Position: 09 degrees, 56 minutes South; 139 degrees, 06 minutes West

Stormy days make pretty sunsets. Big thunderboomers that had gone overhead an hour or so earlier.

After a delightful couple of days at Hananoemoa, we decided we needed to backtrack a bit to stop at Baie Vaitahu. Just a mile or two South, it is night and day different. Where Hananoemoa has low hills, white sand and generally sunshine (between the squalls that run overhead in the mornings), Vaitahu is in a valley at the bottom of a tall mountain (2000′). Most of the time, the top of the mountain is in the clouds so we can’t see it. The rain squalls have come blasting down all day bringing torrents like we haven’t seen since crossing the ITCZ. After a couple hours here, I had to use a hand pump on the dinghy as it had filled at least 1/3rd full of water. It was filled somewhere in the 4 inch range. Combine that with 25+ knot winds blasting down the valley and fanning out into the anchorage and you get the idea. I almost turned around and headed back to the other anchorage, but we wanted to see this place, so anchor it was. Then we rigged the dinghy to go ashore (i.e. put the engine on for the first time since leaving Mexico). I wanted the engine just in case the weather got even worse. I didn’t want to be caught out trying to row an inflatable if the winds picked up even more.

Ashore we went. The actual shore had large breaking waves and rocks, so we opted for the concrete dock. It’s built right over some rocks, so only the top is actually concrete, the sides still being rock, albeit smoothed down from use. It’s also just inside a little point, so doesn’t take the brunt of the waves. However, the swell at the dock was a solid three feet! Basically you maneuver the dinghy up to the rocks/dock where there’s a stair cut into the solid wall. You then have to time it so you get off-one at a time-with the peak of the swell. Initially you’re looking up three feet or so at the bottom of the steps, then for a moment of maybe two seconds as the swell passes through, you are even with one of the steps and you leap off and scramble up while the dinghy drops out below your feet. Time it wrong and, well…that would be a problem. Then the next person does the same thing and it you do it right you’re both standing on the dock holding the dinghy and trying to figure out how to secure it where it won’t smash against the rocks while you’re gone. Usually you would drop a stern anchor to hold it off, but I forgot to rig that, so we just let a bunch of line out and let it fend for itself. It actually worked pretty well, but we decided that today’s stay would be necessarily short. We would just do a “once through” and spend more time in town tomorrow. As with the other places we’ve visited, “town” is a misnomer. While there is a small store, a post-office and a church, there can’t be more than 50 or so people who live here.

Into town we went. It’s a short walk from the dock and while walking we ran right into a torrential downpour that soaked us through and through. The rain running off of the hills turned the bay brown from the silt pouring in. But what the heck, we’re in the tropics, so we just kept going, did our once through and stopped in the store where other than dripping on the floor, we were fine.

Looks like the rain is going to continue all night. Here’s hoping for a nice day tomorrow so we can explore a bit. Depending on weather, from here in the next day or so we’ll have a 40-60 mile leg up to Ua Pou (pronounced; “wa-poe”). We want nice weather for that, so we’ll just hunker down here or if it looks like the weather is lasting more than another day, we’ll go back over to Hananoemoa where the sandy bottom and more gentle hills make for an easier ride at anchor.

Responses: To Jerry; What’s considered hot? It’s 80 degrees F in the cabin right now and it almost seems cool, so I guess we’re getting used to the warmer weather. Cliff; I haven’t used my spear. Ciguaterra is so pervasive in the tropics, we have decided to only eat pelagic fish caught offshore such as tuna, dorado and wahoo. Angela; we actually are seeing your posts. The blog says they have to be moderated, but after a day or so they automatically post. Just remember what you commented on and look back after about 24 hours and you should see the post. We are. By the way – it is very hard to remember that we are in the Polynesian winter season. It is typically 95-100 every day. You take a shower and five minutes later you are sweating. It cools off to about 75 at night but we need to keep hatches closed due to squalls. And we keep the bug screens in so that limits air flow. My point being that we are usually warm to sweating yet at 5:30 the sun is setting. So weird.

Position: 09 degrees, 54 minutes South; 139 degrees, 06 minutes West in Hanamoenoa Bay

The Mantas came to play. We both jumped in and swam with them. I put together an underwater movie. They are so graceful.

…is Folgers in your cup? (Downside of advertising careers is that you think in jingles.) Well, not when you are in the South Pacific. While Bob and I both love a good cup of coffee to be enjoyed in the cockpit in the cool morning air, we have found new reasons to enjoy the morning.

I used to think it was going to 5 am spin class, sorry Irma, you have been surpassed. Yesterday morning I thought it was a good dolphin show. I watched as a pod of dolphins (my first full pod on this trip) trolled back and forth across the top of the bay feeding. But the best part was watching the baby dolphin learning to do spins. These were spinner dolphins. The first tries were hysterical but good-hearted adult dolphins must have been coaching him because by the time we pulled up anchor the baby was doing full 720s!

