We had a bit of a tidy up after last night and then Rowan suggested we head back to the passage and do some snorkelling there. The water was like a mill pond, we found a spot to anchor PolePole although it was not ideal, we went for a snorkel. We were greeted by 3 Black Tipped Reef sharks as soon as we entered the water, they are so curious, always rushing over when you enter, I’m so nonchalant about them now, we see so many of them. The sadness is that you can see the coral is in a bad way, the water is so hot it seems incredible that the fish and coral survive. The boat is registering the temp at 29.5C that is hotter than we keep our pool at home. We did see a lot of fish on the one side of the enormous bommie we were at, and some big fish too. Han and Megan saw a whole lot of sand eels waving about.
By midday we decided it was not a safe overnight anchorage so we decided to head to the next atoll on our list to visit, Fakarava, about 30 miles away. There was no wind so we motored across getting into the passage an hour after high tide. It was a very calm passage through although narrower than the others and more complicated on the inside. We had to wiggle our way through some very narrow areas in fading light, never a relaxing thing to be doing. We finally found ourselves amongst a horde of other Arc boats, all the boats with kids on were here and a few others. It was pretty hectic anchoring as there are coral heads everywhere, for a scary moment we thought we had hit coral but luckily it was just the chain hitting coral. On our second attempt we managed to get the anchor securely bedded, just as it was getting dark. What a relief although we landed up way too close to another boat, luckily they were very relaxed. Just a guy and his dog, Han says he writes a blog through the eyes of his dog!
We were very relieved to be settled and after beans on toast, the beans are finally cooked, with pak choi on the side, we were ready for bed. The girls went and met up with a whole lot of the young crew, they chilled on the beach until 4am, I don’t know where they get the stamina.
Mark from Amanzi sent us his drone shot of our boats, it gives you a good idea of the bommies, the black smudges in the water
The colour water is incredible
Megan untangling the anchor chain
The edge of the atoll near the passage
Our snorkel spot
Sharks rushing up to see us
Leaving PolePole for a short time to snorkel at a big bommie
Some colourful coral
Heading out the passage
Entering South Fakarava passage
Whirlpools in the current
Sunset on fire
Late arrival to the anchorage in the sunset
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