23 July - Whales!

With a westerly wind forecast it was time to get out of Port Maurelle
after two nights, so we headed for Taunga Island where we had not been
before and which offered shelter from a westerly.  As we were sailing
along Lori yelled "Whale!" and right ahead of us appeared a humpbackheaded
 in the opposite direction.  He swam by us fifty feet away.  He was
easy to see as he surfaced to breathe, but the water here is so clear and
flat that we could also clearly also see him below the surface as we
passed each other.  This is the ultimate whale watching venue.

The Taunga anchorage is the closest to a Tahiti anchorage that we have

seen.  Only a foot under the keel at low tide and a flat sandy bottom.  We
had it to ourselves for a few hours, then another boat saw us in there and
decided they had to anchor 100 feet away from us, close enough that I was
concerned about swinging room.  I don’t get it,  they could  have anchored
a quarter mile away from us and been very comfortable.  Even stranger,
when we paddled by and said hello to be neighborly, the male skipper
disappeared below so he wouldn’t have to engage with us.  German cruisers…

That evening the wind died and the water got glassy so Lori and I took our

sunset cocktails and went for a paddle in the dinghy.  We ended up on a
beach at the east end of Ngau (pronounced "now") Island, and with the
falling tide a half mile long sandbar appeared that connected Ngau with
Pau Island.  So we strolled to Pau and then returned to Ngau.  We didn’t
get back to the boat until well after dark.

The next afternoon we decided to move to a different anchorage on Taunga

and along the way encountered a school of manta rays feeding.  They got
pretty close to us in our new anchorage as well, but not close enough to
photograph.  Another cruiser passing by under power also saw them, stopped
to watch, and then the next morning during the net made a big deal about
the encounter on the radio.  Apparently manta ray sightings are rare here.

With our water tanks empty we had to return to Neiafu to fill up.  On the
way we encountered pals Richard and Fran on Red departing for Fiji, so we
stopped and spoke for a while and wished  them a good voyage.  That’s the
second time we’ve bumped into friends in the labyrinth of channels here
who were on their way out and stopped for a chat.  This place is so cool.