they are floating in air as they calmly swim against the current. It is a lot of fun to watch.

We didn’t stay that deep for long, especially because once we were out of the cave the current pushed us further in where we could just relax and float by all the fish. As we got even shallower, there was an area Ken referred to as “Superman Alley.” That’s because the current really has you flying over the coral at that point. If you want to stop, you’ve got to grab onto something and hold on tight! It was all super fun, and in all we got about five more dives in there.

Another boat had invited us and our friends Marcus and Diana aboard for cocktails at sunset. We had fun with friends new and old telling lots of sailing yarns, but we got a real shock when we went to leave. It was about 9:00 pm and pitch black out. So, when we discovered our dinghy was no longer tied to the back of their boat, we both had a bit of a freak out.

When you live on a boat, your dinghy is your lifeline to shore. It is a bit like your car to get you from A to B, but also lets us do fun things like dive and snorkel and fish. And, when you are in a remote spot like Fakarava, you can’t just go out to the store and get another one. So, if we couldn’t find the dinghy, it was going to seriously put a crimp in our future plans.

I got dropped off at our boat while Mike in our new friends’ dinghy and Marcus and Diana in their dinghy went out looking with spot lights. It seemed hopeless, especially when Mike got back about an hour later with no sign of the dinghy. Neither of us slept well that night.

The next morning we were up early trying to come up with a plan. Fakarava is an atoll, which means that other than the two passes, it is a lagoon with a fringing reef and lots of motus (islands). We thought about the winds and tides and all came to the conclusion that it would be unlikely, if not impossible, for the dinghy to have gotten out of the lagoon. But, to search the lagoon seemed like an insurmountable task. It is huge!

As soon as it was a decent hour to bug people, I started getting on the phone and email to contact anyone and everyone we knew in Fakarava to get the word out. We figured if the dinghy was found, it would likely be brought to the main town of Rotoava about 25 miles away. In the meantime, Mike and Diana went to shore to see if they could hire a local boat, that would be much bigger and faster, to go searching.

Just as I had about exhausted everyone I could think to contact (boats in Rotoava, yacht services, gendarme, etc.), Diana excitedly came over the VHF to say that they had found the dinghy!

We don’t know how the dinghy came loose. Mike tied the line around the rail the way he always has done, but somehow it came undone. So, the line was dragging in the water as the dinghy blew away. That ultimately was a blessing, because that line just barely snagged on some coral as the dinghy drifted over a shallow reef. And so, the dinghy was just sitting there waiting for us only a couple of miles away. There were all smiles aboard both the boat that took Mike and Diana out searching and aboard Adagio where I was waiting. Whew!

~katie

Diving in the Tuamotus

We’ve been back in the States visiting family for the holidays, and I have been busy editing videos of the scuba and free diving we did in the Tuamotus this year. The best things about the remote Tuamotus are the clear water and abundant sea life. That made it the perfect place to get in the water daily to check out what was below the surface.

If you’re wondering what our process is/was for finding places to dive that were fun and safe, we actually had a lot of help. Thanks to sailors who have gone before us and published their favorite dive sites, there is a lot of information you can find online. We also asked other sailors we met along the way for their favorite spots. In places where there were actual dive shops, we found the people to be very generous with their local knowledge even when we weren’t paying to dive with them. But, sometimes we just had to do some exploring on our own to scope out some new spots.

When we didn’t have any information about an area, often we would do a reconnaissance snorkel to see if it looked like a good dive spot before breaking out the dive gear. That let us assess the depth, current, visibility, etc. We have our own dive gear, including a compressor to fill our dive tanks, which lets us dive wherever we like. We’ve also met lots of other divers on boats doing the same thing who have become fast friends. That means it is rarely ever just the two of us diving. There is always safety in numbers!

