This morning I woke up to the entire crew in their togs declaring they were off manta ray hunting! Where was my invite? Guess I shouldn’t have slept in, but it was only 7:30am after all.

After another coffee, the crew couldn’t wait any longer so headed off in the ever increasingly small dinghy to wait for the manta rays to come through the hot spot. The dinghy trip was a bit interesting and we all got just as wet as we would have been swimming! Being the first boat there, we watched the manta men with their drone to come and spot the magnificent creatures.

The first time we jumped in, the crew dispersed in every which direction as we couldn’t see the rays, so we drifted down calmly and rejoined Jo the dinghy. The grey day with choppy seas didn’t seem very appropriate for seeing the rays, especially as nobody saw them yesterday. Second time round, we knew to be relaxed and we hopped out the dinghy and landed right on top of the rays! Simon practically kissed one and thought he was going to get gobbled up, while John 9 thought Simon was going to get eaten up - the best story he’d be able to tell the grandkids! Everyone else had amazing views of the rays doing somersaults right in front of them. Meanwhile John 11 was mucking around with his flippers in the dinghy still and the rest of the crew had already floated 500m away. Quickly catching up to the crew, he managed to see one after an inadvertent bump from Sally in the right direction. Lisa says the rays were amazing nd fantasic. They were coming around and around and had she to swim backwards to not touch them. It was like a performance put on just for her! The tiny fish were getting sucked into their mouths, while we were drifting rapidly over the corals which Patti says were magnificent. Bright silver fish were following the rays with their mouths open, Sally thinks they looked like little butterflies! No doubt they were eating the offcuts from our winged friends. All this excitement still pumping in our veins, we climbed into the dinghy and headed back to the start. A quick headcount realised Kingsley was still drifting! Trying to make a new record, he was halfway to Vanuatu by the time the tender picked him up again, but actually was only 50m or so away.

Back on Te Kaihōpara - all accounted for- Sally and Kingsley conjured up bacon and egg butties for brunch (typical Sydney-siders) which were well received. Reluctantly we hauled the anchor with myself on the helm and smartly sweeped out of Drawaqa. Our passage north towards Somosomo Bay was a total of 11.5NM. Kingsley’s wandering helmsmanship kept us within our XTE (for your land lubbers that’s cross track error, a safe margin of distance either side of our planned course) and off the reefs. Very smartly he hit every waypoint bang on and earned at least 10 gold stars. The wind picked up and the grey day became less inviting. No sailing was done as the wind followed our nose on every course but we enjoyed book time spinning yarns.

Eventually pulling into Samosamo Bay, we marched through the anchorage and put the hook down at the mouth of the bay. There’s several other boats in here but nobody else on board seemed keen to pirate any. That’s what you get when there’s law abiding citizens of Australia on board. Jokes aside, piling back into the dinghy which is bigger when half of the crew stay on board the mother ship, we did a reccy on the shores of the bay. Information was gathered for tomorrow’s activities but the main event of the evening was nachos for dinner made by Lisa and Sally! Such fantastic cooks, we were all wiping our foreheads from the heat and smiling from the yummy taste. The party lights are on, so is our anchor light, and we’re settling in for a good ol’ night on a cruising yacht after an amazing excitable day. Goodnight Te Kaihōpara!

Hannah - Chief Mate - Te Kaihōpara. With thanks to Patti for the water photos

Join the crew for a sailing adventure

Bula manta!

Sea Grape Salad

Tonic for the troops