Circles in the Sea

The coral atolls of the Tuomotus. Check out the location page https://www.oceansfive.net/tuamotus.

Another blah blah blah blog. I don’t mean for them to be so long, but it just keeps happening….

On our navigation charts, the Tuomotu Islands are almost invisible - they resemble underwater elevations, but don’t appear to even break the surface of the water. On closer inspection, they are an archipelago of large coral rings with palm trees and lower green foliage surrounding a large central lagoon. The 76 atolls are the largest atoll chain in the world. The largest single atoll being Rangiroa with a 558 square mile lagoon on its interior. They’re formed by a central volcanic island with a coral shoreline running around its periphery. The central island gradually erodes/sinks and the ring of coral is all that remains. The Tuomotus are the polar opposite of the tall, striking green mountains of the Marquesas. The rings of coral are barely above sea level with sand lining the interior of the ring and coral fragments on the exterior, ocean facing side. The short span of land between the two is home to lower green foliage and palm trees. Most of the atolls have a passage to enter the atoll. Entering/exiting into the atoll can be tricky - the width of the passage, currents, tide(whether coming in or out) and wind all come into play to create a potentially tense situation. The current in some areas may be up to 15 knots.

We reach the first of the atolls we plan on visiting, Kauehi at 9 am on Friday morning. The entrance is suddenly rough and choppy as the outgoing current rushes against us at about 4 knots. We power through to enter inside the atoll. The ring is surprisingly large - about 12 miles long by 8 miles wide. The only town is tiny, and quite poor. A small funeral is taking place when we arrive, making the town quieter than normal. As we stroll down the only street, we run into Ann and Nick from Rock Lobster - another really fun, witty couple from Britain. We stopped by a tiny grocery and shared really bad ice cream sandwiches, as we made our way about town. Later, s/v Aurora joins us at the anchorage and dinghies over to invite us to dinner. They caught a large mahi mahi just before entering the atoll. We bring the veggies and enjoy a lovely evening with them and their crew. We return the favor a couple days later (Ellie made her delicious curry.). Around the small town and an adjoining pristine lagoon, the water is quite murky. As pristine, aquamarine blue as the water is, the silt is stirred up, affecting the visibility. We were able to find a clearer area about 3 miles from our anchorage, in front of a tiny island. We take the dinghy while Calvin wing foils his way there. James and Rob shoot photos as we snorkel, capturing a moment in the constantly changing landscape below. Clear water, many varieties of corals, with some bleaching evident, and colorful fish of all shapes and sizes dart in and out of coral structures. Tragically, there’s been a massive bleaching event in French Polynesia. This is only the beginning of our awareness of the bleaching we’ll be seeing in our future snorkels and dives.

The atoll is interspersed with small pearl farms, thus we need to be aware of them as we zip around in the dinghy. Some are marked by balls, but others are not. The majority of Tahitian black pearls are produced in the warm waters of the Tuomotu Islands. Even the smallest atolls (one with only 3 people living on it) have pearls available for purchase.

The following morning we have a beautiful sail southwest to Fakarava, a larger, more populated atoll of over 800 people. We enter the mile wide north pass and anchor for the night at the main village of Rotoava, where we provision what’s available from the three small grocers. We stop in a tiny pearl shop to peruse their selection. There’s a beautiful variety of shades of pearls from dark gray to dark purple with sheens of green and pink. I decide on a pair of earrings that have the misshapen pearls. I ask the young woman who runs the shop, and whose father is the pearl farmer, why the pearls are shaped as they are and she explains, “Those oysters are sick.” Awww. Rob and I walk down the single road to the Havaiki Lodge for dinner. A quaint, well done restaurant with bungalows along the private beach, noted to have the best food in town. It has a beach bar/restaurant open for lunch and a long pier leading to the pearl farm. Nurse sharks meander along the beach and by the feet of the people eating at the tables located in the water. It’s a gorgeous setting overlooking the crystal turquoise waters dotted with little coral bommies. Dinner in the lodge restaurant is a set menu. It’s a reminder of how limited food supplies are in this remote location - fish appetizer and moon fish with mashed potatoes as the main. No other veggies of any sort available, not even as a garnish. And banana cake for dessert. Lovely atmosphere and felt nice to get away and dine off the boat, as much as we enjoy Ellie’s cooking. Long walk under the stars back to the boat. Beautiful, peaceful.

