16:30S 145:27W

 

Tumakohua Pass, in the south of Fakarava, is considered one of the Pacific’s premier dive spots.  It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and a favoured spot for those keen to snorkel and dive with the sharks.  We had a lovely morning sail over from gorgeous Harifa, the water getting clearer the closer we got to the pass.  Anchoring in 10m of Bombay Sapphire coloured water, we noticed huge chunks of something floating past......being attacking by sharks.  Our noses drew us to the shoreline where the familiar shape of a whale carcass sat being attacked by locals with knifes. They were after the jawbone but as they hacked at it they threw bits into the water to feed the sharks.  Hmm....maybe our anchoring spot wasn’t the best.   As we watched the feeding frenzy we noticed a massive shape coming alongside Bandit – it was way bigger than the black tipped reef sharks and had patterns on its side.  Initially we thought it was a whale shark but soon realised it was a huge tiger shark – later confirmed by divers...who said is was 17ft.  Believe it or not, the dive school put divers down in the very spot we’d seen it!

 

Figuring security in numbers is the way to go, we teamed up with Dragonfly, Southern Cross and Tulu for a drift snorkel in the pass.  This has to be done at slack tide so at 1pm we set off.  I insisted on towing the tender – nothing like having something handy to leap into if I didn’t like what I saw – while Chris from Tulu stayed in his tender and pottered alongside us.  It was astonishing....the best snorkelling we’ve had for absolutely ages.  The coral wall was alive with fish of all shapes, sizes and colours and, just to keep us on our toes, a constant stream of black tipped reef sharks swam on by.  One went within a few metres of me and I surprised myself by staying completely calm.  David did lots of dives down into the depths where there were a lot more sharks.  We saw a school of grey sharks just sitting in the current and watching the world go by.  It was a fantastic snorkel and we can’t wait to go back tomorrow.