Yesterday it was flat calm and we used the opportunity to motorsail 2 miles up from the southern side of the lagoon to a tiny islet inside the lagoon. It’s just a huge bommie with some shrubs, a few palm trees and lots of nesting birds. The shelf around it is very narrow and shallow and then the drop-off goes down to about 30 m steeply, so first we thought we wouldn’t be able to anchor at all, but then we decided to throw the hook on the slope and at least go snorkeling before heading on.
The snorkeling turned out to be the best we’ve done in a long time. Healthy, colourful coral, lots of swam fish and curious blacktip reef sharks came to inspect the funny bipeds. Other parts of the lagoon were empty compared to 2 years ago, so it’s a relief to find some spots that have remained untouched. After checking the anchor and the weather forecast we decided to spend the night in this pretty place. This morning the wind picked up, friends who tacked across the lagoon to the safety of the southeastern corner (the weather forecast predicts wind of 15 to 20 from the SE for the next few days) reported 25 knots on the way. We can see waves and whitecaps wandering by in the lagoon and from time to time the masthead registers some gusts, but the island gives such nice protection (even though it’s only 280 m long) that we’ve decided to stay a bit longer.