We arise the next morning intent on leaving the north end of Fakarava to the south eastern end, where a famous dive site beckons us. We take 5 hours, motoring directly into the wind to reach Hirifa Bay where we end up spending the next week. It’s a peaceful, calm anchorage with a lovely beach where we meet our fellow Oysters for sundowners early each evening. We bring our own drinks because there’s no bar or restaurant here, except one that is closed because the woman who ran it recently retired. Almost every evening, wondrous sunsets unfold, becoming more colorful as time passes, then fading. It seems just the right amount of clouds to catch and reflect the shades of yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue and red. This is also a very popular place to kite surf and wing foil. Calvin’s super excited and darts off into the distance on his wing foil every chance he’s able.

With Mathias, the local dive shop, Rob scheduled us for two dives on Thursday and two on Friday of the southern pass, Tumakohua. This seemed overkill to me - diving the same area four times in two days? But, it is known to have fabulous corals and exposure to a large variety of fish… and the famous “Wall of Sharks.” The next morning, Mathias and his helper pulled up alongside Jolie and the four of us hopped aboard their large, high speed RIB.

The dive through the pass is a drift dive with a fairly swift current. Fortunately, we are swimming with the current. We’re diving with Nitrox, which we haven’t done before. Additionally, we will be diving with hundreds, if not thousands, of sharks. I’m a bit uneasy with this dive… After donning our BCDs, regulators and tanks, we are swiftly dumped into rough seas and advised to descend quickly. The dive is roughly between 40-100 ft deep. As we descend, the scene below begins to unfold. It’s very difficult to try to describe the landscape before us, so unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The crystal clear waters reveal rolling hills of hard corals as far as our eyes can see, so densely packed together, no sand or rock is visible. Some are plating corals, large platters with rippling edges, stacked on top of one another, each one slightly askew so the edges of the plates below are visible. Not one stack - hundreds, maybe thousands? A vast garden of other types of hard corals - long pointed fingers branching, reaching for the light; massive smooth coral boulders; bouquets of blunt, rounded fists, all interspersed with millions of colorful fish - damsel fish of all colors darting in and out of the protection of corals, cleaner wrasses, etc. These are mostly hard corals, not the softer types. Shy groupers and squirrel fish hide under ledges. There’s more than our eyes can absorb! Huge schools of large fish pass through (Barracuda, Snapper, and others I couldn’t identify) and massive, awkward appearing Bump Head wrasses (up to 6 feet). As the dive progresses, the sharks begin to appear in the distance. The numbers gradually increase until there’s more than we can count, swimming lazily in both directions - with and against the current. They’re not the least bit interested in us (Thank God!). They are night hunters and we’ve been assured they don’t feed during the day. We become more at ease (not totally relaxed, mind you) with their proximity. They’re quite graceful swimmers, especially the Blacktip and Whitetip Reef sharks and the Nurse sharks, which are usually resting near the bottom. An occasional lemon shark passes through, as well as a shark the dive master called Oceanic Blacktips, which appears more muscular and menacing.

We float along with the current taking in as much as we can as we flow past. The dive ends and we warm up with tea and biscuits before the second dive. The second dive is similar to the first although through a different part of the pass. Again, amazing, kind of frightening, but absolutely worth it! Gorgeous. However, one of the tragic observations is the coral bleaching event which has taken place here in the past few weeks. Over the past 3 months, the water temperature had increased by several degrees and the belief is this caused the bleaching. Numerous corals appear pure white, which is beautiful, but,sadly, means the coral is dead or dying. The hope is they will bounce back quickly - the water temperature has cooled back to normal. Time will tell. We wish we could have seen it a month ago.

The next morning, I debate whether I want to dive this same area again. How many sharks do I really need to see, right? Rob, Calvin and Ellie are all in. Okay, I guess I’ll go…. Well, Wow! I’m so glad I did!! Because the current changes each day, we’re able to go to areas we couldn’t the day before. The highlight of these dives are two shallow caves. Mathias leads us in, we turn around and hover inside the opening of the cave, stretched out on our stomachs, with little clearance above or below us. Patiently, we watch the scene in front of us. The hills of corals are spectacular, but the stars of the show are the hundreds of sharks slowly cruising by us at an arms length. We feel sheltered by the cave which allows us to relax and marvel at the majesty of these creatures. Their eyes are white with vertical pupils - similar to a cat’s. But cold and blank. And the texture of their “skin” is soft and supple looking. It’s tempting to reach out and touch it, but not tempting enough. This is one of those experiences where I’m reminded how immersed we are with nature on this trip. I feel like it impacts my very being. Maybe it’s that we are becoming more and more aware of simply being another creature? Just another species on this earth? No better, no worse, than any of these, just a piece of the whole of God’s creation. I know that sounds corny, but one can’t not be affected by the breathtaking beauty of these experiences. A beauty that has nothing to do with man.

