Manta Ray Pass Photos

I’ve finally processed the photos from our visit to Manta Ray Pass. The photos in the album below include pictures of our passage on the way from Narewa Bay. If you read that post, you’ll note as we were dodging the reefs (thanks to help from Google Earth) I spotted another St. Francis 50 ahead of us. I quickly hailed s/v Sirius on the radio – because I knew from e-mails they were in the area. This was our second encounter with another St. Francis 50. The first St. Francis 50 we encountered was s/v Bamboo back in the Caribbean in early 2010.

I didn’t mention this in the previous post about our trip down to Manta Ray Pass, but when we arrived in the anchorage I was so excited to anchor next to another St. Francis 50 that I forgot to pull in the fishing lines. As I was backing on the anchor, we ran over the two lines and they both got pulled into the props. Fortunately, I stopped the engines right away. Still, it took me nearly 45 minutes to get the lines clear by snorkeling under the hulls and untangling the lines from the props.

It wasn’t until late the next day that anyone spotted any mantas at the pass. We were the first boat in the water after someone spotted them. You will see in the photos below pictures of the swarms of fish that were also feeding in the pass. The currents bring all kinds of sea life through this pass making for great feeding. Karen took turns with the camera so one of us was tending the dinghy at all times. There were two mantas feeding. One was all black with a tail. The other had lots of white markings, and no tail.

Here are the photos:

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I’ve also posted a short video clip which show both the mantas. The black one was directly below me and then suddenly the other one swoops into the view as I swam a few feet under the water.