Monday / Tuesday Monday we woke at Macona and sailed up to Manta Ray Bay on the north side of Hook Island and had a snorkel. It was fantastic! There were lots of fish , some huge Maori Wrasse ( like 1 m long) and a host of smaller brightly coloured fish. The coral was wonderful, blues, reds, yellows and every colour in between. Benetta sailed to Stonehaven for a less rolly lunch, we stayed on at Manta and managed to find a school of Batfish who hang around the back of boats for a free feed. It was great fun to watch them come up for food like tame chooks. That night we spent at Stonehaven and after drinks on Benetta the three of us had a meal on Phlat Chat. Murray et al had to go back to Airlie in the morning so we headed up to Blue Pearl Bay for a snorkel. Blue Pearl is on the western side of Hayman Island. The snorkelling was great with lots of fish and coral almost as good as Butterfly Bay. We decided to go to Langford Island for a walk on the sand spit but before we left – another mob of Batfish descended on us for a feed. But as we left Blue Pearl Bay we saw two Humpbacks slowly heading north about 150 m in front of the boat – as we had nowhere to go we stopped engines and waited so as not the scare them. We saw nothing for about two minutes and then one of them appeared only 15 m behind the boat. Chris got a picture – it was amazing and we can all vouch for the fact that they are BIG animals. It was awesome (in the literal sense!). Tonight is Jimmy’s last night with us so we in Nara Inlet and looking forward to a nice meal and tomorrow we will sail down to Hamilton via Cid Harbour. Today was another great day and great weather.