The wind and waves tend to kick up a lot of sand, so the underwater visibility has been pretty murky since we've been here. We've heard stories from other sailors that when the water is still, you can just walk around the boat and look over the side to enjoy the same view as snorkelling! Never-the-less, we've named the closest reef to our mooring "The Aroha House Reef", and you're almost assured of seeing black tip reef sharks on a snorkel there. The coral growth is mind blowing- I think the most prolific and varied hard coral I've ever seen. There are raised coral reefs scattered about, which dry out at low tide (about 1.2m maximum tidal range) and so are worth avoiding when tearing around in the dinghy (as you do). Anyway, they are quite easy to see as they show as greenish colour against the blue of the surrounding deeper water.
Between the raised reefs, the bottom around this end of the lagoon is covered with beautiful corals of various types at around six to ten meters depth. There is a kind of sand spit at the southern end of the Boddam beach facing us, and (more..) black tip reef sharks and small sting rays can easily be seen in the shallow water. The creatures here seem quite tame and unafraid- I make an effort of making noise and splashes when wading, as I don't fancy standing on a ray. It didn't help that aussie tv guy, I can't imagine it'd help me...
The area just north of Boddam island is known for being the best fishing in this atoll. Alex and I have been out a few times but have had (by local standards...) limited success. I got a mackerel tuna "big enough for lunch" (errr... not very big) and then Alex got a monster mackerel tuna "big enough for lunch, dinner and another lunch". I made the mistake of allowing Helen to take a photo of both of us with our respective fish... but I'll photoshop mine a bit bigger before uploading that snap to the blog. Bryce off Silver Fern, moored next to us, got a load more, so fired up his smoker the next day and saved a shelf for us. Smoked tuna goes great with beer!
Just getting over the reef to get outside the atoll (and save a long detour through the only pass) takes a bit of nerve. It's possible only on the top couple of hours of the tide, and it's definitely worth "not looking down" as you plane over the coral heads just a foot or so below.
I was longing for a white fish to make Polynesian Ike Mati for yesterday's party (more on that later by Helen...) so Alex and I had a go inside the lagoon yesterday morning (the tide was wrong to go over the reef to fish outside the atoll). Alex got a nice "Job" fish. I'd never heard of this type of fish before, but Ron off Tigger (our local fish and fishing guru) identified it and told us it's related to snapper. Ron also gave Alex and me a "master class" lesson on filleting. The man is an artiste- I've never seen such precision work on a fish!
We tried out Alex's knee board when the lagoon was quite flat... but the waves were still big enough for us to call it quits before his arms became too elongated being towed behind the dinghy and it's mighty fifteen horsepower two stroke.
Bernd has a selection of windsurfers on board, including one which is about twenty foot long (not a typo) which can take three sails (again, not a typo). I'd tried wind surfing many years ago and promptly gave it up as too difficult. Bernd gave me a quick lesson and then the two of us were skimming across the lagoon with a sail each. What a weird contraption!
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