Pretty much all of the time, we are diving from our dinghy. We get all our gear ready and pile it into the dinghy to head off to the dive site. If the site doesn’t have any current, we anchor the dinghy or tie it to a mooring ball if there is one. The dive shops have been really nice about letting us use their moorings. But, if we are scuba diving or free diving anywhere that has current, especially in the passes, we tow our dinghy. Mike has a 100′ floating line that he attaches to the dinghy and his BCD. That way, when we are ready to ascend, we just come up the line and are right at our dinghy no matter where we are. We’ve also been lucky enough to have other sailors that just wanted to snorkel the passes while we dove and were willing to tow the dinghy at the surface for us and keep an eye on where we are. So, overall, we have had lots of fun and easy dives without incident.

Below are a few of the videos that I put together about our time in the Tuamotus this year. I hope you enjoy them. You can also read more about the Tuamotus if you go back and check out my blog posts from earlier this year.

Diving Fakarava – June 2018

Exploring Tahanea – June 2018

Diving Makemo – May 2018

Free Diving Raroia – May 2018

Happy Holidays!

~katie

The Absence of Fear

One question I get asked most when I tell people about our adventure living on a sailboat and traveling the world is, “Aren’t you afraid?” This is often followed by wide eyes when they imagine sailing in the middle of a black night or through a squall. Or, perhaps they can’t imagine trying to navigate a foreign country where you don’t speak the language or where there has been a history of crime or violence. The short answer to the question is “no.”

That doesn’t mean I never experience fear. It means that I choose not to be afraid and live my life in fear. Of course there are dangers being on a boat in the middle of the ocean or in a remote place with no medical facilities if we were to get sick or injured. There are probably more dangers driving on a busy highway in Los Angeles. But, by succumbing to fear all you do is to limit the amazing and soul enriching experiences that you can have in this life.

My biggest challenge in the last three years was overcoming fear in learning to scuba dive. In my initial dive instruction, I had to do the pool class three times to get past feelings of panic and claustrophobia before I could get out into the ocean. Once we started traveling and diving, I would hang onto Mike’s hand underwater with a death grip while I worked to control and slow down my breathing so as not to panic. I had to take Mike’s advice not to look at the depth gage so I wouldn’t freak out about how deep we were. But, I was determined to dive. I kept at it, and each dive got easier and easier. The depth got more comfortable, the current didn’t freak me out, and soon I started to feel like I belonged underwater.

That determination to overcome my fears has paid off with the most amazing underwater experiences this year. The fabulous visibility in French Polynesia makes it feel like you are diving in an aquarium. And, every island and atoll has different reef fish, pelagics, sharks and corals. Even when we’ve dove in the same spot on different days, each dive is different. You never know what you are going to see.

We got out of the marina in Papeete after getting our boat projects done and headed back over to Moorea where we anchored off the reef in Opunohu bay. Our friends Marcus and Diana on s/v Allora were there and really wanted to go diving with us. They had just bought some new tanks and dive gear and were anxious to use them. So, we made a plan, filled the tanks and headed outside the reef to some buoys used by the dive boats.

Marcus and Diana had done that dive earlier in the week before we arrived and had an idea where to proceed. We descended down the mooring line to about fifty feet in a canyon surrounded by rose coral, which was different from most of the coral reefs we’ve dove so far in French Polynesia. There were plenty of beautifully colored reef fish around and the occasional black tip reef shark. But, the stars of the show on this dive were the turtles!

There were huge sea turtles all over the reef. They were almost camouflaged among the reef just lying there resting. Several of them let us get really close to them as Diana took pictures. A couple of them eyed us suspiciously for a few minutes and decided it was better to take off and find a new resting spot. So, I got some great video of them swimming around. It was a fabulous dive, and we are excited to go back out on the reef again as there is supposed to be a spot we can view some lemon sharks!

We listened to a podcast recently that had an interesting perspective on the political divide in our country based on psychological make up. It played soundbites of various politicians and made the observation that some speeches were all about fear and terror where others were about positivity and hope. The psychologist explained that this was not by accident. That people really do view the world in different ways. Some people honestly see threats all around them, whereas others acknowledge crime and danger but look rationally at statistics and so forth.

