We're suited up and ready to backflip off the boat and into the water. Matthias gave us our dive briefing on the short ride over. We were ready. On the count of three we leave the safety of the boat. Check our buoyancy and down we go. Not too deep. Only about 20 meters or so. And there they are.
It's all about the shark. Whitetip reef shark, silvertip shark, long nose shark, black tip reef shark and the magnificent grey shark. They estimate the shark population in this area to be about 400 or so. The sharks love to hang out in the pass, holding their position and letting the water flow by.
And the seven strangely clad creatures with bubbles flowing up from their heads are lined up on the edge of the pass clinging to a ridge, watching. It is an awesome sight. The sharks are truly beautiful. And so many. Serenely swimming by, sometimes a little too close for comfort, their steely eyes looking you over. And when you have sharks in front, behind and over you, it is all you can do to just keep breathing, calmly and slowly. No panic, no drama.
We did two dives observing the sharks. It was a great experience and leaves you just a little bit more in awe of the life below the surface of the water than you already were.
THE SHARKS
Black Fin or Long Nose Shark. Carcharhinus Limbatus - max 275 cm (9')
Whitetip Reef Shark. Triaenodon Obesus - max 210 cm (6'11")
Blacktip Reef Shark. Carcharhinus melanopterus - max 200 cm (6'6")
Grey Reef Shark. Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos - max 225 cm (7'4")
Silvertip Shark . Carcharhinus albimarginatus - max 300 cm (9'10")
Showing posts with label Tuamotus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tuamotus. Show all posts
Friday, June 7, 2013
The South Pass
Here we are, at the entrance to the South pass of Fakarava atoll. The main village of Fakarava, together with the airport, is at the North end, but the South pass is home to a few resorts and dive outfits. This is apparently THE place for diving in the Tuamotus. Why is that? We are about to find out.
We had so many marvellous days of snorkelling at Kauehi, so fabulous that I personally rated one of the coral heads as one of the top ten best ever snorkels. The abundance and variety of fish was amazing. We saw black tip reef sharks, gastropods such as cowries and conch, lots of stony corals and the first time I have seen mushroom corals, an amazingly large crown of thorns starfish, hundreds of bivalves including the very colourful giant clams, nudibranches, a huge moray eel and tons of reef fish; many I had never seen before. It was an underwater wonderland.
We organised our diving yesterday and will head out to the pass tomorrow afternoon to follow the incoming tide. It will be a drift dive, meaning no swimming required as we will simply drift in with the current. Matthias, our dive master, has been diving here for more than two years. He promises us an excellent dive.
What makes this area such a good place for diving is that the incoming tide brings with it a lot of the large ocean fish looking for food (which hopefully we are not on their menu). The coral along the edges of the pass attracts the reef fish and is also a good place for spawning, egg laying and for juvenile fish to hide out in.
We did a pre-dive recon in the dinghy and jumped in with our snorkelling gear just before the breaking waves at the entrance to the pass. Jens tied the dinghy to his arm and we did a drift snorkel riding on the incoming tide. How fun was that! It was better than any amusement park ride I have been on that's for sure. There were areas where the current was quite strong so it was really like flying under water. What a feeling. What incredible sights we saw. My new all time favourite fish is the majestic Napoleon fish. OMG!!! They are incredible. Literally brought tears to my eyes to see these large beauties so close up and just as curious about us as we were of them. The Napoleon also known as the Humphead Wrass are the largest in the wrass family and grow to be as big as 230cm long (7'6") weighing up to 200kg (440lbs). At this point I am not sure how the dive tomorrow will exceed our experiences so far.
We had so many marvellous days of snorkelling at Kauehi, so fabulous that I personally rated one of the coral heads as one of the top ten best ever snorkels. The abundance and variety of fish was amazing. We saw black tip reef sharks, gastropods such as cowries and conch, lots of stony corals and the first time I have seen mushroom corals, an amazingly large crown of thorns starfish, hundreds of bivalves including the very colourful giant clams, nudibranches, a huge moray eel and tons of reef fish; many I had never seen before. It was an underwater wonderland.
We organised our diving yesterday and will head out to the pass tomorrow afternoon to follow the incoming tide. It will be a drift dive, meaning no swimming required as we will simply drift in with the current. Matthias, our dive master, has been diving here for more than two years. He promises us an excellent dive.
What makes this area such a good place for diving is that the incoming tide brings with it a lot of the large ocean fish looking for food (which hopefully we are not on their menu). The coral along the edges of the pass attracts the reef fish and is also a good place for spawning, egg laying and for juvenile fish to hide out in.
We did a pre-dive recon in the dinghy and jumped in with our snorkelling gear just before the breaking waves at the entrance to the pass. Jens tied the dinghy to his arm and we did a drift snorkel riding on the incoming tide. How fun was that! It was better than any amusement park ride I have been on that's for sure. There were areas where the current was quite strong so it was really like flying under water. What a feeling. What incredible sights we saw. My new all time favourite fish is the majestic Napoleon fish. OMG!!! They are incredible. Literally brought tears to my eyes to see these large beauties so close up and just as curious about us as we were of them. The Napoleon also known as the Humphead Wrass are the largest in the wrass family and grow to be as big as 230cm long (7'6") weighing up to 200kg (440lbs). At this point I am not sure how the dive tomorrow will exceed our experiences so far.
Fakarava!
Don't you just love the name of this atoll. Fakarava! It definitely deserves an exclamation mark at the end. This atoll has a population of just over 700 people. It has a grocery/hardware shop and a boulangerie where you can buy fresh baguettes. They also have a restaurant with three menu choices -- poisson cru, steak frits and chow mein.
Fakarava is a Unesco protected area because of its particularly diverse ecosystem. Well, I will have to investigate that a little more I think. We arrived on Sunday together with three other boats, Enchantment, Exit Strategy and Honu. We all left early in the morning to get through the Kauehi pass at the end of the outgoing tide and arrive to Fakarava in time for the incoming tide. As we all headed for the exit, Honu took the lead and made it safely through the pass, reporting back to us with some advice to stay a little closer to the starboard side of the pass to avoid the current and standing waves. Yup, standing waves. That's what they are called. I am still not sure what a standing wave looks like and this time I even had the binoculars out as I was standing in the boat, ready to wave back. I am a little embarrassed to ask what is a standing wave, as all the sailors use the term and everyone seems to know exactly what it is. And when someone throws a sentence at me like "We had the wind from our quarter aft and the GRIB files indicated a steady 20 knot wind from the north but luckily our ground tackle held ...(blah, blah, blah cause by now I am still trying to picture an aft quarter wind and decipher GRIB)", I just nod politely and say, "oh yes, I know what you mean". What I do know is we were the last ones out and we hit a speed of 11.1 knots as we rode the current. Yipeeeyayay!
It was a pleasant sail leaving the dark clouds behind and arriving to a calm and sunny anchorage at the northern corner of Fakarava. We plan to get to the south pass today which is about 30 nautical miles distance. These atolls are surprisingly large and the motus (local term for the island bits of the atoll) are long and narrow. We have heard the diving here is spectacular, so you know what's on our agenda for this week.
Fakarava is a Unesco protected area because of its particularly diverse ecosystem. Well, I will have to investigate that a little more I think. We arrived on Sunday together with three other boats, Enchantment, Exit Strategy and Honu. We all left early in the morning to get through the Kauehi pass at the end of the outgoing tide and arrive to Fakarava in time for the incoming tide. As we all headed for the exit, Honu took the lead and made it safely through the pass, reporting back to us with some advice to stay a little closer to the starboard side of the pass to avoid the current and standing waves. Yup, standing waves. That's what they are called. I am still not sure what a standing wave looks like and this time I even had the binoculars out as I was standing in the boat, ready to wave back. I am a little embarrassed to ask what is a standing wave, as all the sailors use the term and everyone seems to know exactly what it is. And when someone throws a sentence at me like "We had the wind from our quarter aft and the GRIB files indicated a steady 20 knot wind from the north but luckily our ground tackle held ...(blah, blah, blah cause by now I am still trying to picture an aft quarter wind and decipher GRIB)", I just nod politely and say, "oh yes, I know what you mean". What I do know is we were the last ones out and we hit a speed of 11.1 knots as we rode the current. Yipeeeyayay!
It was a pleasant sail leaving the dark clouds behind and arriving to a calm and sunny anchorage at the northern corner of Fakarava. We plan to get to the south pass today which is about 30 nautical miles distance. These atolls are surprisingly large and the motus (local term for the island bits of the atoll) are long and narrow. We have heard the diving here is spectacular, so you know what's on our agenda for this week.
SY Enchantment on our starboard with Michelle and Vern.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
What to do on an Atoll
I have run that question around my head several times during this first week on Kauehi. I think the lifestyle here is quite similar to that in the San Blas and I never really figured that one out either. How and why do people live here. There is nothing much in the way of resources or activities. They traditionally lived off fish and coconuts and because the motus don't have any soil to speak of, most of the land being hard packed dead coral pieces resembling a rough gravel, there aren't too many other types of plants. But it seems they were content to eke out a living on these bits of land, paddling their little boats to other islands now and again, just passing time I guess.
Then the Brits, the Spaniards and the French arrived full of ideas for enterprises to export goods such as coconuts and pearls, discovered phosphate deposits and started mining that, and when the natural pearls became nearly extinct, developed pearl farming. Now we see the rise of tourism with inter island cruises and regular flights from Tahiti with tours offering activities such as scuba diving, visits to pearl farms and lazing on your own private motu. But the lifestyle of the local people hasn't changed a great deal it seems. Long lazy stress free days, never in a hurry, never in a panic.
However, I have this deeply ingrained need to be somewhat productive and after five consecutive days of looking at a beautiful scenic beach and snorkelling the crystal clear waters I am just about ready to jump out of my skin, just for something to do. Time to move on...next stop, Fakarava.
Then the Brits, the Spaniards and the French arrived full of ideas for enterprises to export goods such as coconuts and pearls, discovered phosphate deposits and started mining that, and when the natural pearls became nearly extinct, developed pearl farming. Now we see the rise of tourism with inter island cruises and regular flights from Tahiti with tours offering activities such as scuba diving, visits to pearl farms and lazing on your own private motu. But the lifestyle of the local people hasn't changed a great deal it seems. Long lazy stress free days, never in a hurry, never in a panic.
However, I have this deeply ingrained need to be somewhat productive and after five consecutive days of looking at a beautiful scenic beach and snorkelling the crystal clear waters I am just about ready to jump out of my skin, just for something to do. Time to move on...next stop, Fakarava.
Kauehi - Our Very First Atoll
As we approached the Tuamotus archipelago our first thoughts were that they looked very much like the San Blas Islands, low-lying, sandy islands covered in palm trees.
It was nice to finally arrive as it had been a rather tough sail from Ua Pou. We had a lot of wind and huge swells. It was really difficult to move about in the cabin so needless to say, my dear Jens had to do most of the food preparations. I was feeling rather green this trip and only went down to sleep. We also got a bit wet both from the many squalls and from the waves that crashed into the cockpit. It wasn't the smoothest sail. Thank heavens it was only four days.
The reward was the calmest night we have had since we can't remember when. Probably not since we have been in a slip at Shelter Bay Marina in Panama. That's a long time! How sweet it was to sleep with a cool breeze and a completely still and quiet boat. Not even the sound of waves slapping against the side. I think we have found paradise!
How is this possible way out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? It is all thanks to the atoll. The atoll is a geological marvel created over hundreds and millions of years. In non-geek language this is how they are formed. First, deep down on the ocean floor a bubble of magma raises up creating a volcanic mound that eventually breaks through the surface of the water and creates a volcanic island. Once the lava has stopped flowing the wind and rain start to erode the sides, sometimes creating fertile soil. Along the edges at the sea, coral reefs start to form creating a ring around the mound. The weather continues to erode the volcano and it eventually completely disappears or collapses into itself leaving only the ring of the coral reef around a lagoon. The coral reef has by this time risen high enough to sustain plant life such as palm trees and the dead corals have worn away making some sandy beaches. The lagoon usually has a few passes into it that were created by the rain water that would have streamed down the sides of the volcano creating rivers down to the ocean and thus areas where the coral could not develop. Some of the passes or breaks in the circle of the reef around the lagoon are large and deep enough to sail through and the breaks in the reef create a string or necklace of small islands called motus.
The calmest place to anchor is inside the lagoon. The trick is to get into the lagoon safely as the passes can be shallow and narrow and you have to deal with large ocean swells coming in and a strong current caused by the water running in or out with the tides not to mention the force of the wind. The best time to attempt entry or exit is at slack tide, so either at the peak of high tide or low tide. These are interesting calculations to make since the tide tables for each atoll are not available and you need to guesstimate based on the information you have. But luckily Jens has a mathematical brain and has figured this all out.
The Tuamotus was an area often passed over by cruisers because of the danger of unmarked reefs and coral heads, lack of secure anchoring spots except for inside the atolls which can be difficult or treacherous to enter and even then because the islands are so low lying they provide very little shelter from wind. It is said there are boats that have run aground in the reefs even after the days of GPS. Entering into an atoll can be an intimidating moment when you see the water churning at the entrance of the pass with a mix of current and swells. Sailors arriving tired and stressed after a difficult passage from the Marquesas or the Gambiers are not in the best of shape to attempt such an activity and often choose to head directly to Tahiti and the calm waters of the Society islands. As I said before, sailors love stories and just hearing tell of a ship run aground is enough to have most cruisers giving this area a wide berth for many years or until the story is forgotten or until there are enough stories of sailors who have had a great experience in an atoll and talk about the marvellous snorkelling to make it worth a try.
Our first entry was no problem at all, but we picked Kauehi as our first atoll for that very reason. We knew the pass was wide and deep and the lagoon easy to manoeuvre into. Some lagoons have many coral heads just below the surface of the water. This makes for tricky navigating to an anchoring spot, but also makes for interesting snorkelling. Lagoons are host to a large variety of reef fish, rays and sharks and some really lovely coral formations. The water is crystal clear and gorgeous shades of green and blue due to the white sand bottoms. Time to get the swimmers on and take a dip!
It was nice to finally arrive as it had been a rather tough sail from Ua Pou. We had a lot of wind and huge swells. It was really difficult to move about in the cabin so needless to say, my dear Jens had to do most of the food preparations. I was feeling rather green this trip and only went down to sleep. We also got a bit wet both from the many squalls and from the waves that crashed into the cockpit. It wasn't the smoothest sail. Thank heavens it was only four days.
The reward was the calmest night we have had since we can't remember when. Probably not since we have been in a slip at Shelter Bay Marina in Panama. That's a long time! How sweet it was to sleep with a cool breeze and a completely still and quiet boat. Not even the sound of waves slapping against the side. I think we have found paradise!
How is this possible way out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? It is all thanks to the atoll. The atoll is a geological marvel created over hundreds and millions of years. In non-geek language this is how they are formed. First, deep down on the ocean floor a bubble of magma raises up creating a volcanic mound that eventually breaks through the surface of the water and creates a volcanic island. Once the lava has stopped flowing the wind and rain start to erode the sides, sometimes creating fertile soil. Along the edges at the sea, coral reefs start to form creating a ring around the mound. The weather continues to erode the volcano and it eventually completely disappears or collapses into itself leaving only the ring of the coral reef around a lagoon. The coral reef has by this time risen high enough to sustain plant life such as palm trees and the dead corals have worn away making some sandy beaches. The lagoon usually has a few passes into it that were created by the rain water that would have streamed down the sides of the volcano creating rivers down to the ocean and thus areas where the coral could not develop. Some of the passes or breaks in the circle of the reef around the lagoon are large and deep enough to sail through and the breaks in the reef create a string or necklace of small islands called motus.
The calmest place to anchor is inside the lagoon. The trick is to get into the lagoon safely as the passes can be shallow and narrow and you have to deal with large ocean swells coming in and a strong current caused by the water running in or out with the tides not to mention the force of the wind. The best time to attempt entry or exit is at slack tide, so either at the peak of high tide or low tide. These are interesting calculations to make since the tide tables for each atoll are not available and you need to guesstimate based on the information you have. But luckily Jens has a mathematical brain and has figured this all out.
The Tuamotus was an area often passed over by cruisers because of the danger of unmarked reefs and coral heads, lack of secure anchoring spots except for inside the atolls which can be difficult or treacherous to enter and even then because the islands are so low lying they provide very little shelter from wind. It is said there are boats that have run aground in the reefs even after the days of GPS. Entering into an atoll can be an intimidating moment when you see the water churning at the entrance of the pass with a mix of current and swells. Sailors arriving tired and stressed after a difficult passage from the Marquesas or the Gambiers are not in the best of shape to attempt such an activity and often choose to head directly to Tahiti and the calm waters of the Society islands. As I said before, sailors love stories and just hearing tell of a ship run aground is enough to have most cruisers giving this area a wide berth for many years or until the story is forgotten or until there are enough stories of sailors who have had a great experience in an atoll and talk about the marvellous snorkelling to make it worth a try.
Our first entry was no problem at all, but we picked Kauehi as our first atoll for that very reason. We knew the pass was wide and deep and the lagoon easy to manoeuvre into. Some lagoons have many coral heads just below the surface of the water. This makes for tricky navigating to an anchoring spot, but also makes for interesting snorkelling. Lagoons are host to a large variety of reef fish, rays and sharks and some really lovely coral formations. The water is crystal clear and gorgeous shades of green and blue due to the white sand bottoms. Time to get the swimmers on and take a dip!
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