October 28, 2008 - Matavia

So I realized that I forgot to mention the marine mammals that we saw yesterday heading into and out of Bora Bora. In the morning, as we were sailing in, we saw a group of spinner dolphins. They were riding our wake and they were so beautiful. I did not get great photos, but here is one of a mom and baby surfing the wave of the ship.

Spinner Dolphins

In the evening around sunset, we saw about five Humpback whales. They came very close to the ship and, as always, it was incredible. I did not get any photos as I was just coming out of the shower when they were spotted so I ran up on deck with no camera.

So back to today - We spent this morning at sea sailing to Matavia atoll in the Tuamotus Islands. We arrived around lunch and I drove zodiacs to shuttle everyone ashore. Although the islanders had a nice program planned for us, I did not attend. Instead, once we got everyone ashore, Ingrid, Aaron and I went scouting for the perfect snorkel site. It was really fun to scout. We went first to the outer reef, where there were spur and groove formations. The water was super clear and there were a ton of fish and some good healthy coral. I am so amazed at the fish here and could spend hours in the water. Ingrid and I spotted a blacktip reef shark, which was very cool. After snorkeling at a few different spots, we picked the best one to bring the passengers back to. When we got back to the landing site to pick everyone up, we realized that we still had some time before the group was ready for us, so we went exploring inside the lagoon. We wished we had more time here, as it would have been a great spot to take the passengers. Inside the lagoon we saw a few different fishermen fishing with nets, traps, and also spears. Here are two photos of Matavia, one taken inside the lagoon and the other outside near where we snorkeled.

Matavia lagoon

Snorkel site

In the afternoon, we took the group snorkeling. I was stationed on one of the safety boats, so I did not get back into the water. This was ok with me since I had had such a great snorkel with Ingrid during our scout.