Right after this, I happened upon a blog post from another cruiser about his experience in Papeete. It was horribly negative stating that it was full of crime, gangs, graffiti and trash. He talked about being afraid of walking down the street and his girlfriend hiding the jewelry she was wearing for fear of being robbed. I couldn’t help reading this and think, “Is he talking about the same place I see in front of me?” Yeah, there’s crime in Papeete. I talked about the petty theft at the marina in the last post. There is also over 50% unemployment, so there is a lot of poverty. I saw all that, but I also saw a beautiful island with kind people who were just trying to live their lives. Not everyone was in a gang. The other sailor may have seen some trash on the street, but I saw incredibly manicured gardens outside people’s homes. How is it that some people see fear and terror and others see beauty and light?

I disagree with the psychologist that said that people have this inherent nature about being fearful and seeing dangers everywhere they go. I think we all have a choice about whether to buy into fear and limit our experiences or to embrace life.

We sent off our ballots this week for the mid-term elections in the U.S., and I’m choosing to vote for candidates who do not traffic in fear. Scaring people, blaming others that look different, speak a different language, practice a different religion or simply have a different outlook on life is not productive. What an amazing place this would be if we all chose to extinguish unfounded fears and focus on love and hope.

Kenny Chesney is one of my favorite singers, and he has a song with Ziggy Marley called Love for Love City. (The song and album Songs for the Saints are about the Caribbean islands after the hurricanes.) I think the lyrics are how I wish all of us, and our elected officials, would speak about our country and how our people should come together and reject the fear mongering…

All I’ve got’s love for love city

All of her people are my people too

Every color, every creed

Together in good times, together in need

All I’ve got’s love for love city

~katie

Mantas and Whales and Fish, Oh My!

I don’t think I really considered myself an environmentalist until I was (literally) living on and in the ocean everyday. Of course, I always thought protecting the environment was important, but I didn’t feel a true connection to the environment until we went sailing. That got me thinking about why it seems like it’s such a struggle right now to get our society and governments to take action to protect this planet we call home.

It’s disturbing to hear reports of illegal fishing here in the South Pacific, governments (including ours in the States) that want to roll back clean water and air regulations and people complaining about new rules to reduce use of plastic such as grocery bags and straws (that end up in the ocean!). You hear talk of freedom and too much government involvement that just don’t seem to grasp the reality we live in. In a perfect world, we would all “choose” to do the right thing for the environment, but unfortunately we just don’t. The desire for cheaper goods and services and more money in our pockets seems to overrule protecting Mother Earth.

My theory is that it is easy to look the other way when you don’t see it first hand. If you live in the city, drive on concrete roads and sit in air conditioning all day, the environment seems like this far away place that isn’t connected to your daily life. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but it is hard find that connection, that experience, that could actually make you stop and think about how much water you are using, where your electricity is generated, how much plastic you throw away or how your clothes are made. (Side bar: Check out a great documentary called The True Cost about the social, economic and environmental impact of the fashion industry. It is really eye opening.)

So, for those of you living far away from the ocean, I want to share some experiences I have had lately that I hope will encourage you to explore nature where ever you are, think critically about your own individual impact on the environment and encourage your politicians (including voting!) to take actions which make our planet habitable for many generations to come.

Giant Manta in Avea Bay:

We were still in Avea Bay on Huahine one afternoon when Mike headed off with the surfboard in search of waves. The sun was out and the bay was flat calm. With those conditions, and the clear water, you could see the bottom 30-40 feet down throughout the bay. It was a perfect day to enjoy the paddle board. I dropped the board in the water and headed toward a channel marker at the head of the bay about a half mile away. It was incredibly peaceful as no one else seemed to be out for some reason, and I had the water all to myself.

I reached the marker and turned around to head back toward the boat. But, I decided to take a different, more indirect, route back as I wasn’t quite that tired from paddling. I decided to paddle right at the edge of the reef that surrounds the bay where it drops off into deeper water. As I started down the edge of the reef, something caught my eye. I large black mass was just under the surface of the water, and I quickly paddled over to take a closer look.

