Day 99 Dinghy flotilla

Snorkeling and the hookah
Mark and Jim hatched a plan to set up the hookah near the reef pass and let everyone who wanted take turns diving on the reef. The problem of how to get everyone out there was solved when Ned from Suzanne2 volunteered to motor out in his boat and tow all the dinghies. Once at the pass, we could anchor all the dinghies in shallow water on the reef and have our own island to dive from. One dinghy would contain the hookah and that could be either anchored or towed by swimmers to the most favorable location.
In addition to the hookah and the snorkelers, Eric and Gisela from Far Niente brought their scuba tanks as did Brian from Salicorn. We had enough people and equipment to run our own diving school.
Adults and kids alike spent several hours exploring the reef. There was very little current so the normal procedure of floating with the current through the reef break did not work. This was fine as it was easy to swim along the surface and dive to the reef that varied from just a few feet to about 30 feet below. At the actual pass, the reef drops precipitously to a dark-blue-nothing but the coral fails to grow at that depth so there is not much missed by not going deeper. In some islands where there is a current when the tide changes, many fish - particularly big ones - cruise through the pass and make for an interesting dive but on this day, there did not seem to be any large fish below.
On the inside of the reef there was enough living coral and small reef fish to make interesting viewing but on the ocean side, almost all the coral was dead. The guide book attributes this to the effects of the last El Niño. The result is a bit depressing with gray shards of dead coral everywhere. One can imagine what the surface of the moon might look like close up.
By early afternoon, everyone had worked up huge appetites so we re-attached the dinghies to Suzanne2, stopped at the town dock for some supplies and made heaps of ham and cheese sandwiches to consume as we motored back to the marina to relax for the evening.