We slipped into Tahanea after a calm night of incredibly slow sailing. Our entry was well timed and we eased around the pass reefs into a rare protected spot just before a blow from the southeast.
We put out a Bahamian mooring (two anchors spread 180° on one line) in a 150’ x 60’ sandy patch, and added a third bow anchor just to hold us off a shallow coral head on the inshore side.
We spent a quiet week snorkeling, beach combing, and hanging out with Bart, a Dutch vodka mogul who has been singlehanding his one-off 54’ aluminum boat Tranquillo for the past 5 years.
Bart is a man of action; he singlehanded to Antarctica and continued west-about around Cape Horn into the Pacific. After a couple of days of high wind boredom we started a kitesurfing support service so Bart could kitesurf and we would have something to do.
We would launch him off the beach and then pick him up in his zippy dinghy before the sharks got him when he was done. Very entertaining!
Bart shared his Argentinean barbecuing technique with us. It takes quite a while to grill a 4 lb roast but the results are fantastic.
There was gluttony all around the beach that night. The hermit crabs were slack jawed at the size of S’s rum and coke.
We discovered they have incredible powers of coconut detection. K found the very lowest of lowconuts – so we helped ourselves to a refreshing green coconut drink. We left the empty nut on the ground and watched.
Within minutes the leaf litter erupted as a scrum of ravenous hermit crabs marched out for bits of newly opened lowconut.
The weather cleared and we got back to the business of tropical life.
The small patches of reef on the sandy bank near the boat were full of life, mostly at a very small scale. We cracked open the tropical fish of the Pacific book we packed across the ocean with us, so we’re able to identify a few.
A dusting of Blue-green Chromises…
a Moorish Idol (with parrotfish and yellow-tailed dascyllus [dascylli?] in the background),
and more chromises.
The bigger corals were full of christmas tree worms,
which come in a wide variety of colors.
Here’s one of our new favorites – the big, colorful, luscious-lipped giant clams.
They also come in many colors.
Here’s a little Humbug Dascyllus
A couple of Neon Damsels…
Um, some other sort of Dascyllus…
a chain of Convict Tangs
a Picasso Triggerfish
a Reticulated Butterflyfish
a Donald Duckfish (actually, a Saddleback Butterflyfish)
and a Threadfin Butterflyfish.
In addition to the ubiquitous Blacktip sharks there were a few larger specimens, not nearly as menacing.
(a Goatfish)
(a Flounder)
(a Parrotfish)
(a Trumpetfish)
