We have been putting these extra days in paradise to good use. Ilot Brosse for a few days was great, so many nice reefs to snorkel and we went for a dive with Christian from Donella who showed us where the lobsters live! Although we saw several lobsters, they all scuttled away into deep holes before we could catch them, so they avoided our pot. Probably just as well, we need to conserve our LPG. We caught up with Suzie and Steve from Hireath last night. Good to catch up with them again, we had spent some time together in Oyster Island, Vanuatu, earlier in the season and they are also waiting for passage to NZ.
This morning was a very early start, the NZ vs South Africa rugby game was on at 2am local time. So we were up, well, we had the computer in bed, watching the match. Much more of a tense game than the France/NZ game last week. So close all the way that we didn't even feel sleepy - glad to see our team make it through to the finals. It was difficult getting back to sleep at 4am, but we did manage to get some sleep before the alarm went off again at 6am so we could listen to the latest weather update from Patricia and David. This sleep pattern is worse than our 4 hour watches when we are at sea! Karl stayed in bed and Heather went back to bed after talking to Gulf Harbour radio, so we caught up on a bit more sleep before we started out day.
Today, like the past few days, was very calm, with hardly any wind. We walked around to the next bay, Kanumera Bay, and snorkeled right around Kanumera Island. A sea snake slithered around in the coral underneath us, saw us, swam up to the surface right next to us and popped his head out to have a look. Then he headed towards us for a bit, looked at us a while longer and swam back down to his coral patch again. Quite a curious creature! About half way around the little island is a cave, inside the cave we were surprised to find a huge cluster of fan corals. Soft lacy fans swaying in the currents, some coloured cream, some orange and some a vibrant deep red. Absolutely beautiful. These large specimens of soft lacy coral are just like we have seen in photographs from great dives around the world, we did not expect to see such a spectacular display sitting so close to shore in shallow water. Further around the coral garden was teaming with fish. Brightly coloured tropical fish thronged around us, happy to swim close while we snorkeled amongst them. The fish we saw diving on the reef yesterday had a very different behaviour. Used to being hunted the fish on the outer reef darted away fast as we came near. But here, in the protected sanctuary of the bay, the fish were very happy to be friendly. After our walk and snorkel we treated ourselves to lunch at the resort on the beach - well, we do need to conserve our on board LPG, so that was a good excuse! This afternoon Kevin and Kathy from Astral Express popped by to have a chat, they are also looking for the right passage window to get back to NZ. There are several others too that we know of, ready to depart as soon as the weather is favourable. So the big question is - When? Maybe Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. Watch this space.