April 7, 2012

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After a night of upwind sailing in the rain, we approach Manihi. Again the wind and seas are blowing directly into the passage making it more dangerous than usual. We safely enter and anchor just off “town” with one other boat. Walking around town, we search for the elusive shop with ice cream. While I’m chatting with an American family, I see Jeff walking around with an ice cream bar. . .yes! Then I see Ashleigh with one. The family I’m speaking with lives in Japan where the man is a financial writer for Bloomberg. They’re staying at the nearby resort in a thatched hut out over the water. They say the magic words “It has a freshwater pool!” After speaking with them, I walk over to the shop with ice cream. It’s 12:05 pm. The doors are closed and locked. The sign says: Closed 12:00 - 3:00 pm Nooo!!! Jeff, Ashleigh and I walk around town, me the only one without ice cream. While walking we run into the people from the other boat. The boat’s name is Imbuvu, meaning rhinoceros in Zulu. They are from South Africa. Ashleigh and Lucretia hit it off and spend the next 10 hours together. We men find a BBQ and are able to buy lunch. Only $4 for three shish-k-bobs and fries. Not bad for French Polynesia! The beer, however, is $5.50 per can. The S. African boat has been under way for two years. They took the road less traveled by going straight up the Canadian coast and going through the Northwest Passage over Canada and all the way around Alaska! They are the first S. African boat to do so and only the 100th private boat in history to complete the passage. Impressive!Ralph, the owner, and Abe, an American from Oregon who joined the boat recently, tell Jeff and me about snorkeling the passage. They offer to take us in their dinghy and we readily accept. We dinghy out into the ocean where it’s a bit rough, put on our snorkeling gear and hop over the side. The current is running about 5k so we are swept right through. The middle of the passage is around 75’ deep, yet we can see the bottom, it’s that clear! The sides rise up with a slight slope and are covered with different colors of coral. There are literally thousands of tropical fish from very small to about 3’ long. We see no sharks which is a bit of a relief. The passage is maybe one mile long, so at the rate of the current, we pass through in about 12 minutes. This was sooo cool we do it again. If only it was sunny, I’m sure the colors would have been even more incredible.Back at the boat, Jeff and I face the ultimate South Seas test. . .we decide to try to connect to the internet. After half an hour and more money than it’s worth, I am connected. It then takes 20 minutes to bring up email. I send out one to Eska and one to Andrew and that’s it for this hour’s worth of time I purchased. Jeff has a similar experience. By this time it’s dark. We decide we’d really like to go to the resort two miles away. To get there, we have to pass a couple shallow coral areas, miss a fish weir that is made of steel rebar (not good to hit with an inflatable dinghy) and go 2 miles. We get there after only hitting coral once, have a drink at the bar, then decide to have dinner. It’s a modified dinner with a delicious salad followed by hot lava cake and homemade coconut ice cream. Now that was good. Of course, while having dinner, the heavens opened and the rain poured down. . .and continued to pour down for hours. So by the time we’re back at the boat I look as though I swam in my clothes. We track Ashleigh down on the South African boat. They’re watching a movie (with air conditioning turned on! I’m green with envy.)

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