Our Thursday motu day has got to be by far my favorite on Mo'orea so far. We woke up early and took three boats out to the two motus on the northeast corner of Mo'orea.
The boat trip out there was my first real ocean voyage since the ferry, and what a great way to see these islands. I would love to come back and sail around here; the water is so clear and everything looks so beautiful from the ocean. I got a little bit sea sick when we had to turn around and collect a buoy that had fallen offboard, but I’m going to work on my seasickness. I might be taking a boat license test to try to get licensed on the boats and be able to take students out to the backreef. More on that I am sure in coming weeks.
Here are three of my students, Brandy, Qi and Michelle enjoying the sun on our boat!
Before landing at the motus, we stopped a ways off of them at a common ray feeding station. Tourists come there often to snorkel with rays and see them up close.
I don’t even know if we actually fed them, but they were definitely expecting food. Probably at least a dozen or more big rays were swimming all about and then some black-tip sharks even came in for a look! (Don’t worry mom, these are man-eaters by any means).
The rays and sharks sure made for some great picture opportunities, and I’m glad my underwater camera was up to the task!
After the amazing ray-snorkel we landed on the motus and walked around the perimeter, contemplating the geology and biology of these transient mini-islands. It was some great snorkeling, and I am definitely looking forward to going back sometime soon. To top of the whole day we got saluted by a humpback momma and saw the spray from both her and her baby! I didn’t get any pictures, but it was super cool to see her tail slapping the water over and over. Maybe one day soon I will get to snorkel with them; I have heard this is something that can happen if the stars line up right.
Ah, another beautiful day on Mo’orea! I loved the wind blowing in our hair as we drove back to the station; Camille in her trendy glasses agrees!
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