We leave Takaroa on Friday morning for the 24 hour sail to Rangiroa, the atoll where we will drop Sarah and Steve and pick up Seb and Val.
The largest of the Tuamotu atolls, Rangiroa is truly vast. Despite its name (rangi: sky; roa: long) it is clearly shaped like a foot, toes down, heel gently raised as if the giant it belongs to is daintily stepping over a small object. 1020 km2 in area, it is 75 km from toe to heel, 24 km from top to bottom and 225 km around its 240 motu. It is so large that the entire island of Tahiti would fit inside its reef, and once inside the lagoon we can’t see from the side of the lagoon we’re anchored on to the other.
Rangiroa is famous for sharks and other large marine life (dolphins, mantas) that come to play in the gushing waters of its two passes, and most tourists are here to dive. Frankly, there is little else to do here – the beaches mainly consist of coral rubble and there are no landbased sites to visit. The corals suffered severe bleaching in the late 1990s because of higher than normal water temperatures brought about by El Niños, but a quick snorkel in the lagoon convinces us that they are recovering.
And so we snorkel and dive. The pass is a world famous dive site, with steep walls dropping off sharply, sharks cruising, schools of large Napoleon wrasse in the blue depths, giant eagle rays gliding past. The Aquarium, a site close to the pass is named for its superb visibility and abundant fish life; the kids spend ages swimming alongside baby blacktip reef sharks, peering into holes and seeing fat morays come out, mouths gaping in evil grimaces displaying sharp pointy teeth. Thick schools of snapper hang underneath the dinghy, barely moving when we dive down to say hello and Matias spends ages chasing the little unicorn fish that swim just below the water surface.
We meet up with Karen, Jim and their daughter Jacinta again – we met them first in the Marquesas and the children are thrilled to catch up again. Jacinta, who is 8, has a hermit crab farm which she kindly brings to our boat for a play date, and the kids spend the afternoon staging crab races and otherwise fondling the scared little critters.
And then the time has come to say goodbye to Sarah and Steve. They have been with us for three months now, through ups and downs, passages and islands, winds and doldrums, fresh mahi mahi and corned beef. It has been awesome to have them on board and the kids are inconsolable when they leave. Thankfully Val and Seb are here with all the distractions of newcomers and spirits soon rise with Matias reading on his new kindle and Lukie playing the Zombie dice game that Val brought along.
For our last night in Rangiroa we head to Ile aux Recifs on the other side of the lagoon, where raised coral outcrops provide the barrier to the ocean on the other side. The snorkelling here is picturesque and the beach lovely golden sand backed by a lush coconut grove. The trip across the lagoon is exciting, with a reef popping up out of nowhere in the middle, providing a quick opportunistic snorkel where we see eagle rays, sharks and lots of fish life. It is exciting to think that we might be snorkelling what used to be the top of a large volcanic island many millions of years ago, once standing as high as the mountains of Tahiti, now a submerged reef in the middle of a vast shallow lagoon. How time changes everything.
SV Bob The Cat 