WEEK 2 April 16th - 22nd
On Monday 16th we sailed to Rangiroa which is a huge atoll East of Tahiti. It was our skipper’s birthday. Rangiroa is the biggest atoll in Polynesia. It is 24km wide and 78km long and 225km around the edge. An atoll is made when a crack opens in the earths mantel, the magma escapes and slowly volcano through the water and emerges as a mountain. Over millions of years the island starts to sink under its own weight, in the clear warm water a reef begins to grow. The island slowly subsides and the reef starts to grow up forming a lagoon.
When we arrived we went for a snorkel, the snorkelling was the best I had ever seen. To get through the reef there is a pass called the D’Avatoru. When we came through the pass we saw some dolphins swimming under the boat. Later that day we went and had super at a restaurant in the atoll. Swimming around the back of the boat we saw three shark suckers which are in the same family as the Remora.
On Wednesday we sailed to another part of the atoll. It was all uncharted so we had to have someone on the bow and the first spreader as look outs for rocks. When we had anchored we went and had a snorkel at the reef. When me and Daisy were snorkling in the shallows we were circled by two black tip reef sharks and then swam out of site.
On Friday there was a lot of wind so we sailed back to our original anchorage the sail was very pleasant. We arrived at about five oclock and went to super at about half past six. After super we left Rangiroa to go to Apataki. Because the wind and current were against us it took an extra seven hours. In the morning we found a little Geko on the boat. It ran around the cockpit and then hid in a vent.
When we finally arrived in Apataki, we navigated through a narrow pass and then found that the anchorage wasn’t very calm. Me mummy and daddy went for a snorkel and saw a lot of big parrot fish Parrot fish are very colourful.
On Sunday afternoon we decided to move but rather than go out of the same pass we had used to enter Apataki in the north and face the rough seas outside the reef, we travelled south within the lagoon and after a couple of hours sailing in calm waters we reached the southern pass. It felt like we had used a secret tunnel to sneak past the big waves.
The approach to the southern pass was amazingly hard to find and then follow. It was very shallow either side and there was a strong current. There was a little village next to the pass which looked very nice but we couldn’t afford to stop because we had to get out before it got dark and we only had about fifteen minutes to spare. Luckily we made it!