Tahiti - Here We Come!

Well, we are on the watery road again. We departed from Rangiroa at 10:00 am on the slack tide and by tomorrow at about the same time, we will arrive at Papeete, Tahiti. The weather for travel couldn't be better, blue sky, light wind and smooth blue water. We watched Rangiroa slide into the distance behind, wishing we could have been there a couple of more days. Yesterday we did two fantastic dives with one of the local dive operators. In going with a local dive guide we were able to dive the outside reef where all of the large and prolific sea life lives, this because he has somebody knowledgeable in the boat above the dive site to pick us up after our time is up. It is a little tricky to follow underwater divers from the surface (rough surface) only by the bubble trail and to get to some of the best dives you have to go by boat to the middle of nowhere so that special pickup guy is very important. The weather was crappy all day, alternately raining buckets of water and blowing wind, but when you are under water, it doesn't matter. The first dive was on the outer reef and we have never been with so many large fish, nor so many large schools of fish than we encountered there. Absolutely stunning! We are diving with fish that we have never seen before, which for a diver is always a big deal. The rainbow of colors, myriad of body shapes and the variation of behaviors are all thrilling observations and then conversation for divers. We saw a couple of "Jew Fish" (that's their name) that were about 100 lbs each, BIG FISH! As the dive ended we could hear dolphins, but we didn't see them under water, when we surfaced and were already in the boat, we spotted them playing on the other side of the pass. The dive boat picked us up from our big boat and dropped us back off again. During our break between dives, the weather calmed enough that Glen and I were able to hoist the whaler up onto the boat deck of the big boat. It was still a dicey process as there was enough swell in the water to cause the whaler to swing on the lift harness and it is really difficult for mere mortals to control a pendulum of 1500 pounds. We certainly didn't want to tow the whaler all the way to Tahiti though so we were very happy to have it up and out of the way. The second dive we did was along the opposite side of the reef on the pass entrance with the tidal current flooding into the atoll (so we don't get swept out to sea). The boat dropped us off on the outside and after we dropped down to proper depth, we drifted (more like rushed) along the coral walls, sand valleys and lava caverns googling at the fish, eels, sharks and so forth along the way. It was the most amazing ride. I just wanted to have the boat take us right back out and do it all over again. So another day to stay and dive certainly wouldn't have been hard to talk either Glen or myself into, but we have a schedule to follow. Russell departed early yesterday morning, he had some personal stuff to take care of and just couldn't hang out with us for the last 5 days. So he was able to arrange a flight from Rangiroa to Tahiti and hopefully he is able to change all the rest of his flights from there to home without too many problems. So now it's just Glen and me bobbing along in the blue.

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