Saturday 21st April:  South Pacific Ocean 17 11.7S  149 23.0W  On passage to Tahiti

Today’s Blog by David  (Time zone UTC -10.00;  BST-11.00)

On arrival in Kauehi, Inspection of our hull revealed no evidence of our collision with the Whaleshark (Phew) enabling us to focus on the delights of our new landfall.

The Tuamotos  (each essentially a ring of coral reefs with the occasional  islands each of which enclose a lagoon  of sheltered water) are quite spectacular.  Hard to capture in a photograph – you just see blue water and blue sky separated by a strip of white sand an green palm trees; for example:

Ashore they are also much the same. The French influence/interference is evident everywhere. Each village we visited had the ubiquitous concrete main street:

Street lighting, running water and satellite TV too.   Even the buoyage was French; anyone who has sailed around the Brittany coast will tell you that the buoyage there is much bigger than any UK buoy – the Tuamotus had port and starboard hand  passage marks fully four metres tall (twice the size of English Buoyage).

To be fair, not much happens in Kauehi and we did not dally there long.  Fakarava, though similar, was more promising; a couple of shops and restaurants ashore (we had an excellent meal in one of them). We also stopped here to dive - an open water dive on the reef was among the more spectacular we have done; we followed that with a “drift dive”  along the passage into the Atoll.

The passes into each atoll are quite narrow by comparison to the expanse of water beyond  – a large volume of water goes through a small space on each tide leading to strong currents – as much as 8 knots at its strongest.  A “good wheeze” in diving circles is to go  through these passes with an aqualung and drift by the wild life. Technically these dives are not easy. You start deep – 30 metres -  and then have to manage your buoyancy as the bottom comes up. Too slow and you are dashed against the coral and cut yourself; too quickly and you are not deep enough to see anything.

If you can take you mind off the buoyancy there is a lot to see. We dived initially down onto about 150-200 sharks - all treading water nose into the current waiting for their next meal to drift by - and thereafter any number of different kinds of fish, individually and in shoals – and at one point another group of divers drifted by! Fascinating, but one to be repeated only after due consideration.

Lastly we stopped at Rangiroa. This is among the largest Atoll (25 miles long) and is on the direct route from The Marquesas to Tahiti.  It is pretty much the same as the others save it is an exotic  holiday destination in its own right. Therefore there are a couple of pretty smart hotels – off from one of which we anchored.

This hotel was not cheap to stay (or drink or eat)  at – these air conditioned rooms were over the sea – with a diving platform off each balcony run at about £600 per night:

One thing they do here is shells. This is one of three chandeliers in the hotel reception:

The big shells are oyster shells. Pearl farming is a major industry in French Polynesia and we visited a farm on Rangiroa which accounts for 5% of the region’s output.   Usual idea, free transport to, and free tour of,  the farm and then you are locked into the showroom until you have spent your children’s inheritance. (Sorry, guys!).

The hotel (Kia Ora) welcomes yachties (probably because business otherwise was slow at this time of year) and a group of us enjoyed a themed barbeque there on Wednesday with a performance of traditional dancing  which – once again – the audience could join in with.    This time Serendipity’s participation was more subdued:  

We left Rabgiroa yesterday, and are now about 20 miles from Tahiti.  Must go!