Marina cave
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Thu 16 Oct 2008 09:36
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Hi Folks,
Another big day in the snorkelling world , we had
sixteen people on the Zeph when we set off for the cave complex, the crews of
Trenelly,Summer Wine, Temera , and Sebright all clinging to the rails in
anticipation !
It took us about an hr and a half to get to
the island Nuapapu's west coast, another yacht was hovering around the entrance
so we stood off until they cleared the area, we then drifted by the cave
entrance and the first wave jumped from the back of Zeph and swam over to the
cave entrance, the depth of water here is 50m right up to the cave openings and
the Islands rise strait from the sea bed up to about 30m above sea level , they
have palms and scrub growing all over them and are to dense to tramp
through.
The thing about Mariner's cave is that to get
to it you have to dive down 2m then swim 6m along under the sculpted lime stone
portal and then up into the cave itself, Mikes two boys Lori and Finn were first
through not bad for a 9 and 11 year old, though these guys have spent all there
life on the water and are probably the nearest thing to "Marine Boy" you will
find , then the rest of the group followed through , Jason the "Official
Photographer" went through and took shots of everybody swimming through, great
experience and when the swell rolls through the pressure in the cave increases
and causes a mist to form inside the cave , as with swallows cave the view from
under the water looking out is spectacular clear
dark blue water as a back ground against the swimmers coming through the sub sea
cave entrance, it just like a James Bond film set !
After the second wave of swimmers had been to the
cave we all clambered back onboard and set off back to our new anchorage for the
night at No 8 Nuku island , on arrival we went to anchor trying to find a sandy
spot to drop the hook , on our first attempt we didn't dig in and on lifting the
anchor up found a large lump of coral wedged between our plough and shank ,
after a lot of levering we cleared the anchor and finally set our anchor in
clear blue water with a sandy bottom at approx. 14m in depth , the shallowest we
have anchored in in a long while .
A Quick bite to eat then off to Trenelly for
drinks, the local Vanilla rum took a bashing and the results the next morning
were a slight throbbing head in my case ..
A Bunch of Troggs
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