A weekend on the water

We have had a great weekend on the water here in paradise.

Saturday...

The boys had their first sailing lesson. Jim (Etu Moana) runs the Aitutaki Sailing club every saturday morning from 9am and has 6-8 Optimists and 4-5 lasers. There are about 15 kids down there each weekend. Jim started Bailey off with short runs out from the beach and back and then I took over the coaching while the other kids went further out on the lagoon. He did very well, clocking up half an hour in the boat. After that he seemed more interested in swimming in his life jacket!
Jamie was desperate to try so we did a little tacking practice on the shore and he took a run out from the beach and then tacked and returned for another tack. Unfortunately as I caught the boat at the beach the boom klonked him a good one across the forehead - not a happy boy. He was brave enough to try again 15 minutes later but got into a panic and started going around in circles. I swam out to get him and that was that for the day.
Sunday...(and friday night)

We have just come back from a day on the lagoon with Stephen and Poppy. We had a great night out with them on Friday at the Pacific Resort Island Night, complete with incredible seafood buffet and dancing from one of the local island groups. We have found a babysitter - one of the mums from work so this was our first night out without the kids. Michael has seen the show before and has managed to avoid the public embarassment of being called up to dance, but Stephen (who is also the MC for the night) made sure Jenni and I couldn't avoid it.
The kids loved Tav (our babysitter) and her 5 year old daughter Tara and her husband. Tav left us with 6kg of bananas and 2 kg of FRESH LIMES from her garden.

Back to today...it was another awesome day on the lagoon. Stephen and Poppy are so lovely. Poppy looked after the kids on board, and around their 6m runabout while Jen and I got to snorkel with Stephen and friend Mark. At the first stop, even before we threw in the bread, there were hundreds of beautiful reef fish around. From trevally to parrot fish, eating out of our hands. The water is AMAZINGLY CLEAR and warm. we swan around for a while and then found 'Hurricane' the Napoleon Wrass. He is enormous and just slowly drifts around the bottom by one coral head. He must be 100kg.


All the kids got in the water and Jamie and Bailey got masks on and just LOVED seeing the fish. Bailey has been snorkeling more and more, and Jamie tried it today - he is a natural and was away on his own almost immediately. Next stop was to the GIANT CLAMS. There were dozens of them 100 - 200 - 300kgs. Bright blue lips, flourescent green, on the sand or in coral beds. Again the kids just loved seeing it.Then onto One Foot Island for lunch. Mark had been baking and bought fresh banana bread, Poppy had avocados and mangos and we supplied the NZ apples ($32 for 5kg flown in from Raro). Mark hadn't had an apple for 2 months!! One Foot is just magical. I can't describe the peace, the vivid colours, the warmth, it is incredible - truly a paradise. Some other friends - Jo and Jim (he's the sailing coach) sailed in on their hobicat for a few beers, then they left to catch the breeze. We stayed some more to collect crabs (see pic) the kids just love the hermit crabs. and then home. It is amazing how quickly the kids have come to love our new friends and Jen and I are starting to feel quite contented living here, but I can't wait for some cooler nights!!