(Tuamotus, French Polynesia)

After a surprisingly good sail in light wind, gliding thru the night, not harassed by any squalls that were so frequent the past weeks, greeted by clear starry skies that nearly touched the fairly flat surface, I reached Tahanea in the morning of Sunday, 23rd of February, right in time with a gentle incoming tide.
Another boat was anchored in the main anchorage and I anchored on the far side to give each other privacy. Despite many coral heads scattered about, I found a nice sandy spot for my anchor and lifted the chain with fenders to clear from other bommies.
Since then I have moved anchorages twice to snorkel all 3 passes and now the ‚7‘ reef across the lagoon. I like staying a little longer in one place but the wind dictates and a rare westerly spell makes it nice to see areas that are normally on a leeshore and uncomfortable and even unsafe.
The fish life is still abundant, I saw many species new to me, including some sharks and many wrasses in all wonderful and beautiful colours…if they could just remain still for awhile to capture them on film! The Manta rays still play hide and seek with me, guess i‘ll see them again when I sail out of here – like last time and I don’t dare to snorkel with them with the big boat in tow rather than my kayak.
From a distance, the coral life seems spectacular too, but on closer inspection you find a lot of dead ones, similar to the bird life – just when I visited other motus (the little Islands inside or on the fringes of an atoll) I saw more active birds, various boobies (masked and brown), common white and sooty terns , frigate birds and others.
A few more days in this paradise, then I hope to head back to Fakarava for a short pitspot before heading to Apataki – let‘s see what the wind brings. Yours aye and ‚Nana‘
Silke
SY Ocean Maiden