Back to the Society Islands with Wendy – August 18, 2024
YIKES, it’s been TWO months since my last update! I know some of you have checked in to see if we are OK. Thank you for that, and yes all is well! I just started getting behind on my posts, and the more behind I got, the harder it got to get started. So instead of going back in time I will just start with where we are at the present.
On August 6 we were joined by Dawn’s high school friend, Wendy. Well, she is a bit more than a friend at this point, more like a part of the family! We had been chatting with Wendy on the phone earlier in the month telling her about our adventure, and we told her she should come for a visit. Two or 3 days later Wendy had her ticket booked and two weeks later she arrived in Papeete! Yes, Wendy is spontaneous and loves adventure travel!
We gave Wendy a day to get settled on the boat while we were docked at Marina Papeete. We also had to put away 140 pounds of stuff she brought for us! The majority of this was food that we just can’t get here. Thanks Wendy for lugging two huge suitcases all the way from Utah for us!!
On the 8th we set sail to Moorea from Papeete in IDEAL conditions! 10 to 12 knots of wind off the beam with flat seas and sunny skies. Its been so rate to have these kind of tame conditions, so we enjoyed every minute of it even though it only lasted 2 hours. Moorea is only 12 miles or so from Tahiti, so its an easy passage for Wendy’s first day at sea.
Morea is a beautiful island with dramatic and tall peaks that pierce the sky and clouds just 10 miles west of Tahiti. It’s regarded as one of the most beautiful islands in the world and it did not disappoint! We spent our first night anchored deep into Cooks Bay (named after Captain Cook). We were surrounded by the steep peaks on either side, with a small village perched at the top of the by in a valley. It was calm and protected in the bay due to the high mountains. After weeks in bouncing anchorages we was such a blessing for it to be calm and still!
The following morning, we thought it would be a good idea to hop in our dinghy and go 6 miles to some of the best snorkeling spots on Moorea. Fortunately it was a calm day, but with 4 of us in the dinghy along with Catalina, we could not get the dinghy up on a plane so it mean cruising along at about 5 knots. Since it was so calm, we headed out the pass into the open ocean to see if we could spot any Humpback whales. It is whale season in Moorea, and it is one of two places in the world that it is allowed to swim with the whales. Unfortunately we did not see any whales on this day. It took just over an hour to get to our first stop, Sting Ray City. That was a LONG dinghy ride.
We threw out the dingy anchor in about 5 feet of crystal clear water over a white sandy bottom. There were 3 or 4 other tour boat there with us. We put on snorkeling gear, put the life jacket on Catalina and jumped in dog and all.
Catalina meets a Sting Ray
We were treated to close of views of black tip sharks and dozens of sting rays (thus the name, Sting Ray City). The black tip sharks are usually 3 to 4 feet long and have no interest in humans, but it is still very cool to watch them cruise on by just an arms length away!
The sting rays mostly hang out over by the tour boats, since they know the guides and they are feeding them fish. Technically they are only supposed to hold the fish in their hands and not feed the rays, but is pretty apparent the rays are getting fed.
The guides were more than happy to let us join in on all the sting ray festivities even though we were not on their boat. I think they just appreciate we had real interest in interacting with the rays, while most other people do not.
Having a 4 foot ray snuggle right up to you is definitely a bit intimidating, but the rays are used to the humans and never hurt us. You can’t help but touch them they are so close to us, they even approached Catalina as she swam around. The rays felt very soft and silky, not what I expected at all. One of the rays tried to climb up on to Wendy as you can see in the video below. It was an amazing treat and the experience of a lifetime!
August 10th
This is a special day for me and Dawn, our 33rd wedding anniversary! So hard to imagine where all those years went. Even with the ups and downs of marriage, overall it has been quite the adventure together. And it was so cool to have Wendy here as she was one of Dawn’s bridesmaids!
That morning we decided to try to find some whales. It was the perfect day with clear skies and flat seas. And we could see from the anchorage that there were whale watching boats (much smaller than what we have in the US) just outside the reef. We could only go with 3 people since we needed the dinghy to be able to get up on a plane and go fast. Danielle volunteered to stay behind while Wendy, Dawn and I headed out the bay and through the pass in the reef to the open ocean.
It was a spectacular day with sunshine and nice flat seas making it comfortable on the dinghy. We pulled up to where 4 or 5 other tour boats had circled around and waited for whales to show themselves. The local tour boat drivers were very kind for us, instructing on how close we could get to the whales (100 yards) and how to maneuver safely. These are their waters, so we wanted to respect their wishes and not get in their way.
