As much fun and relaxation we had at Manihi atoll--it was time to move on. 5-11-2010 We left Manihi heading to Rangiroa Atoll. This is an overnight passage and again we needed to time our arrival at Rangiroa to go through the pass at slack water. This would not be a problem as we had good tide info for Rangiroa and we had plenty of time to get there--actually, too much time. Unfortunately, we arrived too early! We arrived three hours before slack water. We looked at the pass and saw white breakers on each side--but the main channel looked clear. So, we went for it! Everything was going fine-- Sherry was on the bow with the hand-held radio, and we were motoring at full throttle. I noticed that we were surfing a standing wave in the pass and were only doing two knots over the ground--there was a six knot current coming out of the lagoon! Just about that time I had the shock of my life as a six foot bottle-nosed dolphin jumped completely out of the water about two feet from the side of the boat! I swear, he winked at me. We made it into the lagoon and found a nice spot to anchor. We ended up staying six days in Rangiroa--hiking, biking, swimming, snorkeling, and relaxing. Rangiroa was more touristy than Manihi, but it was a nice change. The old itch came on and we were off for our next island--Tahiti!