Gliding right next to my board was a giant manta ray. His wing span was about 8 feet across, and his large mouth was open to feed. Mantas are filter feeders that take in large quantities of water and filter out the small plankton. I tried not to get too close and disturb him, but he didn’t seem bothered by my presence at all. He continued slowly back and forth along the edge of the reef. The best part was when he did a series of backflips next to me, almost as though he was showing off. For the better part of an afternoon, the bay belonged to me and my new manta friend. I had to finally tear myself away before the sun headed below the horizon. It was quite magical.

Diving in Huahine:

We headed back up to Fare and were excited to see a boat that we briefly met in the Tuamotus earlier this year. Ken, Edith and their two daughters live aboard s/v Alondra. Ken and Edith are both marine biologists with lots of diving experience, and they asked us if we wanted to do some diving with them. We hadn’t been diving since the Tuamotus and were excited to check out what was below the surface outside the reef here in Huahine.

The dives were fantastic. We saw lots of healthy corals, colorful reef fish, turtles, schools of trevally and some large milkfish. The best part of diving with Ken and Edith is that they would find interesting little fish and crabs to point out to us that I had never noticed before. And, afterward, we went through the fish guide to identify some of the species we hadn’t seen on other islands.

If you’ve been reading this blog from the beginning, you may remember that I struggled a bit when I was first learning to dive, and it has taken me many, many dives to feel completely confident diving. But, now it is one of my favorite activities. Diving has opened up a whole world under water. Snorkeling is great, but you see so much more when you can stay under water and go to different depths. After a really great dive, I feel like I’m on cloud nine for the rest of the day.

Humpback Whales:

We headed out one day with Alondra to find a dive spot up near the airport. It was flat calm out so we weren’t too concerned about a long dinghy ride outside the lagoon. We knew it was whale season when the humpback whales come up from the south to calve and mate. Ken explained that when the calves are born, they don’t have that much fat on them, so the whales give birth to them in the warmer water before heading back down south.

We were hoping maybe we would see some whales as we left the lagoon, and got really excited when we saw a blow not to far in the distance. Then, we saw a whale completely breach out of the water. As we started to approach the whale, we idled the dinghies and threw on our masks and fins. We didn’t want to spook the whale. When we got pretty close to him, we turned off the outboards and slipped into the water where we could see nothing but blue as the water continued several hundred feet below us.

We towed the dinghies as we slowly swam toward the whale, letting Ken be the lead on how close we could get. The whale was a good 40-50 feet long and could do some serious damage if it accidentally hit us or our dinghies with its powerful tail.

The water was really clear, and we could see the whale just in front of us. Suddenly, it turned toward us, flipped its tail up out of the water, and turned to head down into the deep ocean below. Ken caught it all on video (see our Facebook page). It was awesome and the first time we’ve actually seen one while we were in the water. We’re hoping to see some more whales as we head back to Moorea and Tahiti. They should be around for the next couple of months. Anyone who witnesses one of these whales in person and isn’t in complete awe and appreciation of God’s creations needs their head examined!

So, there are my three stories from the last couple of weeks of my nature encounters. I hope you find your own nature stories, even if it is just to go sit at a local park and watch the birds or go for a hike at a local greenbelt. I hope you get inspired to think critically about the impact the dollars you spend have on the environment. Our society is capable of great things, great scientific and technological advancements and innovation. We do not need to rely on old ways of doing things that are harmful to the planet we live on. We have the capacity to transcend the current, outdated way of doing things…if we all want it.

~katie

Dive Mojo

We’re in Costa Rica! What happened to Nicaragua? Well, we were only there for a week and it wasn’t too eventful. Maybe I’ll get around to writing about it eventually…

So, we’re in Costa Rica! We checked into Playas del Coco and have been bumming around Bahia Culebra in the anchorages. After arriving, we met another boat named Kini Popo with Dan and Susan on board. We quickly discovered that we had a lot in common. Mike & Dan even figured out that they were at Disneyland on the same night in 1985 when they both attended “grad night” for the Southern California graduating seniors their senior year of high school. Too funny!

