Swimming with Manta Rays and back at the Blue Lagoon (16th August)

Mustang Sally Cruising
Mark Lawrence & Dianne Jackson
Mon 15 Aug 2016 21:17

Current position is back at the Blue Lagoon anchorage off the Nanuya Resort

16:56.557S 177:22.008E

 

We had a mixed bag of events out in the Superyacht end at Port Denarau.

There was quite a bit of rain during our stay so were happy to be tied up in marina world and it has been well received as the vegetation is looking much greener as they had not had much rain on the west coast since Cyclone Winston.

We met up with Kathy and Richard from Melbourne who were out in Fiji looking at a Fontaine Pajot called Bright Sea which they ended up purchasing the yacht so sure they are having lots of fun getting familiar with their new home.

We were lucky enough to get back in time from provisioning in Nadi to watch the Fiji Rugby 7 team win the first medal for Fiji and was great to see they won GOLD.  There is a song they have been playing on the radio called GO FIJI GO – BRING BACK THE GOLD FROM RIO – which will be with us for a very long time as it is kind of catchy.  As you can imagine there was a very big kava party that night and they have now awarded the country a public holiday for next Monday to celebrate.

 

On Saturday 13th August we had pretty much outstayed our welcome in at Port Denarau and had to move out of the berth again (they seem to have this odd habit of moving boats around for not much good reason) so decided it was probably a good time to get out and about so headed up to the anchorage at Manta Ray Pass. 

Mark had the fishing line out and managed to hook something pretty big which is now swimming around with a nice lure attached to it somewhere – yes we lost it but guessing it was probably a bit too big to deal with so probably a good thing.  Unfortunately that was the only thing we hooked for the day. 

 

                                                             The one that got away!!

 

                                        Sunset at Manta Ray Pass

 

We stopped for the night and as the weather was nice and calm in the morning took the kayak out for a paddle over to the pass, where they find the Manta Rays, equipped with our snorkels and were lucky enough to swim with 4 very large Manta Rays – AWESOME.  Apparently we were very lucky as they had not been around for a while but a large female Manta had come into the pass and was being followed by 3 male admirers.   It was such an amazing experience and the weather was so nice that we headed back in the afternoon in the dinghy for another go and found 3 of them still in the passage.  As the current runs pretty hard through the passage we then decided to have a couple of drift snorkels through the pass and saw some fantastic coral and an abundance of fish also enjoying the food rich waters in the passage.

 

 

 

 

As there is a bit of changeable weather a foot mixed in with some rain and possible thunder storms we decided to head back up to the Blue Lagoon yesterday and is it a great anchorage and the Nanuya Boat House is VERY cruiser friendly plus it is a nice place to hang out.  We were joined by Dream Catcher and another yacht for the trip up and seems we are not the only one that likes it here as we had plenty of company last night in at happy hour at the bar.   Not quite sure how long we will stop but we are hoping to make it a bit further north this time up to Yasawa Island before heading back to Port Denarau on the 1st September to meet up with Leapy Lynda who is arriving on the 5th.  Looks like we are heading out for another paddle this morning as we have light winds for the moment!