Sunday 10 July Diving Blue Lagoon

When we woke this morning we found a small cruise ship come in and was tied to the to the palm trees on the beach with it's stern held to a mooring block. It was so close to the beach it looked like it's bow was in the sand. Lounge chairs were set up and an awning for guests to take refreshments. On Jackster I served an a la carte muesli and fresh island fruits to our guests with PG Tips tea.

On shore yesterday we'd asked the dive guide for recommendations for dive sites. David and I went out in our little dinghy with the solar fish finder (glass bottomed bucket) to check where we thought he'd said. An hour of searching and I saw nothing worth getting wet for – rubbley coral and not many fish – so we concluded no diving today. Frank from Tahina came over for a chat and while he was on board we saw the dive boat go out to the seaward reef and drop his divers off. Change of plan. Let's follow them. Frank kindly offered his large dinghy to take him, David and I with our dive kits and Andrew with snorkelling kit. Andrew is a diver but we don't have extra regulators and BCDs so he and Amy would take our kit afterwards and do their own dive on the house reef).

Hawksbill turtle

Andrew snorkelling

Our dive on the outside of the reef turned out to be interesting, lots of gullies and swim throughs to explore and with some current. On one bommie we found the biggest puffer fish I've ever seen and a massive lobster. His horns were a metre long. David did try to pull him out and lost the battle – you don't become the largest lobster in the sea without knowing how to fight and win. At the end of the dive we'd wandered down current from the dinghy and had a five minute surface swim to get back.

Jacqui with remora

An easier dive for Amy and Andrew on the house reef. Andrew's done a hundred dives, Amy under ten and a few years ago so more fun for her to do a pretty dive rather than a deep challenge. They enjoyed it just as much.