Baie Hanamoenoa, Tahuata Island

This blog entry is dedicated to Clancy Sherman.
May he rest in peace.

It is currently Friday, May 12. We are sailing under a full bright moon. We left the anchorage a little over an hour ago and are headed to Oa Pou for a few nights. Looking forward to moving on and checking out the northern Marquesas Islands.

It is about a 70 mile sail. We thought leaving at night would get us in around sunrise. That will give us the full day for exploring. Our guide book tells us there is suppose to be music on Saturday nights. We'll see about that.

Yesterday we left Hiva Oua around 11:00am and motored for two hours to Baie Hanamoenoa on Tahuata Island. We had missed this stop the first time around due to navigation errors. The anchorage was packed with almost 20 boats. It didn't look like we needed to stop. However, the guide books say it's a good stop. We heard Spinner Dolphins hung out in here.

I was really looking forward to snorkeling. I was up early and had my bathing suit on before we even pulled up anchor. Once in the bay, after dropping the hook, re-hanging up our laundry to dry, and deploying the dingy, it was time to jump in. We swam to Ken's boat and got him to get his snorkel gear on and swim up to the beach with us.

Ken braved the beach landing. I, however, thought it a bit too rough. So Tom and I instead snorkeled back to the boat. We didn't see any spinner dolphins. But in about 15 feet of water, we did see a school of Manta Rays. We were both shocked and way impressed! There were probably about 15 of them swimming on the floor of the ocean. You could see their foot print in the sand as they swam by. Awesome!

For those of you who haven't seen a ray, they are part of the shark family. They are flat, with a long tail. They look like kites flying on the bottom of the ocean.

Once back at the boat, we jumped in the dingy to rescue Ken off the beach. Just as we were talking about the rays, a huge ray came right up next to the dingy. Tom says they never come to the surface. I'm just glad they weren't at the surface when we were snorkeling!

More later,
Amy and Tom

Notes from Ron:

• Click here and here for Google Photos of Hanamoenoa Bay.
  
• Click here for a photo of a Hanamoenoa Bay Manta Ray.