We snorkeled this morning in a spot
more beautiful than I have ever seen. The area was right near the pass on the southern end of the atoll of Fakarava. The current there is very strong, but we were there at slack tide. We tied our dinghy to a platform in front of a little dive shop in the “village” of Tetemanu; there are only 2 permanent residents of this village, but there are some cabins there that can be rented for a minimum three-day stay.
We quickly put on our gear, and swam out toward the pass. In just a few yards, the ocean floor dropped away, and we were in a sparkling blue aquarium. There were black-tipped and white-tipped sharks that seemed to prefer to ignore us, and so many different kinds of fish, we gasped underwater. They were all swimming lazily through more live coral than we have ever seen in one spot. The variety of colors was almost incomprehensible - my mind just couldn’t envelope all that I was viewing. There were black and yellow Moorish Idols, blue and green Parrot Fish, Angelfish, Unicorn Fish, Squirrelfish, Bump-headed Wrasse, and so many more. Just naming them doesn’t do justice to the privilege of swimming side by side with so many friendly, colorful fish.
There is one type of fish, a Triggerfish, which looks exactly like Al Jolson - you can just see those big lips singing “Mammy”. The Parrotfish have little human teeth, and their mouths are set in a perennial grin. When they are swimming toward you, you can’t help but smile back and wish them a good day. We saw two huge Moray Eels - not pretty at all. There was one point where I was swimming a little bit ahead of the rest of the family, and I was surrounded by 6 black-tipped sharks, all circling lazily around me. I knew I was bigger than they were, but I kept thinking that they might signal to each other that there was strength in numbers, and if they all attacked at once, they could conquer. They evidently don’t know sign language, because they drifted off to find something smaller to pick on.
We snorkeled for about an hour. On the dinghy ride back to the boat, we were somewhat silent and in awe of what we had just been a part of. Slowly, we started talking about the fish we saw, and whether any of us had ever been in a more achingly beautiful spot. We vowed to come back tomorrow with the underwater video camera, to catch some of this wonder on film.
The down side is (isn’t there always a down side?) we are running out of some pretty necessary stuff: diesel fuel, propane, water and food. This little atoll is not designed to supply cruisers, and the locals’ needs are few. The one store in town is closed until tomorrow - they have been closed a couple of weeks, so I can’t imagine they will be very well stocked. Our watermaker is still giving Jim fits. We will head back to the “big” village and see what we can find, then proceed to a few more of these lovely atolls. Molly and Jessie said they would like to return someday and go to each and every atoll. I hope they get to!
All this underwater beauty has inspired us to make use of the 100 gallon aquarium tank we have at home - we will build a warm salt water aquarium, with a lot of the tropical fish that we have seen on our trip. Jim gathered about 30 pounds of broken coral and shells to line the bottom with, to serve as the initial water sifter for the tank. We’ve talked about how we could smuggle a few of the fish we have seen, but have not come up with a good way to get them through customs and back home safely. It will be painful to have to buy them when we get home. The “bottom” line is, our boat is getting heavy with shells, and our waterline is quickly disappearing under the ocean!