Both boats started talking about all of the potential dive sites nearby and that developed into a plan for a week of diving. Dan and Susan had heard that there was a dive out at Isla Murcielagos (Bat Island) to see bull sharks. (Check out my post about Diving Cabo Pulmo last year when we saw bull sharks in the Sea of Cortez.)

We didn’t really know anything about this dive site. We checked at a dive shop and discovered that this was an advanced dive due to depth and current, and their price was over $200/person. (This sounded a bit over my still level, so I planned to just snorkel while the others did this dive.)

We have the boats and the gear, so all we really needed was a dive guide. We found a guy selling tours on the beach and asked him. He made a phone call to his buddy who was a dive guide who agreed to go on our boat for $75. Unfortunately, it was a bit too good to be true. Our dive guide did not show up the next morning. We weren’t going to let that ruin our day, so we made a plan to do another dive on some islands right outside Bahia Huevos. Because this wasn’t going to be an advanced dive, I was in!

I had to shake off some nerves on that first dive – I hadn’t had the dive gear on since last summer. We anchored Kini Popo in about 45 feet of water and descended down the anchor chain to the sand bottom. It took me a few minutes to shake off that initial anxiety, but I was finally able to relax and marvel at the underwater world.

Although we initially descended onto a flat sand bottom without many fish, there were round, white jellyfish all around us. The jellyfish didn’t sting at all, they just sort of drifted around like in some alien world. Very cool. We then swam underwater to the rocky reefs surrounding the island to check out all the cool reef fish.

Me, trying to get my dive mojo on…

The next day was try #2 to meet the dive guide for the Bat Island dive. (We were told he had car trouble the first day.) But, again, he was a no show. So, we decided to make the most of getting up super early with all our gear and get another dive in. This time we anchored out by the “monkey head” rock just outside Bahia Culebra. We did a cool circumnavigation of the monkey head that had lots of underwater rocks and reef fish.

Can you spot the moray eel…

After those two dives, we were really getting into the groove. So, we decided to both head to some bays a little south to check out some more dive spots. We first anchored at Bahia Guacamaya, which was an absolutely gorgeous spot with white sand beaches and not too much development, just an eco-lodge on shore. We did some initial snorkeling to find a good dive spot, and then piled the dive gear in the dinghies to dive on a nearby rock.

Mike with the dive gear in the dinghy…

We had an awesome dive. One of the most interesting things was the difference in water temperature. At 50-60 feet, it was cold! But, as soon as you hit 30 feet, it was a good 10-15 degree temperature difference.

Here is a really cool ray that we saw on the dive…

Looking for our next stop, we found the Islas Santa Catalina, which were supposed to have good diving. The only problem is that these small islands are mostly pinnacle rocks, and there are supposedly lots more uncharted pinnacle rocks underwater. Those rocks are great for diving, but terrible for sailboats that draft 6 feet!

We decided to anchor at Playa Conchal in Bahia Brasilito, about four miles away from Islas Santa Catalina. We waited for a calm morning and buzzed out to the islands in the dinghies with handheld GPS devices and depth sounders to do some reconnaissance.

One of the pinnacle rocks…

Dan and Susan checking out more of the islands…

When we got to the biggest of the islands, we anchored the dinghies to do some snorkeling. We found a sandy spot about 40 feet deep where we could anchor the sailboat and dive around the point of the island.

Dan doing reconnaissance snorkeling…

Our exploration day at the islands also happened to be my birthday, so that night we took the dinghy over to Playa Flamingo to find a happening spot to celebrate. We found a great spot right on the beach called Coco Loco. And, we made quite the entry, as we had to negotiate the surf landing of the dinghy right in front of the restaurant. Thankfully we timed the waves right and looked like pros!

Having the signature Coco Loco drink for my birthday…

After a recovery day, we were ready to take the sailboat to Islas Santa Catalina to dive. We decided to dive in pairs, so we would have two in the water, one person on the sailboat and one in the dinghy to do pick up if necessary. Dan and Susan went first and said they had a great time. They even saw a white tip reef shark!

Next, Dan dropped Mike & I off around the point, and our plan was to swim back around toward the sailboat. As soon as we descended, we came upon a school of spotted eagle rays. Absolutely amazing!

