May 2019 – Adagio’s Voyage

Diving with Dolphins

After leaving Fakarava, we had an easy overnight sail to Rangiroa. Rangiroa is one of the atolls in the Tuamotus which we weren’t able to visit last year. So, we were excited to explore a new place. Our friends Diana and Marcus on Allora came along with us, and we were very excited to run into our French friends Caroline and Philippe on Ivadel when we arrived in the anchorage. We first met Caroline and Philippe in Mexico and reconnected with them last year in the Marquesas. Upon arrival, they told us that they were in Rangiroa so that Philippe could complete his dive master certification at one of the local dive shops.

One of the reasons we really wanted to visit Rangiroa was for the diving. As many dives as we have done in French Polynesia, we have never seen dolphins in the water. We see dolphins from the boat, but it seems to be really rare to see them snorkeling or diving. However, Rangiroa is known for some local dolphins that either tolerate or actually like playing with the divers. We’ve had friends tell stories of dolphins coming right up to them like dogs wanting to be petted. We had no intention of actually touching a dolphin, but I really wanted to see them while diving.

There had been a rather large south swell for a few days filling the lagoon which meant that the current in the pass into the lagoon was always going out. With wind opposing the current, this also meant that there were some rather large waves in the pass. Due to the conditions, and our desire to get the best shot at finding the dolphins, we decided to go with some local dive shops rather than attempt the dives on our own.

We didn’t waste anytime getting to the diving and scheduled a sunset dive for the same day that we arrived. On the first dive, there were no dolphins, but lots of great barracuda, a school of twenty spotted eagle rays and a fantastic end to the dive where we ended up in a huge school of thousands of small jacks of some sort.

The next day we were back at it with even more determination to see dolphins. We had a different dive guide this time, a young French woman who was the most at ease in the water I had ever seen. She just kind of floated with an occasional frog kick to propel her forward, unlike my clumsy diving where I’m always trying to dial in my buoyancy and not look like a flailing fish when trying to deal with current. I aspire to look so calm in the water!

Anyway, our guide suggested that our best shot at seeing the dolphins might be to go out a little bit further from the reef “into the blue.” After a “one, two, three, everybody into the water,” we descended into the blue. I had never had a dive like this where all around was blue. You couldn’t see the bottom or the reef off to our right. As we descended, I had to carefully watch my depth gage, because I had absolutely no sense of how deep we were with no reference points around us. Even looking up at the surface didn’t give you any clue as to where you were. It really did feel like floating in outer space. I thought it was awesome.

We swam for a while with some fish drifting by and eventually over toward the reef. All the while, we were constantly looking for the dolphins. As my air showed less than half a tank left, I was beginning to think that dive number two was also going to be a bust for dolphins. But, just as I was beginning to lose hope that we would see them, they appeared. The dolphins were above us toward the surface, but we could see a small pod of four or five. And, the most amazing part was a baby dolphin who we were told by the dive guide had just been born about 10 days prior. If it is possible to smile with a regulator in your mouth, I did it.

After three dives, the weather forecast was not looking too good to stay anchored up by the pass. We looked at sailing down to the southeast part of the lagoon where we would have some protection from the wind and fetch. That part of the lagoon also has large sand flats where Mike and Marcus were very excited to do some fly fishing for bonefish.

The boys had a fun time that week out every morning stalking the fish on the flats. Diana, who is an artist did an awesome mosaic on one of the sand spits which a bunch of shells she collected. And, one day Diana and I went out to do some fun photo shoots. Diana caught this cool photo of me and an a sting ray. (I now want a dome lens for my camera!)

She also got some awesome drone photos of our boats, that I’m thankful she shared with me.

The wind subsided and we headed back to the anchorage by the pass to do some more diving. We got in a couple more dives and even got to have Philippe act as our dive guide as part of his training with one of the dive shops. We saw the dolphins (and the baby) a few more times, but they never got too close to us. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get my close encounter, but we gave it our best shot.

We loved Rangiroa, and I could have stayed there a lot longer, but the time was coming for us to head back to Tahiti and to start to head west. Leaving the Tuamotus with no idea if or when we will every be able to return gave me a sad pang. I know that there is more to see out there, but it is hard to wrap your head around leaving a place that it truly a paradise.

~katie

Dinghy Walkabout

After leaving Tahanea, we headed to the atoll of Fakarava. Fakarava was one of my favorite places that we visited last year. The southern pass is known as one of the best dive spots in French Polynesia, if not the world. The fascinating thing about diving the pass is the wall of sharks. I posted a video last year of diving in the pass. If you haven’t seen it, click on the videos link on the front page of the blog and check it out. Hopefully, I’ll eventually get up another video from this year’s dives.

We arrived early in the morning and found an open mooring to pick up. And, as we came in we recognized another boat in the anchorage, Alondra. We got to know Ken, Edith and their two daughters last year and were excited to see them again. Ken and Edith are marine biologists and avid divers, so we knew we were in for a treat to dive with them again. The minute we said hello, we were already planning a dive with them.

