When we arrived at Raroia, we were alone. Over the four days we were there, we were joined first by Avatar, then by Wasabi, Cooee II, Kaualau, and today, a sixth boat arrived.

The rain continued off and on for several days as the wind backed from the north east through north, then west, south and now south east. The weather has been fine and clear for the last couple of days and the wind has dropped to between 5 and 10 knots. The night sky has been spectacular. Normally, the southern cross stands out clearly, but recently the milky way and surrounding stars have been so bright and visible, it is much harder to pick out. Last night, Tane decided he wanted to sleep out under the stars in the hammock. We rig the hammock using the spinnaker pole, so you end up hanging out of the side of the boat. He made it to about 3am, when he came inside because it was too cold!

We've had a great time visiting with the folks on the other boats. We had Beat and Lola from Avatar, and Brian and Isabelle from Wasabi, on Kena the second night, went to Wasabi the third night, and spent last night with George and Kathleen on Kaualau.

We've enjoyed visiting the small village and snorkeling further afield. However, after listening to accounts of diving in the passes of the Tuamotos with sharks (on the iPod---Peter Benchley's "Shark Trouble"), Tane made us promise we would do so before we moved on to Tahiti. Originally, we had planned to wait until Fakarava atoll, which offers pass dives through a large hotel there. However, a couple of days ago we decided to ask the locals if they would take us, and the answer was yes.

Yesterday at 11 am, we were collected by two young guys in an outboard dinghy, along with Brian and Isabelle from Wasabi and George and Kathleen from Kaualau. They took us out through the pass and we all hopped into the water with our snorkeling gear. Because of the way atolls are formed, the water becomes very deep very quickly on the outside---in a very short distance, the depth reaches thousands of feet. This means that just outside the pass, it drops off into the deep blue. This was where we started, so that at first all we could see was deep, deep blue. The water was running into the atoll, so we were drifting into the pass, and after a few minutes we could make out sharks and other large fish circling way below us. Soon the bottom became faintly visible, about a hundred feet below us. Several of the sharks began circling up towards us. Soon there were fish all around and below us---large schools of barracuda, jacks, and more sharks. As the bottom rose towards us, we started moving faster and faster until, in the middle of the pass with the bottom between 20 and 30 feet below us, it was like flying over an alien landscape. Rather than the isolated coral heads we see inside the lagoon, we were passing over a continuous field of corals. The numbers and varieties of fish were staggering, with moorish idols, huge parrotfish, and hundreds of other species.. and always, at least three or four blacktip sharks. The smaller sharks seem to be the most inquisitive, coming quite close to check us out.

We floated through the pass three or four times, each time on a different path, seeing new and different sights. On the second pass, a group of dolphins played around us for several minutes. We saw a huge grouper, and several very large yellowfin tuna. This is diving (actually, just snorkeling) at its very best.

After the dives, our guides took us ashore on the eastern side of the pass where they showed us the homes of their relatives. The houses are made of wood, coral, and plastic. Clear plastic is used for windows, and the roofs are corrugated plastic. Just as the houses in the main village, these four or five dwellings have solar panels for power and rainwater is collected from the roofs in large tanks.

The guides started looking in, around, and under several piles of coconut leaves in the area and soon came out with a coconut crab. These are quite large and quite unlike ordinary crabs. Their heads are like the heads of shrimp and they have a large soft bulbous thorax much as you see on a spider. They are, according to our guides, very tasty.

Under one bush, we were shown a large turtle shell. The turtle had laid her eggs nearby, and then had died. The relatives have left the shell in place, unmoved. It must be interesting to live in a place where large sea turtles lay their eggs right in your front yard.

After returning from the guided pass dive, we went diving again in the lagoon. Unfortunately, after doing the pass dive, the interior diving seems very tame!

This morning, Tane, Bruce and I took our own dinghy to the pass, in company with Bronte and Helmke from Cooee II in their dinghy. We motored out through the incoming flow, past the dropoff into the deep blue, and jumped in. One person from each dinghy holds the painter in the water so the dinghy won't blow off out to sea. As soon as we were in, we saw sharks. In moments, there were 30, then 40, circling below us, with many of them rising towards us. A few were very large. Soon they were all around us, giving us a really great show. Bruce immediately grabbed what Sal calls the Bambi bat -- the dayglo yellow plastic baseball bat we use to subdue fish we catch, holding it at the ready in case one of the sharks got too close. Tane was snapping pictures as fast as he could. Bronte was descending deep below us with his speargun, looking for a target. He seems to be able to descend to 40 or 50 feet and stay there for several minutes with ease. The schools of barracuda appeared again, as did several others. The dolphins joined the fray. And all too soon we were soaring over the coral in the pass. That first dive was spectacular and, try as we might, we could not reproduce it --- although we saw a few sharks on the subsequent passes, we failed to find the mother lode of sharks again.

Back at the boat, we prepared for departure. One major issue was raising the anchor. Because the wind had gone almost full circle over the four days, our anchor chain was completely around a coral head, making it impossible to pull up directly. After diving to check how the chain lay (the coral head was 55 feet below us), we motored in a circle and successfully released it. We motored back out the pass, followed by Wasabi. As we approached the dropoff, we found ourselves running at nearly 10 knots, being twisted and turned by the churning eddies of the rapid outflow. Suddenly there were huge splashes around us and we saw very large tuna leaping out of the water in pursuit of fish that must be pushed out with the rapid outgoing flow. The lures were in the water and we circled through the area four or five times, but to no avail.

We're now on an overnight passage to Makemo atoll. The wind is very light, which is fine, since we have only 70 miles to go. The plan is to arrive off the pass by 9am, which is supposed to be low tide.