August 22 & 23, 2012
We ventured into the shallow water a couple of days ago in search of manta rays, and we found them! The shallow water and mantas are on the other side of Bora Bora. We motored over an hour through water that was as shallow as eight feet. That’s a problem because our keel sticks down seven feet. One little coral head or rock and we’d hit bottom. Nerve-wracking!
But it was worth the bad case of jitters. We found a great spot to anchor in about 12 feet of water and from there, the manta ray spot was only a short dingy ride away.
This was different than when we’d swam with mantas before. Here, they were cruising along the bottom over the coral looking to be cleaned. Little, colorful wrasses obliged them, swimming into their mouths to pick out little parasites.
The water wasn’t as clear as it could have been, the mantas were 30 or 40 feet below us and didn’t care much to interact with humans during their wrasse-bath, but it was still incredible. We saw two or three at a time and there was a mostly constant stream of them swimming below us. -Rich