But today’s morning topped even that! We are sitting in the cockpit, as I said, enjoying yogurt, pamplemoose and fresh coffee when Bob spots a manta ray about 50 yards off of the stern. “You should get in your swimsuit and go play”, he tells me. Although I love the snorkeling experience (I was a rookie as we left the Bay Area) I was not sure I was up to chasing down manta rays. While I was busy talking myself out of it Bob realized, “where else will I ever get to experience this!” And over he went. I stopped him just long enough to hand him the underwater video camera (thanks again, Sue!). The manta had come very close to our stern and I was able to get two really close pictures of him following a school of fish. They don’t eat fish, just the plankton the school was feasting on so he was playing clean-up man.

Unfortunately I then lost track of him and could not help Bob find him. No worries, Bob has a sense for them and while I was thinking he was still looking (back where he first had seen them) he had found it and was having an amazing encounter. And not to be out done, suddenly a booby swooped down from above (I think he thought Bob was a big tuna) and dove on the same school of fish. The video tells it all! Bob and the manta are swimming gracefully along through the large school (300 fish) of fish and suddenly this bullet from above scoops down, gets his fish and scares the manta away.

No matter. Bob came back to Charisma just in time for a large squall that could not pretend to wash the smile off of his face! Yes, I was jealous. Next time I am going in.

And not ten minutes later Bob bubbles through his mouth full of coffee, “He’s back. Twenty feet off the stern!” You don’t need to tell me twice! I ran downstairs and got into a version of a swimsuit, found my fins, snorkel and mask. As I went off the port side Bob said he would direct me once I rounded the stern. Away I paddled. Just as I slowed down to turn around and get direction I turn and am 3 feet from him looking right at me! Whoa! I’m swimming with a manta ray! These rays were about five feet across and a graceful as a ballerina!

It startled me at first and I still was not bold enough to get much closer but I had a captivating game of “follow-me” with my new friend. I would twirl around, he would twirl. I would do the back stroke, he would flip over. I would spread my arms and pretend I was a manta ray and…well you get the picture. He was imitating my every move.

As he got friendlier I got a little closer, head on, and realized that what I thought was an unusual lip formation was really a fishing lure caught in his lip with five feet of fishing line trailing off his back. I called to Bob to see if we could try to help. I felt like he was seeking help. Bob hollered over to Mark and Anne on Blue Rodeo (avid divers) to get their assistance too. When the posse arrived to help I continued to try to distract him by playing follow-me while Bob, Mark and Anne took turns diving down and trying to cut off the line. Anne made two successful passes and not only petted him, but managed to cut all but about 5 inches of the line away. We were hesitant to attempt to remove the hook and he pretty much decided he was done playing and had taken off anyway.

Wow! There has got to be a better word than that but even my Thesaurus wasn’t much help. In the video I squeal a lot. Just incredible…the best part of waking up …mantas in the bay! Stay tuned – our friends on Gato Go arrived today and since Blue Rodeo, Gato Go and Charisma (all participants in the Equator Costume Contest) are all in the same bay, along with Island Bound, an independent judge (who according to Bill can be bought) we are having a potluck dinner to enjoy each other’s pictures as well as to determine the winner. Bob has put our pictures to a slide show with the background music of “Monkey Business” by Bonnie Rait. Seems appropriate. I am going to go dress up a banana as the prize. More later….

Well the votes have been cast and counted and we are thrilled to say that we won the Equator Costume Contest but not by much. Blue Rodeo also invoked King Neptune and a mermaid in their costumes and by all accounts (other than Anne-his wife) Mark made a very fetching mermaid. Mark’s comment was that the mermaid in the pictures reminded him of someone he loved! Kind of like looking in a warped mirror I guess.

Gato Go also invoked the grandeur of King Neptune but he played opposite a true shellback. Bruce’s cape was constructed of sand dollars that they tied together. Only people on a catamaran could possibly have unbroken sand dollars on their boat after sailing for so long on the confused seas getting to the equator. It was obvious from the pictures that a lot of love went into their costumes!

Because we created the prize – a fetching banana mermaid (there are a lot of things you can make with bananas) wrapped lovingly in a Survivor buff- we gifted our prize to second place – the Gato Go boys.

Blue Rodeo and Island Bound are heading to the Northern islands early in the morning. We’re staying put for another day or two, so we’ll miss them but look forward to catching up in the next month as we all find ourselves in the Tuamotus. Tomorrow we plan to go back to Vaihatu about a mile South of here (weather permitting) with Gato Go and spend the day exploring that town. We’ll see…