After our 24 hour airport/airline marathon followed by the 24 hour boat passage, we went to bed early and woke up late! But now we’re on Polynesian time, only three hours earlier than Tucson anyhow.
Our first day here in Rangiroa we wandered around the main town, Avatoru. It is very charming with a true south seas atmosphere, colorful, well kept and flowers everywhere. For some reason there was no school, maybe a holiday, and the supply ship was in port unloading stuff, so there was a lot of activity.
We had scheduled a dive with a commercial guide outfit for the afternoon. Mike passed on it as he insists he doesn’t like sharks, even though the reason tourists come to Rangiroa is primarily for the diving and most especially to see the sharks. So Mike stayed aboard planning his future glider world record while Rod, Paola and I went off to see the underwater sights. Our guide gave us a rather alarming pre-dive briefing about the fast currents through the pass on the incoming tide – but on the boat ride out, halfway there, he announced “whoops, not incoming after all, forget the original plan and just stick close.” It turned out to be very peaceful, smooth seas, just a slight current, great blue water visibility – very pleasant conditions.
We saw a sensational variety of sea life for a single dive – starting with a turtle who swam to within 5 or 6 feet of us. There were always quite a few small black tip reef sharks, and we swam over a swarm, maybe 40 or 50, grey sharks but they were a good 20-30 meters deeper than our level – too deep to check them out more closely! Also big schools of barracuda, a huge lone tuna, a moray eel swimming in the open, a stonefish hiding in a crevice (pointed out to us by the guide), 2 eagle rays, and at the very end of the dive , whiile we floating at our 5 meter safety stop, an absolutely enormous hammerhead shark cruised by below us. Our guide said it was the largest hammerhead he had ever seen, and it was truly gigantic.
The next morning we relocated, cruising the length of Rangiroa’s lagoon, a distance of 30-40 miles, heading towards a spot named Sables Roses (Pink Sands) where the sand reflects rusty pink in color by sunlight. There are great expanses of sandy bottomed shallows here and our exploration by dinghy invariably would end with all passengers wading knee deep in the water towing the dinghy behind. There are dozens of stingrays visible in the sand (I got a super photo) and also lots of baby black tip reef sharks, no more than 12-18 inches long. The little sharks cruise along with their tiny black dorsal fins protruding above the surface of the water, and they dart away if we splash at them and scare them.
The scenery is spectacular – the entire lagoon is edged with low lying islands covered with palm trees, with no land higher than 25 feet above sea level, the majority significantly less. Between the islands you can see the surf breaking on the barrier reef. The water is an intense turquoise and it seems like you can just about see forever. The word Rangiroa, in Polynesia, means “vast sky”. Inside the protected beaches of the lagoon there are no waves, but you can hear the surf pounding on the seaward side of the motus – only a quick walk from the inner lagoon to the outer ocean.
We’re enjoying getting acquainted with our new first mate/chef Paola. Paola is from Ecuador and makes her home in the Galapagos.