For one whole day we were the only boat in this bay. We haven’t been alone in an anchorage too often; a few times in remote South Carolina on the Intercoastal Waterway, in Chacachacare Island in Trinidad, behind Cabo Santa Elena, Costa Rica. Usually boats accumulate in the places most amenable, either because of convenient services and shops or good snorkling or other activities. When we first arrived in Hanamoenoa Bay and saw all the boats we assumed that was the natural order of things and that the number of yachts at anchor would remain more or less the same throughout our stay. But within a few days all the boats left. We spent one day alone, then two new boats came in but there’s been no big influx as I expected. People stay for one or two nights then move on.
We finally finished the last of the stitching on the cockpit enclosure where the wind blew out a window early in our passage. The last little bit couldn’t be done underway because we both had to stand up to pass the needle back and forth and we needed a calm anchorage to do it safely. Jack inspected the rest of the stitching and found a few more places needing reinforcement. So that’s all tidied up and crossed off the list.
Rain moved in last night but it was on and off, not a drenching downpour that would fill our water tank but enough that we had to keep the hatches closed. This morning brought more rain until about nine o’clock when the sun finally showed its face. The watermaker’s on now and I’ll probably do a load of wash in a while. As a boat that runs almost exclusively on solar power, we do what we can when the sun shines.
Yesterday we swam over to the reef on the south wall of the anchorage. It’s not an underwater paradise with mostly dead coral and not many fish but the swim was good exercise even if the snorkeling was disappointing. This morning we watched a pod of dolphins swim north toward Hiva Oa, and a school of rays put on a feeding display behind a boat about 200 feet away. I think it may be time to move on. Maybe tomorrow.
Swim with the manta rays before you move on – we had some amazing swims with them in that bay last year… one of the marine highlights of our year in the Pacific. They are huge and feed on the plankton – they just keep circling around the same spot. Take your dinghy and anchor it with about 20m of rode right where they are… have fun!!
It all sounds so truly amazing. Photo from I presu the back porch is breathtaking