There was a lot of incoming current in the pass, so in order to dive we tied up one dinghy to a buoy outside the pass and left another dinghy inside the pass. The plan was to surface in the shallow water near the second dinghy where someone could then head back and retrieve the first dinghy. It’s been fun learning how other people dive on their own without paying to go with a dive operation. It’s a little more work, but it is rewarding to plan and organize your own dives and then successfully fulfill them.

We descended down to the ocean floor full of coral and beautiful reef fish about 60 feet down and then headed to the middle of the pass where there is a deep canyon. The canyon is where all of the sharks hang out. Ken and Edith showed us where there was a cave located at 90 feet down. The cave didn’t extend far inside, but it provided a fun sandy spot to hang out and watch all of the sharks drift by. The sharks really do seem like they are floating in air as they calmly swim against the current. It is a lot of fun to watch.

We didn’t stay that deep for long, especially because once we were out of the cave the current pushed us further in where we could just relax and float by all the fish. As we got even shallower, there was an area Ken referred to as “Superman Alley.” That’s because the current really has you flying over the coral at that point. If you want to stop, you’ve got to grab onto something and hold on tight! It was all super fun, and in all we got about five more dives in there.

Another boat had invited us and our friends Marcus and Diana aboard for cocktails at sunset. We had fun with friends new and old telling lots of sailing yarns, but we got a real shock when we went to leave. It was about 9:00 pm and pitch black out. So, when we discovered our dinghy was no longer tied to the back of their boat, we both had a bit of a freak out.

When you live on a boat, your dinghy is your lifeline to shore. It is a bit like your car to get you from A to B, but also lets us do fun things like dive and snorkel and fish. And, when you are in a remote spot like Fakarava, you can’t just go out to the store and get another one. So, if we couldn’t find the dinghy, it was going to seriously put a crimp in our future plans.

I got dropped off at our boat while Mike in our new friends’ dinghy and Marcus and Diana in their dinghy went out looking with spot lights. It seemed hopeless, especially when Mike got back about an hour later with no sign of the dinghy. Neither of us slept well that night.

The next morning we were up early trying to come up with a plan. Fakarava is an atoll, which means that other than the two passes, it is a lagoon with a fringing reef and lots of motus (islands). We thought about the winds and tides and all came to the conclusion that it would be unlikely, if not impossible, for the dinghy to have gotten out of the lagoon. But, to search the lagoon seemed like an insurmountable task. It is huge!

As soon as it was a decent hour to bug people, I started getting on the phone and email to contact anyone and everyone we knew in Fakarava to get the word out. We figured if the dinghy was found, it would likely be brought to the main town of Rotoava about 25 miles away. In the meantime, Mike and Diana went to shore to see if they could hire a local boat, that would be much bigger and faster, to go searching.

Just as I had about exhausted everyone I could think to contact (boats in Rotoava, yacht services, gendarme, etc.), Diana excitedly came over the VHF to say that they had found the dinghy!

We don’t know how the dinghy came loose. Mike tied the line around the rail the way he always has done, but somehow it came undone. So, the line was dragging in the water as the dinghy blew away. That ultimately was a blessing, because that line just barely snagged on some coral as the dinghy drifted over a shallow reef. And so, the dinghy was just sitting there waiting for us only a couple of miles away. There were all smiles aboard both the boat that took Mike and Diana out searching and aboard Adagio where I was waiting. Whew!

~katie

Jellyfish

Right before we left the Gambiers for the Tuamotus (about 650 miles), I started having really severe headaches that were causing me to be nauseous, vomit, dizzy and generally incapacitated. At first I thought it was just really bad migraines. But, then they would come and go. I would be fine one day and in bed the next. We were in passage planning mode, and this was really not the time to be sick.

We had a decent weather window to leave the Gambiers, and if we didn’t take it we might have to wait another couple of weeks. After a bit of discussion, we decided to go anyway. Mike said he could handle the boat himself, essentially single-handing, if I could just stand some watches for a few hours at a time to let him get some rest. It was a huge undertaking for him to do, but he was confident it would be fine.

Thankfully, we had a wonderful passage from the Gambiers to Tahanea in the Tuamotus. The wind was perfect, and we sailed almost the whole way wing and wing downwind. The first few days I was really feeling bad, but then I started to feel more like myself and could help out a bit more. I tried to get as much rest as I could, and Mike was wonderful. By the time we arrived in Tahanea, I was hopeful I was finally back to being 100%.

My hopefulness was short lived when we arrived in Tahanea, as I had another horrible day where I couldn’t keep any food down. My friend Diana was so lovely trying to help me troubleshoot what could possibly be wrong. I didn’t have a high fever or any symptoms that were life threatening, so we didn’t feel the need to bolt to civilization for medical assistance. It was just a long two weeks of on and off days. We still don’t know what the problem was, but suspect it was likely one of those lovely tropical mosquito borne viruses that you can’t do anything about except wait it out anyway.

