21 September Diving at Tani Kely

13.29.25S 48.14.22E 14m sand

We lifted anchor and left Crater Bay before breakfast to motor the five miles to Tani Kely island. The small island of Tani Kely is a marine park with mooring balls and a fee of £5 per day per person. Unfortunately the mooring balls seem to be in water too shallow for us and too close to the reef for comfort. Instead we anchored on the sand spit at the south east side of the island in about 8m. The park ranger came straight out to meet us and to collect the fee. We had to be early to take advantage of the morning calm; at 1 o'clock the will be blowing 15 knots from the west and it won't be comfortable to stay here.

For our first dive we tied the dinghy to one of the two black balls on the east side of the island where the charter boats stop. From here we descended down the mooring line to 8m sand and continued south to reach the start of the reef. The coral is healthy and there are fish here, some nice schools of three stripe yellow fish and some huge grouper, Moorish Idols, clown fish and the usual suspects to be found on a reef. I think the quality of the reef and the size of the fish show the value of a marine park where fishing is banned. It was a nice dive.

Our second dive was a disappointment. We'd been told to start off the the south west corner near a beach and it is a good place to see reef sharks. Perhaps we started at the wrong place, perhaps we were too late in the water. There wasn't much to see, few fish and no sharks and we were being swept over the sand bar back to Jackster in under 15 minutes. By the time we surfaced it was approaching 1pm and the wind was building. We got back in the dinghy, quickly unloaded our kit and by the time we picked up the anchor the wind and waves were making it uncomfortable.

We had thought to go on to Russian Bay for the night but that course would have been straight to wind. We chose to sail back to Crater Bay for the night instead and then to sail to Russian Bay the following afternoon when our angle to the wind would be preferable.