More Catch Up

Way back in Tahiti we had seen some really large, on the order of 100 feet and longer, sailing yachts that are in the mega category. You know the type, when they Med moor to the dock they open the “garage” to walk nicely to the dock. A glimpse inside reveals all sorts of toys. Typically, several skidoos, a few kayaks, surf boards, bicycles, dive tanks and so forth. This excess of fun has been following us around during our travels and we have determined that they have lots of scope for their anchors because they have to anchor way out due to their sizable keels (15 feet or more is not usual, I think). In these islands if you cannot get the boat close enough to shore to set down in 25 to 40 feet of water the shelf drops off quickly to 90 or more feet. This isn’t an isolated issue either. Every island so far has had this prominent feature.

In any case, these big boats are here in the same anchorages and share in the same fun we are at a lot more expense.

Let’s chat about sharks for a second. There are lots of them here when there are any. Most are pretty much irrelevant to most of our days because the most abundant ones so far are skittish and/or shy enough that they will get out of your way. Those would be the black tips and similar types. Every so often just to check that you paying attention a large Grey’s shark will saunter by. We haven’t seen Tigers or the more aggressive ones so far and I would like to keep it at that. Typically too most of the sharks stay outside the reef… except when we were in Suwarrow. Those guys gladly traded the open ocean for the interior of the lagoon. We saw the kids on the island swim with all of this going on and the sharks left them alone as they cannon balled off the Ranger’s work boat! Anyway, this is just one of those things I didn’t expect to pay much attention to.