Tetamanu, Fakarava Island, Tuamotus
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 26 Apr 2008 19:57
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16:30.445S 145:27.651W
Friday (4/25), we sailed - again behind Cleone -
the remaining fifteen miles down the Fakarava lagoon to an anchorage very
close to the southern pass. Our plan is to leave here Saturday around noon
for the ~42 hour trip to Tahiti.
James, the captain of Cleone, had been in this
area two days before on a scuba dive with a local dive instructor. They
did what is called a drift dive through the pass in the coral reef (meaning the
dive is timed so that you drift in or out of the pass with the current), and he
said it was 'brilliant'. So, as soon we got ourselves anchored, Don and I
followed James and young Will in the dinghy to the small, thatch-roofed dive
shop located just inside the pass on the lagoon side. There, we learned
the tide was on its way in and we decided to start snorkeling just inside the
pass and let the current take us further into the lagoon.
When James completed his scuba dive two days
before, he said he saw many, many reef sharks, but that they had no
interest in humans. Reef sharks are small sharks, only about three or four
feet long, but still, a shark is a shark and at first, the thought of hopping in
water known to be full of sharks was not all that appealing. Don must have
felt a little trepidation himself (although he didn't really admit it)
because he decided it would be a good idea to tow
the dinghy behind us while we snorkeled, just in case one of us wanted to get
back in at any point in time. James, Don and Will donned their snorkeling
gear and flopped in the water while I continued to deliberate whether I wanted
to potentially share the same water with sharks or not. The water was so
incredibly clear that sitting in the dinghy, peering over the side was like
looking through glass. I put on my mask and leaned over the side of
the dinghy to get a better look. I'm not sure I can describe
what I saw adequately. It was positively amazing. We've been in
some of the best snorkeling grounds in the world - the Caribbean, the
Galapagos - but this blew everything we had seen before completely away. I
was so amazed I decided the risk of meeting a shark was worthwhile and
I donned my flippers and flopped overboard. I floated with Don, Will
and James nearby, not really needing to swim as the current gently pushed us
along. When I looked down what I saw was a carpet of coral spreading
in all directions, sloping sharply upward to our right and sharply
downward to our left. When I say carpet of coral, I mean
carpet. There was not a rock, not a patch of sand, nothing to interrupt
the endless sea of coral below us. And it was not just one type of coral
either, it was every shape, size, and color imaginable - kind of like a
funky multi-colored, very bumpy berber carpet. What we were seeing was
more incredible than most underwater documentaries, it was that amazing.
There was so much coral crowded in the same space that when we looked
to our right at the coral sloping upward, we could see little
crevices and caves in among the mass of coral, with loads of fish swimming
in and around them. There were schools of fish everywhere - a few feet
below us, above us to the right and sometimes at eye level. Bright blue
fish and black fish and yellow and orange and purple and translucent and striped
fish. Tiny fish and bigger fish a foot or more long.
We drifted for about a half hour or so, and in that
time I saw two sharks. The first was quite a distance away and disappeared
into the blue of the deeper water to our left. The second was closer, but
also didn't stick around for long and certainly didn't act interested in
us....but at that point I felt I had seen enough and with Don's help, flopped
back into the dinghy. Once in I saw several more shark fins slicing
through the water very near the shore. Of course it didn't help that there
were a couple of fisherman on the dock cleaning fish and throwing the waste into
the water. Norfy, who is not a snorkeler, was watching us from shore and
was able to take several pictures of a group of five or six sharks that were
clear as day in the very shallow water, eating the remains of the fishermen's
fish. This was all happening not 30 feet away from Will, James and Don
snorkeling in the water. During the half hour snorkeling time, Don saw
about six sharks, the closest of which was just eight or ten feet away.
Just as James said though, the sharks were completely uninterested in the
floating humans and did not approach any of us or act in a threatening manner at
all. None of us panicked and no one seemed even the least bit unnerved -
including me for the most part. There were so many fish in the water
we figured the sharks were well fed and wouldn't want to take on any
oversized prey like humans.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... it's
amazing how the things we fear (and those we don't) have changed. If
someone would have told either Don or myself ten months ago that we would be
snorkeling with reef sharks and not be freaked out, I don't think either one of
us would have believed it.
Today's snorkeling was definitely brilliant.
And to make it that much better, Norfy cooked us all a fabulous dinner. We
are wondering if life can get any better than this?
And it may - we plan to arrive in Tahiti
on Monday, where we will re-provision the boat (we are down to two bags of
microwave popcorn, some frozen vegetables and a bag of shrimp), clean it up
a bit, meet back up with the full rally contingent (first time since the
Galapagos that we'll all be together again) and await the arrival of our good
friends, Bill and Kathie Maloney. Bill and Kathie will be sailing with us
for two weeks through the Society Islands to Bora Bora. The Society
Islands should be an interesting change from the Marquesas and the
Tuamotus. The Society Islands (Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine Raiatea and
Bora-Bora among others) are a combination of what we've seen so far. They
are mountainous, but not as mountainous as the Marquesas, and they are
surrounded by coral reefs, so have small lagoons like their larger
cousins in the Tuamotus. In terms of geological age, the Tuamotus are
the oldest island group, the Society islands are a bit younger and the
Marquesas are the youngest. It's nice that these island groups were
arranged so nicely so we can hop from one to another quite easily and enjoy
their differences. Someone definitely planned well.
More on Sunday when we will be sailing the high
seas once again.
Anne
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