Today was my last opportunity for snorkelling on this cruise so I booked a lagoon excursion through the ship. Today’s adventure offered something a little different. On the way out to our first snorkelling stop, we came across spinner dolphins near the harbour entrance so we circled around and watched them for a while.
Our first stop for snorkelling was over two wrecks – a crashed Cessna and an old boat. Some dived down to them but I’ve found in this very salty water I’m too buoyant and I would need a weight belt to go down the 15-20 feet necessary to see the wrecks close up. There were also coral reefs nearby with lots of fish and bright blue clams.
Our first stop for snorkelling was over two wrecks – a crashed Cessna and an old boat. Some dived down to them but I’ve found in this very salty water I’m too buoyant and I would need a weight belt to go down the 15-20 feet necessary to see the wrecks close up. There were also coral reefs nearby with lots of fish and bright blue clams.
Our final stop was relatively shallow, although it was over my head when I jumped in. There was a swim to deeper water to where the coral gardens were and I found more varieties of fish I hadn’t come across earlier in the week. At least I bought a fish identifier yesterday so for the most part I now know what I’m looking at: several different varieties of triggerfish, butterflyfish and wrasse; convict surgeonfish (I’d like to know who gave them that name), scissor-tail sergeants, lemonpeel angelfish, forceps fish, flutemouths, golden jacks and parrot fish – and some I haven’t been able to identify. Combined with what I have seen at the other snorkelling sites, I’ve seen quite a range of tropical fish this week and have enjoyed following a particular fish to watch and photograph it but the photography proved more difficult than I had thought with fish darting one way while the current pulls me in the opposite direction.
Again, I was so thankful I had my own fins as they made swimming in the current effortless. Apart from the first trip in Raiatea, none of the other companies provided fins and these just made the snorkelling so much easier. In all locations I haven’t noticed much difference between air and water temperature.
I should mention that all my underwater photos were taken while I was floating on the surface looking down, so as long as someone can stay afloat they will have great viewing.
We left Papeete mid-afternoon for the Marquesas which we will reach the day after tomorrow. If it wasn’t for the daily Explorer, the on-board daily program, I would have no idea what day it is.
This evening’s entertainment was Maske, an Australian electric string trio who played cross-over music, i.e. classical, pop, country and western etc. I went to the second show and they had a good turnout who enjoyed their performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment