Tuamotus with Friends

We have now visited three atolls in the Tuamotus: Raroia, Fakarava, and Rangiroa. After our last post, we moved to the South Pass of Fakarava for a few days of diving, then up to the town of Rotoava, Fakarava. After enjoying Fakarava for 2 weeks, we sailed northwest to Rangiroa to meet up with friends visiting from Seattle. The Tuamotus have been amazing, and each atoll we’ve visited has been a different experience. We’ve met up with cruising friends, made new cruising friends, and welcomed aboard friends from Seattle.

Diving the South Pass of Fakarava

We went on 3 dives here, as the weather and slack tide permitted. We went at slack tide before the incoming tide to give us as slow as possible of a drift dive into the lagoon. Our main reason for diving the pass at this time is that each year in either June or July, at the full moon, camouflage grouper assemble here to spawn. We’re talking thousands of grouper. Good news for us: this year they gathered in June! They spawn at night on the full moon during the outgoing tide. We decided not to dive at night on an outgoing tide without surface support because we did not feel like being swept to sea all alone in the middle of the night with no one to come looking for us. Diving the slack before the incoming tides during the day was spectacular, even though we did not witness the actual spawning. We went two days before the full moon, the day of the full moon, and the day after the full moon. We took our dinghy with us, taking turns towing it along on a 90+ foot line.

As we dropped down on our first dive, we could see a few sharks below us in the 90-foot deep coral-lined canyon. Then, literally out of the blue, hundreds of sharks came into focus. We slowly glided through a corridor of sharks. We primarily saw grey reef sharks with the occasional white tip and black tip reef shark. Most of the sharks kept their distance from us, but a few swam close enough that we could make eye contact as we drifted past each other. The sharks were so mesmerizing that we almost ignored the abundant coral and sea life, including barracuda and a massive humphead wrasse. On our second dive, the day of the full moon, it seemed like the camouflage grouper were just waking up. As we drifted along, they kept popping up out of the reef, casually revealing themselves. The sharks were out in force that morning, and we saw a wider variety of sizes. On this dive we saw hundreds of grouper and hundreds of sharks. Our final dive, the morning after the full moon, was somehow even more incredible. At first, we did not spot any groupers or sharks. We thought perhaps they had completed their spawn and left already. This gave us all the chance to enjoy everything else the reef has to offer. Eventually, we started seeing the sharks. They were all further inside the pass than previous days and their numbers were lower, though still in the hundreds. It was probably our imagination, but they looked fatter on that dive. Kris was towing the dinghy that day and at one point was headed straight for a sizable group of sharks. As the gap closed in, Kris and the sharks were staring at each other. Then the sharks gracefully parted, allowing Kris and her long dinghy line to glide between them, as if she were the least interesting thing in the canyon (and she was). As we started to curve out of the pass and into the lagoon, the number of grouper multiplied by ten, then a hundred, then more! We found ourselves drifting over thousands of grouper blanketing the seafloor and nearly blocking out the coral. The sea floor was undulating with the movements of thousands of grouper swimming against the incoming tide. It was a truly incredible sight to see. We’re so lucky to have been here at the right time with good diving conditions.

Below is a video Kris made compiling footage we each took from the 3 days. You’ll primarily hear the sounds of us breathing underwater, and a dive boat engine cruising above once in a while. Our cruising friends, Emily & Will from S/V Ogigiona, joined us on the first two dives so you’ll see them in the video as well. Thanks to them for showing us the terrain on the first dive and talking us through our first time of towing our dinghy along. It’s a long one (14 minutes), and it was hard to cut it down to that! Stick with it through the end to see the thousands of grouper from the final dive.

A town! (Rotoava, Fakarava)

This was the first town we’d been to since departing the Marquesas. We went about 3.5 weeks without grocery stores, restaurants, or many people. In town we enjoyed multiple meals out and stocked up on fresh vegetables again, along with other supplies. We also spent time with cruising friends, went snorkeling, and helped some non-diving cruisers retrieve their lost anchor. Their rode was chain followed by line and the line chafed through during a storm setting them adrift. They marked the spot, grabbed a mooring ball, and kept asking around until finding us as willing divers to assist. We dove down with a line to attach to their anchor and then we followed along the rode pulling it away from rocks and other entanglement hazards. The viz was pretty bad, but there was enough for us to get the job done. Watching the two brothers haul the anchor and chain up onto their dinghy by hand made me very happy that our windlass does that work for us. While in town, we also visited a pearl farm for a presentation. We learned so much about how it all works – what the oyster does and what people do to put the oysters to work. The color of the pearl is dependent on the species of oyster that creates it. In French Polynesia, the pearls are black. White pearls come from Japan and pink pearls come from Australia. It’s an interesting process and we definitely look at pearls differently now!

Rangiroa

Sailing along to Rangiroa was one of the best sails we’ve had recently. Fair winds and following seas made for a comfortable ride. It took us about 25 hours, though we were again purposefully slowing down to enter the Rangiroa pass near slack tide. We sailed part way under main and genoa, then shifted to main only to slow down.

Once in Rangiroa, we waited for our friends Zac & Mark to arrive from Seattle. These are the same crew who joined us when we rounded Cape Scott on Vancouver Island last year. The southeast winds kicked in to high gear during their visit and there are not any well-protected anchorages for southeast winds in Rangiroa. So we stayed put in our anchorage and made the best of it. We went snorkeling multiple times. The snorkel spot near the anchorage is the best snorkeling we have done yet in the Tuamotus, so we’ve been happy to go multiple times. Hundreds of unicornfish are everywhere, plus the occasional black tip reef shark, lots of crocodile needlefish, and a wide variety of other reef fish. We rented bikes with Zac & Mark to explore the motu. This was our first bike rental since we were in the Bay Area in California last year. It was a fun and easy way to see the motu and the town. We also enjoyed a traditional Polynesian dance performance at a nearby hotel one evening. It was a local group with dancers of all ages, accompanied by a band with drums and ukuleles.

After dropping our friends back at the airport via dinghy, we spent our final few days in Rangiroa diving, swimming, and snorkeling, and preparing to sail to the final island group that we will visit in French Polynesia, the Society Islands. We joined a dive boat for one day to dive on the outer reef and through the pass – two areas we wanted to see but did not feel confident taking ourselves in the dinghy. We really enjoyed seeing the shear drop off on the outer reef and were visited by a few dolphins out there! Drifting through the pass gave us the chance to see many more grey reef sharks, who we were told were there mating, and a big spotted eagle ray. We’ve truly enjoyed our time in the Tuamotus, both above and below the waves.

Next Stop: Tahiti, Society Islands