We ended up in the most beautiful anchorage in Tahanea with clear, sunny days, and I was miserable that I wasn’t able to go out and enjoy it. We had seen these very strange looking large, purple jellyfish around the anchorage when we approached. Diana has inspired me with her amazing underwater photography, so I was not surprised when she immediately dove in to photograph them. Later that night, she showed us her amazing photographs that looked unreal. The jellyfish looked like alien creatures with amazing colors of blues and purples. Her pictures looked like works of art, and I was determined to get some photos before we left this place.

Finally I was feeling up for getting in the water and set off with Diana and our cameras to capture the jellyfish. Each one was slightly different in shape and color. Some of them would dive down toward the sand while others stayed up near the surface. It was a sunny day, and the sunlight reflecting through the water onto the jellyfish made them seem as if they had internal lights lighting them up inside. We tried photographing them at all different angles and at different stages as they swam. Despite my best efforts, I really can’t even describe them. The best pictures, to me, are shots zoomed in that show the unique detail on each one. We were both so fascinated by them that I think neither of us wanted to leave the water even though my fingers looked like prunes.

These jellyfish were so unreal and like nothing I have seen in the water. They were also the most fascinating thing I have ever photographed. Diana was right in her assessment that an awe inspiring day with creatures like that can be very healing, and it was. It was just what I needed to get out of my slump and start feeling more like myself.

~katie

Shark Bump

We followed our friends Marcus and Diana on Allora to a beautiful anchorage in the northern part of the Gambiers, where their friend Eric owns a pearl farm. Marcus and Diana have been in French Polynesia for two years and really made some wonderful friends with some locals, including Eric and his family.

We took the dinghies over to Eric’s place which has a huge sand flat out front where Mike and Marcus were going to do some fly fishing. Around the side of the island is what is called a “false pass.” A false pass is a break in the reef that heads out to the open ocean, but it is not deep enough for a boat to be able to pass through across the reef. But, the false pass made for a great snorkeling location.

Diana and I left the boys in the flats and headed to the pass with our snorkel gear. We had to almost crawl across very shallow coral to get to these large caverns or bowls of deeper water cut into the reef. It was a spectacular site. Diana and I each started exploring the area, diving down to look in little crevasses under the coral and getting great pictures of all kinds of colorful reef fish. We saw several species of huge grouper lumbering around and even had a couple schools of bluefin trevally swim by.

After swimming for a little while, several whitetip reef sharks appeared. The whitetips have been the most curious sharks in my experience. Most of the other reef sharks won’t get that close to you, but the whitetips don’t seem to have much fear. They are usually in the 4-5 foot range, so they are big enough to be substantial but not usually frightening. A couple of times I would turn around to see one only a foot or two next to me just staring at me. It was starting to get a bit annoying, because I then became distracted constantly looking around me.

At one point I was at the surface and turned to find one shark heading straight for me at an angle from below quite quickly. At the same time, there were two or three others swimming nearby me. It was a little unnerving. I faced the shark heading toward me. As I had my fins out toward the shark, he came up and bumped my fins. I kicked him to get him to move away from me, which didn’t really do much in terms of a deterrent effect. Finally, he moved away a bit as I looked over at Diana. She asked me, “Did he bump you?” When I said yes, we decided to move out of the area. Some locals had told Diana that the sharks will bump you before they decide to take a bite.

Neither of us wanted to be shark bait, so we swam to a shallower area where the sharks didn’t follow us. The whitetip reef sharks aren’t known for being aggressive or dangerous, so we don’t know if these particular sharks were just curious or being territorial, or what. Whatever it was, we didn’t really stick around long enough to find out. Luckily, the sharks didn’t bother us the rest of the afternoon as we snorkeled around the shallows and headed back in toward where the boys were fly fishing.

As I’m sure you all know by now, Mike loves to fish. But, he had done mostly deep sea fishing and had not tried his hand at fly fishing. Marcus is a huge fly fisherman and inspired Mike to try it. So, when we were back in the States, Mike bought himself a fly fishing rod. The sport of fly fishing is really fascinating to watch. The technique used to try to catch a fish on the fly is really an art and quite graceful.

We’d heard tales from Marcus about the fascinating fish that he had caught fly fishing. But, by far one of his favorites is bonefish. These beautiful, slender, silvery fish dart around in the shallow, sandy areas eating little things they pick up on the sand. In order to catch one, you have to see it first, then present the fly just in front of it and then be able to hook it and reel it in. Once they are on the hook, they like to fight, giving the fisherman a bit of fun.

Mike had now been trying to catch one of these elusive bonefish ever since we arrived in the Gambiers, with no luck. But, just as Diana and I were coming out of the water from our snorkel, we saw Mike in the distance hook up. We all ran over to see the action as we hoped Mike would be able to score his first bonefish. It was fun to see him quickly stripping the line and reeling it in to get that fish, and we were all there to see it! Mike was beaming and having so much fun. He is definitely hooked on fly fishing!

The next night we were invited aboard Allora for dinner with Eric and his son (also Eric) and had a wonderful time with a fantastic meal and great company. It was a great end to our time in the Gambiers. After a quick stop in Rikitea, we were off to the Tuamotus.

~katie