Tetamanu Pass "16:30.40S 145:27.43W"
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Fri 22 Jun 2012 17:52
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We are now at the southern end of Fakarava atoll,
at Passe Tetamanu. It's just beautiful, and very very remote. The islets are
tiny - the biggest less than 400m diameter - with just two small family pensions
(low key hotels) and a one-man diving centre. The diving and snorkelling is
incredible; an unbelievable number of brilliantly coloured fish of well over a
hundred different species in very clear water. It's like swimming in an
overstocked aquarium, only better.
On the other side of the pass are Les Sables Roses
- the Pink Sands - a set of islets fringed on the protected northern side by
pink coral sand in clear warm calm turquoise water. It's about as perfect a
South Seas setting as you could imagine. Here's a taste or two:
 In the shot above looking west you can perhaps just
see breaking waves on the barrier reef just to the right of the trees, but
inside the lagoon all is calm. And here is our heroine, relaxing again. Life's a
beach.
 To get here we had to travel through the lagoon for
30 nautical miles/50km, luckily on a marked track because even though it's
generally about 20m deep there are isolated coral heads which rise up to a depth
dangerous to navigation. So you keep in the channel, and keep a sharp look-out
for heads and most importantly travel only when the sun is high in the sky,
often with someone wearing polarising sunglasses (they help see into the
water) standing high up on the boom in order to get a better view downwards
into the water. The water colour depends upon depth, bottom type (sand lighter,
coral darker), sunshine and cloud cover. In good conditions with the sun high
very shallow water looks brown, slightly deeper green, then very bright
turquoise and then deeper water dark blue. So if all's well the bigger shallower
coral heads really stand out, circled by a luminous green ring, and are easy to
see and avoid. But on the way to this anchorage one has to leave the safe
channel and weave through the coral; much more tricky - and the heads lurking at
2m (we draw 2.4!) are treacherous. But we're here now, and we know how to get
out! But only when the sun is high; it's completely unsafe
otherwise.
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