Manta Ray Bay - Naviti - 17 10.263S 177 11.248E
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Mon 13 Aug 2012 05:28
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We've made it to the Yasawa Islands - 'crystal
clear waters with palm-fringed white sandy beaches, lagoons, coral reefs
and idyllic places to stay' according to the brochure. It all looked good on our
trip on the Flyer and it looked good as we passed some of the islands on the way
up. Naviti is about one third of the way up the island chain and it
was a gloriously sunny day, not a cloud in the sky all day. Just what you want
for reef spotting. Unfortunately it couldn't be all good as the wind
was well north of east, so just off from being on the nose. But it was
not too strong and the seas were right down, allowing us to motor sail and it
was a lovely passage up, of about 44 miles. Again we made a lot of use of
Google Earth and information from other yachts who have
been here before to plot our course. We also used
walkie-talkies for the first time, with me reef spotting on the bow and Liz
watching at the helm while the autopilot steered the course set in the
chartplotter. We bought the walkie-talkies back in Las Palmas in 2008 for
communicating when one of us goes ashore, but found the hand-held VHF was more
effective (although not strictly legal) and haven't used them since. But when
the distance is short, like bow to cockpit, they work really well. All we need
now is a couple of waterproof headsets so we can use them hands-free and they
would be good for anchoring too.
Manta Ray Bay was the destination as we wanted to check
it out while the winds were still light. There's a narrow pass
between the southern end of Naviti and a small island to the
south where the current passes over a shallow stretch. Manta rays come
to feed there at this time of year and it's possible to get in the
water and swim with them. Having swum with sharks in the Galapagos and
humpback whales in Tonga, we wanted to have a go with manta rays. There's
an anchorage just south of the pass where we could anchor safely in a south
easterly and that's where we are. However, we've not been lucky with the manta
rays. Yesterday afternoon, again this morning and this afternoon,we spent
about 1 1/2 hours in the dinghy each time, motoring to one end of the
pass, cutting the motor and drifting back through with the current and repeating
the process, along with several other dinghies from yachts (there are 4
others anchored close by us) and boats from the 3 resorts
tucked away in this area. These had 6-10 people on board, all waiting to get in
the water with the rays. But the rays didn't show and the winds
are forecast to come up again later in the week, so we're heading off
tomorrow. If we're lucky we may be able to stop here on the way down and have
another go. The Manta Ray resort is not too far away from the anchorage and
reef in front of it was full of fish that we haven't seen that often, so it
made up a bit for not seeing the rays.
 The spot where we're anchored and manta ray
pass to the north where we waited and waited
and......waited! The pins are waypoints that
we put in to get to this
anchorage and other
possible anchorages in the
area.
 A lovely sky as the sun goes down at Manta
Ray Bay
  The beach at the Manta Bay resort with a
lovely reef just visible in the water.
 White-barred
triggerfish.
 A big clam.
 Don't see these that often - a moray eel
being cleaned by a brave cleaner fish!
 And this is the first time we have seen one
of these - it's a sea snake, called
a sea-krait and it's going up for
air. They're highly poisonous, so you don't get too
close!
 Oriental-sweetlips
 Not a good quality picture, but it was a
huge titan trigger fish, 2 ft or more in length.
 Snappers
 Two-lined-monocle
bream
 saddled
butterflyfish
 And fish that we do see a lot
of.
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