Tahanea beautiful corals sharks and more sharks
Nickanddenisesailing
Fri 30 Jun 2017 03:25
So we are now in Tahanea - another beautiful atoll in the Tuamotos. We had a nice final day in Makemo (once the weather had cleared up). It was lovely to have the anchorage all to oursleves after an eventful morning of helping to get Silver Linings' anchor up. Unfortunatley with the issues with their bent bow roller it was tricky getting their anchor up fast enough that it didnt just wrap around another (dead) coral head. Nick was diving and I was spotting him in the dinghy and between the 4 of us we managed to get the anchor up and they got away safely. After that Nick dove on our anchor and we ended up hatching a soild plan to get our bow and stern anchor up without drifting over any shallow bommies. So after a beautiful day of snorkelling around some stunning coral pillars coverd in multicoloured corals and teaming with fish, eels and the token black tip sharks (which we see nearly every time we get in the water at the moment!) we were ready to leave.
In the evening we easily lifted anchor (thanks to some floats and fast work from Nick) and got safely through the pass before sunset. We had an uneventful motor through the night to Tahanea - apart from our radar was doing some funny things and it seemed like there was some kind of ghost ship just ahead of us for most of the night - lucilky no floating abandoned ships but it did give us lots to talk about during the long night.
Tahanea was named a national park after the local people had to leave. Unfortunetly due to rising sea levels they could no longer live in the villages....something we have seen a lot on this trip. Sad to think this is what will happen to most of these islands around here......
We arrived in Tahanea about 7am and had some naps before taking in our beautiful surroundings. Another anchorage where we are floating in a beautiful giant aquarium. Tonnes of colourful fish that love stale bread and pomplemousse skins as well as black tip sharks which some in for a look, and many more characters that we see just from sitting in the cockpit. We then took the dinghy outside the pass and snorkelled in the 40m+ visability on the outter reef. A beautiful carpet of colours and shapes covers the bottom and fish of all sizes and colours just cruise around. There are some big fish out there and all of them seem pretty curious about what you are so they come really quite close. We even got to hang out with a massive grouper who was having his gills picked clean of paristies by some tiny wrasse at a cleaning station. Whilst diving down, a large (7ftish) grey reef shark came swimming up to Nick quite quickly before turning tail and running after Nick karate chopped the
water
in front of him to warn him off.
We jumped back in the dinghy and came inside the atoll through a different pass. We then had one of the best snorkels of our lives. What a beautiful shallow coral garden. Bright yellows, blues, greens, purples, reds creating mounds, pillars and rolling hills and valleys. Every inch busy with activy from fish big and small. Black reef tip sharks in the periphery and groupers by the dozen. I think we could have both stayed in there for the whole day. So beautiful.
Anyway yesterday was also good fun. We had planned to 'roach bomb' the boat as we have had the odd sighting of 'a' roach (about the size of a mouse - prehaps from Colombia/Galapagos? We are not sure) over the last few months and Nick saw one two nights in a row so we decided to do something about it. So we packed our bags for a full day away from the boat. Nick spent the morning getting a windsurf lesson whilst I intermitently shouted instructions imbetween snorkelling. We then went ashore and found a fishermens hut where we made camp. Hammock up and nice relaxed lunch followed by some island exploring. We then took the dinghy through the other pass where we jumped out and drifted through holding onto the dinghy. So many sharks everywhere! More curious grey reef sharks and some large nurse sharks. We also saw large groupers in their hundreds!
After we got back to the boat we got some dinner organised (fried fish, chips and baked beans - veggies are running pretty thin after a month...). Then we decided to do some night exploring on the island. We wandered around in the shallows looking at all the fish before lighting a fire near the fishermans hut, lying down on a rug, drinking wine, eating peanut m'n'm's and looking at the stars.
The wind has been up today so I've been having a great time windsurfing. We also got a cool snorkel in through one of the pass'es where we saw some sharks working together on a large school of fish and a massive yellow fin tuna. We also nearly bumped into a large manta ray who was just chilling in the middle of the pass.
Looks like we will be here for a couple more days before our next move to Fakarva.
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