Ua Pou Baie Vaiehu

Ua Pou Baie Vaiehu

Our next stop was just the next bay down the coast. Scottie sailed on to the Tuamotus, so we met up with Pedro and Erick in Baie Vaiehu. There was a tall cliff filled with goats protecting us from the NW. At the center was a lovely palm filled rocky beach. We decided that the teetering rock on top of the cliff, from our angle, looked like King Kong's head. The other side and on down the coast, were several caves and blowholes. One had a very deep sounding “vavoosh” as the water gushed upwards thru the hole. It was quite loud and I heard it several times during the night, thinking “what was that?” “oh yea, the blowhole”.

We took the dingy down a ways to check out some of the caves and outlying rocky islands. But the main thing we were there for, was the crystal clear water. This was our first chance to have clear enough water to go snorkeling!! Pedro, Erick and I went, as Mike was on his last days of antibiotics. We saw a lot of fish, some in very big schools. The water was the clearest we had seen since we got to the Marquesas. I saw lots of new kinds of fish which I took photos of, in hope of identifying them later in my book. And the corals were quite different than the ones I had seen before too. Some looked like flower blossoms, some like alien cities and some like fat black smokestaks. The variety was quite amazing.

Once back on the boat, I realized that my book was of fishes of North America. “That will not do at all!”, I thought to myself. So I immediately wrote to my cousin Katie, who is manager of the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, and asked her to bring a fish book for the South Pacific when she comes to visit.

Some of the coral heads are just below the surface of the water. These are known as bommies, which we will have to look out for especially in the Tuamotu Islands. I think they are called that because if you hit one with your boat, it is like a bomb went off and you will have a hole and sink! Must be super careful!!

But of course, the ever glorious sunsets, always sooth the soul and keep us calm.

OK not sure why but all the photos loaded in reverse order!

Another amazing sunset!

Corals just below the water's surface!

Coral blooms

Coral looks like an alien city from another planet

bouquet of coral flowers

Thin black coral with holes on the top, different from the others!

Another alien city

Coral bumps

coral blobs

fish swimming around coral

white looking angel fish

Moorish Idol and other fish

stripped fish

raccon fish because of their black mask (my made up name!)

Orange spot fish

Long nose butterfly fish

parrot fish

yellow fish with blue circles around their eyes

school of fish just under water

big school of yellow fish

big school of black fish

several schools of fish at once the water was so clear!

fish swimming into the deep water

the coral heads can come up fast from deep water!

rocks or coral along with snorkelers

Pedro looking funny with Erick's legs

cave with pinnacle rock

close up of pinnacle

close up of cave

greenery right down to the water

orange stripe in the cliff

very loud blow hole

caves with blow hole

beach at head of bay

protective cliff from prevailing winds

teetering rock on cliff top!

Teetering rock looks like King Kong coming over the hill!

The lovely bay of Vaiehu