Still in Tahanea

Beautiful Day!

The "dock" at Tahanea. The pass we drift dove is in the background

Ann headed for the snorkling spot

It didn’t look like it would turn into such a fun day, since I was up several times last night in big squalls closing hatches and in general checking to make sure we didn’t drag our anchor into the coral. Even during breakfast this morning some black squalls came through threatening to ruin our day. BUT, two good things happened today. The wind has swung around to the north which means the motu that we’re anchored behind is actually protecting us from most of the wind and all of the waves. It’s finally flat water instead of two to three foot waves and a lee shore.

The other thing that was outstanding today is we dinghied over to Orcinius and they hauled anchor and we all took their catamaran (a fifty foot Lagoon) across xxx pass where we came in and over to xxxx pass where we anchored for the day in preparation for a pass dive (more on that below). While waiting for the tide to become favorable for the pass dive we took the dinghy ashore and went for a hike. There’s a couple huts near the pass that are used during copra harvesting season, but nothing else. Well, unless you count the cat. Someone left a kitty cat here. It’s a nice looking young cat, but otherwise looks very healthy. Probably lives on rats, coconut crabs and cruisers. We know of a couple of cruisers who have left food for him/her. We also went shell hunting on the ocean side and found some beautiful sea shells.

But, the pass dive…Basically you take the dinghy at slack or close to slack low water just before the flood and go “outside” the pass into the ocean. From there you jump in the water with the dinghy tied to someone (me) and float into the atoll on the new flood. I have to say, it was one of the most beautiful dives I’ve ever done. We were just snorkeling, but the pass is fairly shallow, so we saw everything you could see by taking tanks and going a dozen feet lower. It was so gorgeous, we did it twice! The second time we rode the incoming current half a mile back to where Orcinius was anchored before getting out. Give Ann kudos for having seen two sharks right at the beginning of the dive and not leaping out in terror. In fact, she didn’t even tell me until we were back on the boat. I’m the only one who didn’t see a shark, probably because I was fumbling with the dinghy line trying to keep from getting drowned. Anyway, tons of live coral, fish-John said they said a Parrot Fish that was three feet long. Orcinius is leaving tomorrow but we’re staying here a couple more days and will likely reposition over to this spot and do this dive again.

We finished the day by having Orcinius over to Charisma for dinner. Ann made fresh baked bread, cornbread muffins and cookies. I made fish chowder out of the Mahi we caught. All were delicious and we enjoyed the evening’s camaraderie after such a fun day in the water. (By the way, don’t tell anyone, but Orcinius is one nice boat-those cats are pretty comfortable)

Tomorrow, if the wind stays out of the north where we’re sheltered by the motu, we’ll dive the reefs right around Charisma. There are several very promising ones. In fact, I was watching a shark feeding frenzy this morning. A couple reef sharks were feeding on 6 inch long fish. You would watch a whole school of a hundred fish leap out of the water followed by several crazed sharks. Boobies would get in the action from the sky and dive for the fish as they jumped out of the water. Fun, exiting!

Expect a further report tomorrow on reef diving progress…