We thoroughly enjoy the rest of our time at Tumakohua Bay. Highlights included morning beach yoga led by Felicity, with an appearance by a local pig grunting his way through (maybe our grunts attracted him?), evening happy hours on the beach with friends (special night for me was my birthday Cocktails and Cake, which Rob arranged), Calvin trying to teach me, Mike and Emm to wing foil on the paddleboard, and more. We were so fascinated with the dives of the South Pass that we signed up for a snorkel with Mathias of the same pass. Even the snorkel experience did not disappoint. The scenery was similar, except we were shallower, thus the natural light was better. We could really appreciate the colors and the way the natural sunlight danced upon the surfaces below. The flow of the current was quite strong, about 5 knots, so it moved us along without any effort. We dove down and flew, like Peter Pan, above the corals and fish below. Several majestic spotted eagles rays slowly swept through the scene, the flapping of their fins perfectly synchronised. Delightful and truly magical. We completed our day with a hike along the ocean facing side of the island, accompanied by James. The outer ocean is rough compared to the calmer inner lagoon. The coastline is stacked with dead coral fragments instead of sand, making it a little tricky to walk on. James is fascinated by the hermit crabs. We witness the patience of a professional photographer as he waits for a particularly shy crab to come out of its shell in order to capture the perfect photo.

The following morning, we reluctantly depart and have a beautiful sail back up to the north end of the island. Our sister vessel, Altaia, sails next to us. Of the 17 655s that Oyster built, she’s the only other one on the rally. James launches his drone and takes some beautiful shots as we sail together . We have the Big Banana flying like a kite way off the port side of Jolie. It’s quite big and whenever Mike, from Distraction, hears of us sailing it, he teases us that we’re stealing the wind from all the surrounding boats. That evening we attend the farewell dinner for Will, Distraction Mike’s nephew who has been with him on the rally thus far. He is an accomplished sailor and a lovely young man. We will miss him!

Last two days at Fakarava are spent hiking to the light house, celebrating Ellie’s birthday, hanging out at the Havaiki resort, gym clubbing lead by Emm and regular boat work. On Friday, May 10th, we depart from Fakarava and spend a lovely 5 hour sail to Toau Island. There is an incomplete pass into this atoll with a protected, small mooring area of 8 balls. Only three people live on this atoll - Gaston and his colourful wife Valentina, along with another. We try a late afternoon snorkel. Abundant with large reef fish, especially grouper and parrot fish, as well as a couple eagle rays flying through the scene, it’s quite a good snorkeling area. Gaston and another swimmer are spearfishing dozens of parrot fish. We notice the subsequent change in shark behaviour, seeing them become more agitated, and decide it’s a good time to get back in the dinghy. The next morning, Rob, James and I stroll around the island. It’s a coconut farm and there are low roofed bins filled with coconut meat that they dry for two days and sell to Tahitian merchants. They also have a few huge pigs contained in small, shaded pens. Valentina grills us some lobster for lunch. She offers parrot fish, as well, but we prefer not to eat the parrot fish - they’re so essential to the reef. Her response is, “Are you crazy?”

Later in the afternoon, Rob jumps in to clean some of the barnacles off the rudders. As he scraps them off, large tangs immediately appear to feed. While I watch, one moment Rob is in the water and the next he’s sitting on the back transom, having bypassed the swim ladder and jumped directly onto the transom - no easy feat. He explains large grey sharks appeared moments after the tangs - shooting up from the deep blue below the boat. Yikes!

Due to freezer and water maker issues, we cancel our trip to Rangiroa and head straight to the dock at Tahiti. We leave Toau Island at around 5 pm, sail through the night and next day (happens to be Mother’s Day - had a lovely Group FaceTime call with the kids.) and arrive at Taina Marina at dawn on Monday. We look forward to exploring Tahiti and the Society Islands!