Tony and Paul sailed ~610 miles in 4 days from the Marquesas Islands to the Tuamotu Islands. The Tuamotus are atoll islands that were formed as fringe reefs around a volcanic island that has since sunk into the sea, leaving a circular shaped reef with a lagoon inside. Rangiroa (population ~3,300) is the largest atoll in the Tuamotus (35 miles long and 14 miles wide), and the second largest atoll in the world.
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Arriving at an atoll is exciting as you can't visually see it until you are about 6 miles away, so you have to keep a close watch. And you have to time your arrival for a slack tide in order to enter the pass. The tide in the atoll passes can exceed 6 knots. Want to test your engines? "Not I!" says Tony.
Anchoring can be another adventure, as the bottom of the lagoon is riddled with "boomies" (coral heads) everywhere! When the wind shifts, you can end up with your anchor chain looking like a spaghetti mess around the coral. Thankfully, they found good places to anchor and did not have any problems retrieving the anchor.
Tony and Paul met up with Dave & Wendy (Elysium) and went to dinner and a dance show one night. They all went to a tour of a Pearl Farm. Pearl farming is one of the main sources of income in some of the atolls. It was very interesting to see how they grow and harvest the pearls.
Then, our friend, Bill Briggs, and his girlfriend, Ruth, flew in to visit us. They all went snorkeling through the Tiputa Pass. The dive boat takes you out during an incoming tide, and drops you off so you can drift through the pass. You end in the "Aquarium" reef on the inside of the lagoon. It was so good, they did it twice! They said the snorkeling was fabulous with tons of fish, coral and "friendly" sharks.
They sailed down to the south end of the atoll and went to the "Blue Lagoon", a lagoon within the lagoon, with the prettiest colors! Bill and Ruth took the glass-bottom kayak out for a spin around the lagoon, while Tony and Paul walked the beach.
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