We kept heading around, keeping the rocky island on our right side, and saw all kinds of reef fish and big schools of fish. Some of the fish were ones that we’d never seen before!

I think this guy was trying to give the camera a kiss!

We’d had a amazing dive, and it was time to find the surface. We came up and looked around and Mike said “where the heck are we?” Total underwater navigation fail. We do have compasses, but clearly we did not use them well. Somehow we ended up back where we started. The best we can guess, there was a split in the rocks underwater, and where we thought we were following the island around we actually did a 180 turn around some other rocks.

We realized it was going to be a long swim. Dan and Susan were expecting to see us on the other side of the island. There was a panga nearby fishing that was just pulling up anchor, and I joked to Mike, “maybe they can give us a ride.” Just then the panga turned toward us and I waved at them to make sure they saw us in the water. The guy smiled at me and said, “do you need a ride somewhere?”

We climbed in the panga and headed back to the sailboat. Just as we were heading around the corner of the island, Dan was coming to look for us in the dinghy. So, it all worked out but lesson learned.

After a fantastic week, we headed back to Bahia Culebra to do some much needed boat maintenance and cleaning. But, we have the diving bug now and can’t wait to get back out there.

Thanks Mike, Dan and Susan for helping me get my dive mojo back!

~katie

Diving Cabo Pulmo

Yesterday we got to dive at Cabo Pulmo! If you’ve been reading this blog, you remember that I just got my Open Water certification in February. So, I was a little nervous (and excited) for my first dive since taking the class.

Cabo Pulmo is about 60 miles from where we currently are in San Jose. Because Cabo Pulmo is Baja’s only coral reef and is a national protected marine park, you cannot anchor there. So, really the only way to dive it is to go through a local dive shop. We found the Cabo Pulmo Beach Resort which would actually pick us up in San Jose and take us to Cabo Pulmo.

We got picked up at 7:30 a.m. for the 90 minute ride through winding roads in the mountains. The last six miles are really rough dirt roads that take you back to the Coast. So, I’m really glad we didn’t have to drive it!

The dive resort is a really nice facility with a restaurant, pool, dive shop, etc. There are even bungalows where you can stay. When we got there we met our dive master Roy and boat captain Jose. There were five of us diving with Roy. He got us outfitted with any additional gear we needed, and we put everything in the panga. This was a two tank dive, and they really took care of getting all of the gear in order for the dive.

We walked over to the beach where the panga, on a trailer, met us. The trailer was backed up on a gravel path to the beach and we hopped in. The truck literally just backed the trailer through the surf and off we went!

After a short boat ride, we got to our first dive site, Las Casitas. We got on our rigs and did the backward roll off the boat – my first time! I was a bit nervous on the first descent, about 30-40 feet down, but Roy got my down there. Once I was down there, it was great!

Las Casitas is some giant boulders with coral growing on them. We saw schools of fish everywhere. Some of the divers even dove under and through the large boulders. So fun!

At the end of the first dive, we got back in boat and headed to the second dive spot, the pinnacle. Here, the star of the show was the bull sharks!

We descended down the pinnacle, which is a large triangular rock formation that sticks up out of the water. Around the side of the rock formation, about 60 feet down, there is a long sandy bottom. We all got down on our knees in a tight group and waited, scanning the sand at the edge of visibility, waiting for the elusive sharks.

Finally, Roy made the sign for shark and pointed off to the right. Sure enough, we could just make out the shadow of a large shark. He moved out of viewing range, but a minute later he returned and a second shark appeared. The sharks were probably 6-7 feet long. They just skimmed the bottom, cruising maybe 6 inches off the sand.

Neither of the sharks came closer than 10 yards away from us, but they were amazing! I thought I would be scared or nervous to see the sharks, but I wasn’t at all. I felt like I was in the middle of a Discovery Channel show.

We then headed up to check out the rest of the pinnacle, where we saw turtles, rays, lots of schools of fish and moray eels! I was seriously on cloud nine after the dive and can’t wait to go again!