Yesterday at Pearl & Hermes Atoll was one of the calmest that I've seen so far. There was barely a breath of wind and no whitecaps as far as the eye could see. We were on the outside of the ring of coral that creates the atoll (the forereef) on the windward side. This is generally the area that we can't get to because the seas are too rough and the tradewinds are making things sloppy. But yesterday, standing on the side of the small boat, we could have counted fish without even getting in the water. There was barely a ripple on the water and the largest disturbance to be seen was from diver's bubbles reaching the surface. The picture above is in about 20 feet of water as we are transiting back to the ship. All of the shapes that you can see in the foreground are coral colonies. Even into the evening, the water looked like silk as the sun was setting. The ripples that you can see to the left are about 10 feet from the side of the ship with the reflection of the setting sun.
It looks like we will be enjoying similar weather today but it is not supposed to last. We have gotten reports of an 8 foot swell from the north that should be reaching us tomorrow. It probably doesn't sound like much, but when you consider that our small boats are only 19 feet long, an 8' swell can make for a bumpy ride. So I'll be enjoying as much of this calm as possible today!
I hope you are doing well and enjoying the day.
Take care,
Cristi
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