Today we did our first drift dive in the pass. We have been building up to this with our previous two dives here with the 6 Passengers dive centre. For this dive we started on the ocean side of the atoll, looking for dolphin (which we did not see today) and then we let the tide suck us into the pass and just glide along watching the underwater world go by (literally). We started off with colourful fish on the reef side and a few larger creatures down in the grey depth of the pass. Because the tide was flowing in, bringing in clean ocean water, the visibility was really good. As we moved up into the pass it got a bit shallower and we could see the odd shark exiting the pass, heading for sea. We drifted past a massive Napoleon wrasse – the biggest we have ever seen.

This was all pretty good, but the best was still to come. We approached a crevasse in the pass floor and realised that it was full of grey sharks swimming around. These are about 6 – 8 feet long, and there must have been 50 or more. They were swimming around close by, sometimes just a few feet from us as one or another wandered up to check us out. We grabbed a rock to stop us being taken away on the tide and stayed to watch – mesmerised by the show. Eventually it was time to move on and we let go of our rocks and drifted over the top of the boys and girls and on along the lagoon floor until we reached our pick up point where we surfaced and were picked up by the dive boat.

Each of the dives we have done here has been different in terms of the technical side and the wildlife content. Seeing all these creatures in their natural setting is mind-blowing. We mentioned that we could not take our camera to get photos but we have attached here copies of photos shot in the pass by excellent local dive photographer Bernard Beaussier – we have the manta ray and dolphins from our previous dives and the grey sharks from this dive. This is really what it was like. Anyone fancy a dive in Rangiroa?

In other news – our friends on SV Soneto and SV Joy both left yesterday to sail to Ahe, but other friends on SV Venture Lady are arriving here tomorrow so we look forward very much to seeing them.