Because the humpbacks are not migrating anywhere at this time, they just swim randomly about so you are never quite sure where they will pop up. Mostly they just came up for a quick breath every 5 to 10 minutes. Some boats had swimmers in the water, but no one seemed close to the whales.
Then the whales started getting playful, splashing their massive tails on the water and then rolling on their sides and smacking the water with their long pectoral fins. Dawn and Wendy would periodically try jumping in and swimming over, but they were so far away it was hard to reach them before they sounded again. I was getting a much better show sitting in the dinghy! Because we could not get closer than 100 yards, you had to swim like crazy to try and make to where the whales were. Wendy and Dawn were constantly hopping in and out of the water, a difficult and strenuous task since the dingy has no ladder and you just have to muscle your way back on.
As we cruised along in the dinghy, the whales popped up yet again just off our bean. Dawn quickly jumped in and swam like mad and was able to get a nice underwater view of one of them! It was about 75 feet away, but still an impressive sight! Below is the photo Dawn took.
We all felt it had been a great day of whale watching, both above and below the water!
That evening we went to a resort at the mouth of Cooks Bay called Le Cooks! They had a nice happy hour, so sat near the water’s edge and we celebrated 33 years while enjoying time with Wendy and Danielle.
The next day was Danielle’s day to try and swim with some humpbacks. Dawn volunteered to stay on the boat with Catalina, so Wendy, Danielle and I hopped in the dinghy. It was not as nice of a day as the day before. We had a bit more wind, which made the ocean choppy, and the skies were cloudy. The other downside was there were no other whale watching boats in sight, so we were not sure we could even find any whales.
Once we made it through the pass and into the open ocean, we thought we saw a couple of boats about 2 miles to the west of us, so we headed that way. As we got closer we were not seeing any whales, but we did see the boat driver standing up high and scanning the water. We assumed he had seen something, so we pulled up just behind them and starting our own look out. Sure enough we soon saw whale spouts. We maneuvered about trying to get closer, but not within the 100 yard limit. We were treated to some spy hoping, where the whale pops its head out of the water, and some tail splashing. These whales were not moving around as much as the ones the day before, so it made it easier to stay in range. They seemed to come up every 8 to 10 minutes. Then BAM we were treated to a breach, with the whale jumping with half its body out of the water! We were all excited and had not seen a breach this up close before. We never got close enough to the whales for Wendy and Danielle to jump in and swim so we all stayed in the dinghy. The wind started picking up again and we were getting more chop so we decided to start slowly heading back in.
Then Wendy yelled “STOP! STOP!” a whale had surfaced about 30 feet from us! Danielle looked over at me and said “Dad, I am going in!” and then she was over the side! Wendy hesitated a bit because the day before the viewing was better from the dinghy. Danelle swam away from us alone in the open sea. Then she stopped and started pointing down. The whale was below her! Now Wendy jumped over and swam to Danelle.
For 20 minutes I sat in the dinghy watching them barely move. I could hear their squeals echoing through their snorkels. I knew something magical was happening. Then Daneille dove down for a closer look. As Danielle came back up, the whale surfaced right next to her! Danielle and Wendy resumed their motionless gaze looking downward through their masks.
I kept drifting away in the wind and would lose sight of them in the swells. I hesitated to turn on the motor and risk scaring off the whales. I didn’t want to get too close, but getting to far away I would lose sight of them. So every 5 minutes or so I turned on the engine, edged closer, then drifted away. Never ONCE did they look up at me. They kept their heads down.
Then suddenly I saw 2 whales surface DIRECTLY next to them, then the whales dove. Danielle and Wendy looked up and motioned for me to come get them.
They got to the dinghy and were SCREEMING with delight! The whales had swam directly below them so close at times they had to swim away. Then right at the end both whales swam up and with there HUGE whale eyes looked directly at both of them. The whales said hi, took a breath, and were gone!
Wendy and Danielle were unable to put words to their experience, mostly just screams of delight and shots of “did that really just happen??!!” It was so exciting the two got to share that moment together, holding hands, snorkeling and watching one of the largest most beautiful animals on the planet interact and engage with them. It was a moving and s[ritual experience.
Below is a video another cruiser took of their humpback experience. Danielle and Wendy did not have a camera, but this video is exactly what they experienced. Something never to be forgotten!