Photo of Napoleon Wrasse from PADI Dive Site
We arrived at the south end of Fakarava at 1:30 pm. We had estimated slack tide would be at 12:30 pm, so we expected some outgoing current. The swell had increased to about 10 feet from the west and appeared to be wrapping around the south end of the island, so we were concerned about the pass conditions. It turned out to be fine, with about a 3 knot current, and with two engines on Cetacea, no problem!
We picked up one of the newly installed mooring balls. So nice to avoid coral wrapping! After securing the mooring lines, we looked around the boat to see more than a dozen sharks (black tip and grey) circling the boat. Definitely, not my snorkeling destination!
There is a small village, Tetamanu, which used to be the main village on Faka until a cyclone hit and devastated the island. Now there are still about 40 people who live there, a pretty church, abandoned government buildings, a small pension (family run guest house with about six bungalows), and a dive shop. The Faka South Pass, with the famous "shark wall", is known as one of the world's greatest diving locations.
(See Photos) Tony went ashore to make dinner reservations and schedule a dive. Dinner turned out to be delightful, joined by the Australian crew on Toothless. The skipper, Chris, is a captain of a Volvo (sailboat racing) syndicate. And his brother, Daren, is an offshore speed boat racer (goes 180 mph). The conversation was really interesting and it was a fun evening.
The next day, Tony dove the pass, along with the Toothless crew. They saw more than 100 sharks, tons of fish and beautiful coral during the drift dive. My highlight was snorkeling the pass, and seeing a giant Napoleon Wrasse! This fish was bigger than me, probably weighed about 200 pounds, and was absolutely beautiful! I got some great photos and videos, but unfortunately I lost them when I moved them onto a hard disc. The photo above is from PADI dive site. For all you divers, here is a link to see what Tony saw on his dive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEiwSBS54Jw
After a few days at the south pass, we motored around to the southeast corner by the tiny village of Hiriafa. Another beautiful anchorage, where we were the only boat, and could anchor with mostly sand and very few coral to wrap around. Yeah! We went ashore to meet some of the local residents and see the pretty pink coral sand beach. We spent a couple really calm days there finishing the rub rail varnish, cleaning the boat, and made a trip to shore to burn paper waste and burry compost waste.
More later - G&T