After our morning "adventure/disaster" I was ready to throw in the towel and head back to the boat. But Taylor knew better. He found us some lunch, settled the boys down to play in the sand, and then found us a new adventure for just our little family. It was actually the first one of the whole trip where we were together with just our little family of 5.
We boarded a boat with just 5 other people, 2 couples in their 30's and a guy who spent the whole time taking pictures and headed about 2 miles off the coast to a spot where the sting rays like to roam. Our guide jumped in the water with some bread and the sting rays came running, or whatever it is they do quickly.
They invited us in to join them while they fed the sting rays fish and bread.
Taylor jumped right in and so did Miles- literally! Taylor had to grab him out of the water because of course he can't swim. The rays LOVED being fed and would come right up to your hand to get it. They were swarmed by schools of angel fish as well who mopped up all the little pieces.
We were at least 2 miles out in the ocean but Taylor is standing. So amazing!
After getting Ethan and Isaac in snorkel gear we joined Taylor and Miles.
Miles insisted on staying but wouldn't touch the sting rays.
See how far out we are. The waves were really choppy since it was kind of stormy so we ended up getting jostled around a lot but part of that was the sting rays looking for food!
Taylor with Miles and Isaac.
While we fed sting rays, they showed us where to swim to find an amazing coral reef. The pictures are out of order so you can see those at the bottom. After almost an hour we got back out and headed to another part of the ocean.
I was still in awe of the water colors.
Partway around to another side of the island we stopped and waited less than 2 minutes before we looked overboard and noticed we were being swarmed... by sharks!
The guides jumped right in and assured us we could too... but I prefer my little boys to keep all their limbs and truly I am awed and freaked out by sharks so I stayed in the boat too. I let the boys climb up on the front of the boat and spent the rest of the time pulling them back from the edge.
Taylor watched for a while. Wouldn't you? It's a little freaky!
See? You'd be pulling them back too- especially crazy Isaac!
And then Taylor couldn't take it any longer. He'd already been scuba diving with sharks so swimming he thought would be the same.
I stayed and took pictures cause I'm a wimp. He said later that it was actually a little scarier to be on the surface with the sharks because they were expecting to be fed (since the guides were doing that :) and they came really close to them. Most of the sharks were your basic black tip or white tip but down farther he saw huge lemon sharks.
After the sharks we rode around the entire island on the boat. Great views and the kids mostly just sat back and rested.
This one fell asleep.
And we got good views of our ship when we passed it.
Here's all the pictures off the underwater camera.
The sting rays we were hand feeding and the schools of angel fish following them.
There were at least 20 sting rays all swimming around and coming in and out for food.
Some of the amazing coral where we swam out by the sting rays.
Just amazing.
And here's the sharks Taylor was swimming with. Creepy from above and creepy from below!
After we circled the entire island we headed back to the cruise ship. It was a great 3 hours together as a family. The kids were good, we had amazing adventures, and it was really fun to be together as a family. So glad Taylor talked me into it!
We sailed. (And enjoyed the amazing views of the island)
And sailed (Miles was the first one bored).
And sailed (and entertained ourselves by taking pictures of grams and grandpa).
And sailed (and took more pictures, cause we were bored).
And sailed.
and finally, halfway around the island, just after the captain had informed us that we could try this one last bay and then we'd have to turn back because of time, WE FOUND THEM!!!
So fun to watch!
The boat captain was kind of a nazi about his rules and refused to let anyone switch seats (for the 3 hours we were looking for the dolphins- yep, my boys got yelled at a few times to sit down), and another rule was if the dolphins were on your side of the boat you had to sit so the other side could stand and see, then you could stand if the dolphins were on the other side while the other people were forced to sit. Whatever. After 3 hours just cruising along pretty much everyone was ready to mutany and just ignored the guy.
Really fun to watch, but we only got to stay 20 minutes and then had to head back.
Time to pack up and get ready to leave the next day. It was a really great cruise and if you're ever going to Tahiti this is a much cheaper way to see more islands.
