Tag Archives: sharks

Farewell Fakarava

O’ Fakarava!  We return to the South Pass anchorage for internet and sharks!  I know, I know, you are probably thinking I’ve lost my mind.  Probably true, but not in this instance.  The Fakarava South Pass is known all over the world for its amazing Shark Wall and its incredibly diving.

The Fakarava South Pass dive is considered a drift dive which means you drop in at one point and slowly drift to another point.  So, we partnered with a few other cruisers who dropped us off at the outer edge of the pass and picked us up on the inside edge of the pass. 

We dropped down to 70’ and meandered to the famous Fakarava shark wall!  It did not disappoint!

These black tip, white tip, gray, and nurse sharks just swim back and forth and back and forth.  The little fish seem to not care one bit that man-eating sharks are in their way!

Sometimes the sharks are curious and come close….

And sometimes they just don’t give you the time of day.

A small octopus was playing hide and seek…

Snorkel Adventures

Matt and I snorkel the pass several times.  Each time is a new episode in a fascinating series of the underwater world. We still see lots of sharks, but now we focus on all the beautiful fish.

A few sharks who came close enough to check us out.  We gave each other the “eye.”

We came across a lot of napoleon fish.  They have a large bump feature on their head.  These guys are the beasts of the sea.  In the top photo you can see how large they are compared to a normal fish.  I’d say the largest one we saw was at least 1.5meters long!  We also came across a large grouper and trigger (center left), another large trigger (right) and a smaller napoleon (bottom)

I liked to swim close to and under the docks.  Matt captured this above and below water photo while I was near one dock.

A school of rays swam by.  We were not sure if they were spotted or eagle, but they were gorgeous. 

And it appeared to be school day as all the other fish were in schools.

South Pass Beauty

We enjoyed many happy hours at the local dive shop which offered lunch and dinner buffets.  We did not eat with them as they were pricey at $30/$35 respectively for buffet of pizza and raw fish.  But their happy hours were amazing with a beautiful view of the sunset and sharks. 

For the most part, we had absolutely calm conditions to enjoy paddle boarding, swimming, and snorkeling the south pass.

We had many beautiful sunsets and sunrises

We had absolutely lovely weather at the South Pass in Fakarava.  No wind, literally no wind, flat seas and sunny skies.  We just hung out as there was not enough wind to go anywhere else.  Not a hard ship at all.

North Pass – Rotoava (the main village)

Our friends on Agape (Josh and Rachel) were arriving to Rotoava (the main village) soon so we decided to make the downwind sail to town.  It was a lovely 35nm sail with our parasail.  It surprised us by how fast we made it to the new anchorage.  Averaged 7-7.5kts and made the passage in 4 hours.

It had been awhile since we hung out and enjoyed Josh and Rachel!  We had a lovely lunch at a pension (hotel) on the water.

The many happy faces of my husband…

Josh and Rachel had a friend visiting, Kelsey.  We walked the beaches combing for sea shells and picking up trash.  Top photo: Kelsey, Matt, me, Rachel, Josh.

Dinner on Agape with their cat, Gilly.

Rachel and Gilly

Rachel and Gilly

A local “takes care” of a few nurse sharks.  They come around to his house around sunset for some lovin.

We had an opportunity to pet some beautiful nurse sharks.  They felt like sand paper and just enjoyed the soft caress.

It was a lovely visit to Fakarava.  But it is time to move on to Tahiti.

Ta Ta to Tahanea was our last blog post (see passage post).   Events from this blog occurred in March 2022.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

Amazing Sea Life in Vaiare Bay, Moorea

Our little paradise during confinement has provided us with lots to see and do under water.  We are allowed 1 hour per day to exercise which can include swimming, snorkeling, SUPng, etc…So, we spend a lot of time at the reef exploring all of the beautiful and crazy sea life.

As I mentioned before, we get lots of black tip sharks, sting rays and porcupine puffer fish.  The puffers like to hang out by the anchor chain as it rustles up food for the little scavengers.  But all three come up in full force when we turn on our green light at night.  I think the color intrigues them.

Occasionally we get beautiful spotted rays.

Matt and I find a very large, and healthy soft coral.  It is a big surprise to find her alone amongst the sea of hard coral but she is thriving.

Lots of sea life hang out in and around the soft coral.  This is also a favorite place to find nemo.  

Continuing on our snorkel we find several flounders (see 2nd image on left).  They can be challenging to spot when they are not moving, but this one caught my eye.

I also love the little black fish guarding his purple coral home.  He is looking right at me, just daring me to come closer (lower right photo).  

