Fakarava, Tuamotus
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Tue 8 Apr 2014 17:43
The first thing you notice is the lack of height, when we sailed around the Marquesas, it was very easy to spot where we were headed, you could see the islands from nearly 40 miles away, here it is a different world - the tallest thing is a palm tree, and you are almost there before you can see your destination. When you look at the chart for here, all it is is a huge white sheet, with some blue blobs on showing the atolls. The water around the atolls hardly ever gets less than 1000 metres, making anchoring outside the atolls impossible just about everywhere. The passes in are all fast moving and you need to get the time of the tide right, or you will be going backwards! The atolls are formed round a lagoon area, and you can just about see all of the land making up the ring around. Once you enter the pass the water is calm, turquoise and clear, making it easy to spot all the sharks! Again, there are hundreds here, mostly harmless, and they swim round the anchored boats.
A first glimpse as the sun rises.
Having had a three day sail to get here, we took it very easy on the first day. We got our bikes out and along with Pat & Stuart on Brizo, set off exploring. We had been told that the land extended 16km in one direction, and about 6km towards the airport. Not so far, but although the island is fairly flat, it does have some long steady inclines to challenge your legs especially when it is a few months since the bike saw the light of day. The bikes you can hire here have no gears and you have to pedal backwards to stop, making the whole experience challenging to say the least, we thought ourselves very lucky to have our own bikes!
The village, the dark patches in the water are all coral heads which need to be avoided. Even I the dinghy!
The island is small and there really isn't much here ashore. We passed the only hotel on the island as we headed out to towards the pearl farms which dot the lagoon, hoping to get some insight I to how the whole process works. We stopped at Dream Pearls where we were able to go into factory area where they were grafting the pearls, but there was no tour as such, so although we could see what they were doing, we didn't understand why. We will be able to do a proper pearl farm tour later when we reach Rangiroa.
The interior of the church was all decorated with shell streamers and the light shades were also made of small shells. The altar was covered with oyster shells.
Coconut palms lining the route to the beautiful, calm, lagoon
The other side of the road, facing onto the Pacific Ocean, is much different!
Grafting the pearl seeds
Lowering the grafted shells on racks into the water to mature
What we had really come for was the diving. We had been advised that the Southern Pass here was an awesome dive, full of sharks and masses of other sea life. Although the is an entrance at the south of the lagoon, the village that was once there is now almost deserted, there is however, still a dive centre there. Having arranged to do the Pass Garue in the north, we asked about a trip down to the south, and due to the fact there were quite a few ARC boats in with divers on board, we managed to get a trip arranged for Friday.
The diving in the north pass area was challenging to say the least! The briefing, prior to leaving the shop made you a little apprehensive and in some ways did not prepare you at all for what you were about to do.
As the current was coming into the lagoon, we were dropped off just outside the Pass in 1000m of water, from here we had to drift with current, while descending to the bottom in about 30m. Once you arrive there, you hang o to bits of coral and watch the show - there are hundreds of sharks, black tip, white tip, nurse sharks, and others all milling around in the current, I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it! Once you get through the Pass towards Ali Baba canyon, where again there are thousands of fish, you let go of the coral and go with current, at about 6-8 knots! We have never done such a fast drift, ever! It was exhilarating if a bit scary at the same time, and all the time you are surrounded by sharks!
A large Napoleon wrasse, there are a lot of these around the reefs here,a don't hey grow very big!
Black tip reef sharks - only a few feet away!
Reef fish - much less dangerous!
The second dive, was a reef dive, but still a drift finish. We dropped onto the reef and again where instantly surrounded by fish and sea life. When we came off the reef here to start the ascent, the current was even stronger still, and were flying along at 8-10 knots - WOW!
The whole experience was like nothing else we have ever done. Unfortunately, due to lack of practice, the only footage I got on the go-pro here was coral, I think I need to change the camera angle! The problem with the go-pro is that it has no view finder, so until you get back to the boat to download what you think you have taken, it is impossible to know whether you got it right, and rather disappointingly, I didn't get it right here, there is always next time!
Today, we had a birthday to celebrate, Paul off Firefly was 50. There had been a bit of confusion earlier on in the planning and the cake had gone off to Ahe, so we offered an alternative, tea and cake on board Seaduced in the afternoon, which was lovely. It had poured with rain all morning, and we were all cold waiting for the second dive in the morning and wishing for hot chocolate while we sat around, however, the sun was now shining.
The sunset tonight was truly a spectacle! It was almost 360 degrees of beautiful colour, just awesome. Once the show was over, we got ready for the party on Firefly. Chez Nous had arrived earlier in the day having had fabulous luck fishing on the way over. All four boats, Firefly, Chez Nous, Brizo and us had a piece of fresh caught wahoo with which we had to make a dish for the dinner. We had a lovely meal, coconut fish, Thai fish curry, risotto and fish satay - yum! We all also took a side dish. When I had been talking to the dive guide earlier in the day, she said the biggest treat on the island is either, French cheese, or lettuce as it is almost impossible to buy, and as I found out when I did get it, very expensive - I have never paid £5 for lettuce before! Not so surprising when you think that even the soil has to be imported before you can even think about growing anything here. The salad was a treat for everyone, there was not a leaf left at the end - normally the salad on a buffet is what gets left, but it has been so long since we have all had fresh salad that the bowl cleared almost instantly!
The start of the sunset
By the time the sun finally set, the colour was truly awesome!
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