Raroria
The water here is as clear turquoise blue as I have ever seen. We dropped the dinghy anchor in sand a few meters away from the coral head, downed our snorkel gear, and grabbed our Hawaiian fishing sling. Ben Etan and our new friend Andy swam the coral head searching for Grouper while Lincoln and Andy’s son Gram watched over the dinghy.
Grouper are skittish and stupid bony fish who
think they cannot be seen if they stay very still. They seem to like the dark
cavities beneath the coral heads, and each head is home to a few. Andy had a few
proper spear guns and fishing weights; our clan came armed with only a Hawaiian
fishing spear and our Costco discount snorkel gear, which is good enough for
us; the grouper cannot tell the difference.
The coral in the lagoon at Raroia is alive and teaming with
life. It is like swimming in an aquarium at a doctor’s office. Fish of every
color, coral, eels, octopus, sea cucumbers, and sharks. The sand at the bottom
of the atoll is white, made up of dead coral. The depth of the Raroia atoll
is either 50 feet or nothing, every few hundred yards, ahead of coral, 20 to
50 feet wide rises from the atoll floor, building a lovely home for all manner of
sea life. The atoll itself is maybe 8 miles across and 50 miles long. It's home to
a few hundred folks who don't do much of anything as far as I can tell. We
explored the atoll by dinghy and found a small village with a tiny store and a
few abandoned pearl farms.
Our spear hunters scared up a grouper pretty quickly
after jumping into the water, and when it darted from its hiding place to take
cover from one of the spears, It made the mistake of hiding in front of my
Hawaiian sling. A quick release of the bungee, and it was all over. I hustled
over the dinghy and dropped lunch in the bucket. The dinghy
was encircled with blacktip reef sharks looking for a handout a few seconds later. The reef sharks were harmless and curious, but they became more interested in
our party when the grouper blood spilled. And that’s how it it was for the
following few coral heads. Ethan bagged the next grouper, and we all made a b-line
to the dinghy when the sharks smelled our catch. We would then be forced to
abandon our hunting round and start over at a coral head with no sharks. We bagged 4
giant grouper. Later that evening, we joined the crew from Aqua Fox for fish tacos
on their spacious 50-foot catamaran.
It took us 3 days to sail to the Tuamotus from Nuku Hiva in
the Marquasion Islands. Compared to the deep jungles and towering volcanic
landscape of the Marquis, the Tuomotues are unassuming. Still, they have a lot to
offer, clear water, sandy beaches, and peaceful, uncrowded anchorages.
We only spend a few days at Raroia, then off to the next
stop. Without any connectivity and few provisions, we need to stop with the internet, food, and fuel.
Comments
Post a Comment