Sharks and corals

Tatt av vinden
Bjørn Larsen
Mon 25 Jun 2018 22:28
We have been to the most exciting and awesome place for diving and snorkeling. Fakarava South Pass.
We booked two bungalows at Tetamanu Village, and stayed for two nights. The south pass is 35 nm away from Rotoava where our boat is on a mooring We were picked up by car for a part of the way down there, and the rest of the distance was covered in speed boat in 17 knots. Not our favorite, but it was efficient.
The bungalows were of the more primitive kind, but the place itself was just as you can dream of, and the food was good. But we were there for the sea life. A whole bunch of guests arrived together with us, but we were the only ones that came there for the first time.
After the first night that brought bad weather, the weather improved, and from 6 am the current in the pass was ingoing. Perfect. We drifted with the the current for a couple of hundred meters, and swam back, and did it over again. The current was moderate at our side of the pass.
We were instantly cured for our fear of the sharks. Almost all of them were black tip reef sharks. They are considered harmless for people. And we saw a lot of them, pretty close up. The coral was fresh, and there were a lot of other fishes, that we only know a few of. Among them were napoleon fish, parrot fish, flute fish, trumpet fish, snappers, moraines,and many others.
There were also the camouflage groupers, they gather in this pass for mating around this time of the year, and of coarse they attract sharks.
The second day Eva and Anne Sofie continued snorkeling, and Bjørn went diving. At the wall of sharks, you could far from count them. They cruised around, pretty calm in the daytime. But we have seen pictures from the night time, when the sharks hunt. Those pictures told a very different story. We could have just a little idea of it when we saw sharks in Nuku Hiva, when the fishermen cleaned their fish and throw the leftovers into the sea. But at that occasion we just watched from our safe place on the town quay.
Bjørn on his dive drifted through two thirds of the pass. That was amazing, and a little thrilling, in addition to the sharks he also saw a big eagle ray. For corals and the smaller fishes the snorkeling was just as good. Especially when freediving some meters down.
The trip was expensive, but we are very happy we did it and that we did it the way we did, leaving "Tatt av vinden" on the mooring in Rotoava.
Tomorrow or latest the day after we will sail to Tahiti. When we get there, we plan to post pictures from the excitements in the south pass. Stay tuned.

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