Paradise

You will accuse me of sounding like Huell Howser, but it just doesn't get any better than this. We are all alone in this majestically scenic bay. We took an early morning dinghy ride to the reef, cliffs and caves. We saw Swamp Harriers and a possible Brown Goshawk again. We saw the 300 plus flying foxes (fruit bats) up close. They were hanging in several trees above us. They would occasionally flush and we would have most of them wheeling around above us for a few minutes before they would flutter back into the trees, grab a branch and flop upside down. We saw a flying Wandering Tattler, a Barn Owl fly in to roost, and nesting Pacific Swallows. Upon entering one sea cave, we found that it was Crab City - 0h, wow! A Pacific Reef Heron (dark morph) glided in and we heard kingfishers and doves calling. Later in the afternoon we are joined by locals in the ubiquitous small Vanuatu fiberglass boat with motor looking for dinner with a spear gun. Then 3 niVans kids doing what 10 year old boys do at the beach. Barry gets his snorkeling gear on and his scrubbers out and spends an hour cleaning the propeller and waterline of Sunrise. Both were getting pretty shaggy. Lots of gooseneck barnacles were growing on the top of the rudder and the hull by the rudder. It's their favorite place. One black baby lobster about ¼ inch long was scurrying about the hull above the waterline. We have seen them before, same place and doing the same thing. He checks the anchor and finds that it has been nearly pulled out because we are drifting all around it. The sandy bottom has been raked by the anchor chain being dragged sideways. We reset the anchor, probably to no avail, as afterward the boat drifts around in circles, gently pushed by the wind eddies in the lee of the cliffs. As darkness approaches, a catamaran glides into the bay and anchors near but not too close to us. All is well.