Fakarava atoll encircles a body of water roughly the size of Lake Tahoe. The water is generally 50' - 100' deep, but with enough coral heads and pearl farms that it's important to either stay in the marked passages or keep a very sharp lookout. We motored to the south end on Tuesday, following the excellent of markers. Then we followed some waypoints from another cruiser through a tricky section that brought us to our current anchorage (see Where's New Morning - select the satellite picture and zoom way in) where were joined a couple of other boats that we knew from past anchorages, and have since been joined by another half dozen boats over the last two days.
The wind died off almost entirely as soon as we arrived so it's been absolutely flat calm. A little breeze today and the trades are expected to return tomorrow. We're in about 18' of sparklingly clear water and we can clearly see the bottom, the black tip sharks swimming around the boat and our anchor chain snaking around large coral heads.
The first night here was a BBQ on the beach which was spectacular. A full moon rose over the little island and reflected off the flat calm lagoon, perfect air temperature, no bugs, a bonfire on the beach and a great group of people. Canadians, South Africans, South Africans that emigrated to Canada, Americans that emigrated to Canada, French, French Canadians and even a family from Tiburon, just a few miles from our home in Sausalito. And we've since been joined by another boat from California as well as more friends from Canada. And two boats each with a few teenagers mixes up the group even more.
Back in Nuku Hiva Fay had seen a number of black tipped sharks in the shallows of Anaho Bay. Here they are ubiquitous! Yesterday we went snorkeling along the east side of the pass in amazingly clear water with fantastic reef fish, huge amounts of healthy coral, many large groupers, and a good collection of sharks. We snorkeled on the incoming tide which carried us right into the little "resort" just inside the pass and the only commercial thing here at the south end. In the shallows (< 3') around the docks and shore buildings there were more sharks, as well as a huge emperor fish (aka Napoleon Bonaparte fish) and a nice collection of reef fish. Crystal clear water and lush coral, an incredibly beautiful and entirely natural location.
Two nights ago was was more socializing when some friends paddled up in their inflatable kayaks and then stayed four hours for "dinner", drinks and a few beers.
The hotel is completely booked so they won't sell us a drink, dinner or any dive trips. With no professional divemaster available, yesterday we put together our own dive trip. We ended up with eight people in three dinghies. It was quite a production getting all the gear together and traveling around the reef to get to the south pass (a good 20 - 25 minute dinghy ride). We dove to about 80', then came up the pass with the incoming tide. We didn't time it very well so we had a lot of current which shortened our dive, but it was still spectacular.
Sharks! Hundreds of sharks. Black tip (good), white tip (not so good) and gray (definitely not good). First I saw maybe 10-15 and thought that was impressive, certainly more than I had ever swam with before. Then I saw a group of maybe 30-40 sharks that were deeper than us and that upped the ante. The current was picking up so it was kind of like being on the moving sidewalk that they have in some large aquariums to keep the people moving past the fish. Then right at eye level I saw a school of over a hundred sharks which momentarily startled me. At this point we were being carried in with the current and didn't have that much control over our position; it was clear we were going to be taken right into the school of sharks. Generously, most of them lazily swam away, but a few were more curious and lingered to have a look at us, and one swam straight at me. We stared down and then he turned away. That's not necessarily good because they like to attack from behind anyway.
Last night was another dinner and bonfire on the beach. This time there were people from eight different boats! And we knew the people on four of these boats from past islands and anchorages, some as far back as Panama. We got rained on pretty good for about 25 minutes, longer than the usual squall because there was so little wind to move it along. But we dried out, built up the two fires and everyone was fine. Fay had a small mountain of tuna on the BBQ and a home made olive tapenade.
Sometimes we go for a couple weeks without much socializing, then we're surrounded with people, all pretty much unorganized and just the chance that we're at the same anchorage at the same time. Back in the Marquesas Fay wanted to keep touch with a couple of women on other boats so she set up a time to chat with them on the radio. Within a couple of weeks it had turned into a "net" and lots of boats were calling in from all over, a couple of people took over as net controllers and out of nowhere a morning cruisers net had been created. There are a few other nets, all passed along by word of mouth to share passage, anchorage and weather information, as well as just keep each other informed about their current location and travel plans.
The time here in Fakarava south has been great, in part because the weather was so perfect. But the weather is beginning to change so we'll probably move on tomorrow. The rough plan is to return to the north end of Fakarava, via an overnight stop at the south east corner behind a small motu. Then we'll head to Toau. Next on the agenda is Rangiroa and Tikehau which are more developed, but supposed to have great diving with professional dive companies. We still plan to be in Tahiti for Bastille Day and Fay's birthday.
