GHOST

Rangiroa is the largest atoll in the Tuamotus and the second biggest in the world with a lagoon area of 1640 sq km (we are still trying to find out what is the biggest, answers on a postcard please). We entered through the Tiputa pass, nice and wide and deep and anchored in the anchorage nearby. There were already around 10 boats there which is a serious boat population for these waters!

The weather for the overnight crossing from Ahe had been really calm and we motored the whole way. The sea was glassy like you sometimes see in the Mediterranean but very rarely in open ocean, this meant that we could really clearly see the dolphins playing on the bow of the boat as we approached the pass, fantastic.

We took the dingy and explored the two villages on the island and treated ourselves to an ice cream which is always high on Jay's to do list. Next we arranged some diving for the following day - we were keen to do a drift dive through the entrance to the pass when the water is flowing strongly in, but given the unpredictable nature of the dive wanted some local expertise. In the meantime we took advantage of the calm conditions by having a wakeboard around, it seems we are finally improving although any exciting manoeuvres are pretty limited given the lack of wake caused by Speccy.

The following day we went with the local dive shop, Top Dive, to do the drift dive. I have to say they got the tide times completely wrong and we ended up spending most of the dive trying to swim into the pass and ended up back outside - very disappointing and we negotiating a lower dive price though they would not admit they were at fault. It turns out that we were diving just after slack water rather than a couple of hours before high tide - an unforgivable mistake on their part, or was it just greed to fit another dive in the day? We definitely wouldn't recommend them.

Meanwhile we had met some of the surrounding boats, next to us A Small Nest were anchored - we had met them on the ARC and with their 3 kids they are good friends with Sunboy so it was good to catch up. We also got chatting to 3 American boats (Delos, Bubbles and Super Agent Man) and it turns out they were keen divers so offered for us to join their night dive that night and said they would take us through the pass properly the next day - luckily they have a compressor onboard so they also filled our tanks for us - THANK YOU. The night dive was much better than the one in Bonaire and we had a nice time exploring the creatures on the coral bomie's nearby the boats.

The following day we took the dingys outside the pass and tied them together, one of the American non- having agreed to shadow us as we dived. The current was running strongly into the pass and we dropped into the water and descended quickly. It was an absolutely amazing feeling as you whizzed along at about 4 knots watching the fish all around you. This was what we had wanted the day before - it was really special. We then did some amazing snorkelling surrounded by loads of fish and headed back to the boat for a bit more bottom cleaning and some wakeboarding.

We have really enjoyed Rangiroa, it is good to have some local supermarkets and other boats to talk to and the unusual calm weather has been making the water extra clear and great for diving & wakeboarding but as usual the next destination beckons and we are keen to get to Tahiti and fix the rig! Tonight we will leave for the 200nm passage to Tahiti, it should still be very calm but since we just have to nurse the rigging through one final trip we are very happy motoring if we need to.