A giant sea cucumber can always be found within the abundant sea life.

SUP

We take the SUPs out when the seas are calm and the wind is not too crazy.  It is always cool to sneak up on the sea life (like the ray).

Did you meet Air Head Sally on our last blog, we try to entertain Wayne and Deborah during lockdown.

Events from this blog post occurred during the first week of September, 2021.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

Fakarava airport

Tetumanu & THE Teitelmans

The town of Tetumanu is at the Fakarava south pass. It is not really a town, but it does consist of a church, two small pensions (lodges) that each have an eatery, and two dive centers. That is it. No magasins (markets), nada, zilch. We came here to explore the many motus, dive the Tetumanu (south) pass, and hide from the weather system and it was worth it.

In our last blog we explored Santa Suzanna Island and its pretty pools of waters. It was time to take a dive. Our friends on Chasing Waterfalls organized a dive with another boat and we decided to join them. The problem was that we did not have time to rent tanks and BCDs for Josh and Sara. So, Matt and Josh used our equipment and Sara and I snorkeled. With amazing clarity we could see the divers 70+ below us with no problem.

Diving the Pass

Diving the Tetumanu Pass

Everyone thought it was “slack tide” but in reality, it was not. It is very difficult to calculate slack tide as every day has different winds, waves, moon, etc… We tied three dinghies to the mooring and all jumped in. The divers descended and immediately latched on to rocks and dead coral to prevent themselves from drifting away. They looked like spiders with all four limbs spread out! It was really a funny sight. Unfortunately, the photos I took did not come out as they were 20+ meters below us.

They hung out by the shark wall where they watched a shark get his teeth cleaned. Yep, a fish was stupid enough to swim in and out of the shark’s open mouth to clean his teeth (see top photo). There were dozens and dozens of sharks here.

Diving with Sharks

Diving with Sharks

We slowly drifted to the lagoon before hopping back in our dinghies. Sweet, but short drift. We swung by the Tetumanu Dive shop and they had different fittings for dive tanks. So, we could not fill ours. Then we stopped by Top Dive and they were never home.  They did have a handy map showing the incoming and outgoing tides (see red and blue diagram)

Top Dive and the Currents in the pass

Top Dive and the Currents in the pass

The next day we decided to snorkel the pass closer to the reef. What a difference. Not nearly as many sharks. However, we did encounter several HUGE fish, some grouper, some with a bubble on their head. Lots of schools of fish and many, many coral species.

Fish in the South Pass

Fish in the South Pass

We took our time drifting from the pass opening to the lagoon. The current got much stronger as we entered the lagoon, but it did allow us enjoy the underwater sea life.

Super pretty coral and lots of fish

Super pretty coral and lots of fish

We organized a pizza dinner at Motu Aito Paradise earlier in the afternoon. Our friends on Rhapsody (John and Ada) and Chasing Waterfalls (Steve, Johanna, Mia, Eva, Layla) joined us. It was really nice hanging with our cruiser friends and swapping stories.

Pizza night at Motu Aito Paradise

Pizza night at Motu Aito Paradise

Full Sail Back to North Fakarava

It was nearing time to return back to the North side of the island. Josh and Sara had a flight to catch, despite our attempts to get them to stay longer. Surprisingly, after three visits to Sugar Shack (BVI, San Blas Islands, Fakarava), they had never seen our boat under full sail. We had hoisted each sail individually, but the winds were not right for a full sail. However, our passage to the north side of the island was perfect!

Up went the main and the jib! We had a lovely 10-12kts of wind on the beam which gave us a steady 6-7kts of boat speed. At one point we encountered a squall, so we reefed the jib, but within 30 minutes she was back out.

Full sail in the Fakarava lagoon

Full sail in the Fakarava lagoon

Even though they had to leave the next day, we celebrated like rock stars. We had an impromptu fiesta on our boat after our friends on Gizmo gave us fresh Wahoo. Mike from Easy, cut it up sashimi style, Janet and Darryl from Maple stopped by and Steve from Chasing Waterfalls made an appearance. It was a goofy night that led to Thing 1 and Thing 2 passed out on the bow.

Celebrating a great trip

Celebrating a great trip

We did a little shopping the next day, ordered some more bread and danishes and a wee bit of internetting. Matt picked us up at the little beach. Josh and Sara in front of Sugar Shack (background).

Fakarava near Rotoava

Fakarava near Rotoava

It was sad to bring them back to the airport, but they had a plane to catch.

Fakarava airport

Fakarava airport

That night we had a stupendous sunset that turned the sky red.

Sunset at Fakarava

Sunset at Fakarava