We arrived at the first pass about 8:30. It was NOT slack water... waves between 15 and 20 feet high were running up the pass. we called on the radio for tide and current info from anyone inside. Someone told us that about 11:30 should be ok. It took til a little after 10 to moor up to the other pass, and sure enough there were only 3 or 4 foot waves bu then. It did still have a3 knot out flow current, but we made it in ok.
The water here is very clear in most places. We can't quite see the anchor in 35 feet here in the anchorage though. But we could see the bottom all the way in through the pass and most of the way back to just inside the first pass where we wanted to anchor.
The BBC is doing a documentary on the sharks in the pass. A popular sport/activity is to wait for an incoming current and get a ride outside the pass and snorkel or dive float into the lagoon through the pass letting the current carry you along. There are lots of fish, coral and sharks to watch as you leisurely float by. The sharks are mostly Black Tip Sharks and are considered harmless.
We played with the dive board some more in Fakarava. It is much like the pass snorkeling I think. The visibility was lousy in the anchorage at the north end where we were. At the south end the visibility was reported to be 150 feet and as many as 400 sharks to see in the pass there. Peter and Ginger were really impressed with it. They had done the pass snorkel in the southern end of Fakarava.
We were too tired to do much exploring today. We barely got the dinghy reassembled and a quick foray to shore to see if there was a bank machine and grocery store. The books were wrong, the bank, Gendarme and municipal offices are back by the northern pass where we can in. Maybe we'll take a water taxi in to explore tomorrow.
No fish on the way, however yesterday, a friend caught a large Wahoo and shared it with everyone in the anchorage. We got 4 large steaks for it. It is maybe even better than Mahi Mahi, or Dorado as Mexico calls it.
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