Somewhere over the rainbow

Back to the West Pass

The SE winds finally let up for a few days, so we headed back to the West pass of Makemo to get in the drift dive through the pass which we had to make a hasty exit from the last visit.

We knew this would be a great couple of days because we were blessed with a rainbow on and off most of the afternoon. When we arrived we decided to go ashore and check out the trees and beach. On the way to shore I took this sweet photo of Miguel, with me and the dingy reflecting in his glasses.

The beach was calling our names.......

The middle lagoon here looks like a fairly large river running between the outer reef and the inner sand.

We spotted a couple of Curlews. This one was checking us out from the top of a dead palm tree.

The other was watching us closely from the water's edge.

The one flew down to be near his partner and they walked away from us in the sand.

They leave a pretty big foot print.

Once we walked far enough, they flew back right over our heads to get back where we started.

Miguel wanted a photo of me with the rainbow too.

At the end of where we could walk, the sand made this big hook shape and we could see the current running, making those waves as it rushed past the beach.

At the point was a palm tree leaning over, waiting for this photo op with Avatar at anchor behind me. You may note the humidity and salt water have made my hair quite curly!! Ah natural!!

By the time we walked back, the rainbow was completely across the sky, cradling Avatar in the center.

It was so beautiful, we could not help but to take photos of each other. 

Even the dingy wanted in on the action.

As we arrived back at the boat, the lighting was dramatic with the gray of the clouds, the blue of the sky and here we are somewhere under the rainbow.

It looked like the sun was going to set right behind our leaning palm tree.

Going,

Going,

Going,

Gone.

The next morning, the sun was shining right back on our palm tree, but from the other side of us now.

Since we saw whales when we came in this pass originally, I was hoping we might see some while we were diving. The tide was getting ready to turn and start coming in, when these whales swam right past the boat!

I figured they would be gone by the time we went diving, so I jumped in the water with my snorkel gear to see if I could get a photo of them from underwater. But they swim way faster than I do and by the time I was near where they might have been, they were already gone.

We had to wait a bit for the current to start actually coming in the pass, and the first thing I see when I finally get in the water is this shark.

The channel through the pass is quite deep, and the sides of it are steep to shallow quite rapidly. This is the North side.

Looking down to about 80 or 90 feet, we can see some fairly large fish swimming around down there.

They are a type of Jack, called the Bluefin Trevally.

On the South side of the pass was a big overhang with a cave underneath. This large grouper was heading there to hide from us.

The South side wall of the pass was even steeper than the North side.

Looking down into the deep, there is another shark down there, minding his own business.

He is cruising along the ledge of the overhang.

The ledge is rising up to meet us in shallower water, but I believe the over hang formed a deeper cave before this.

The current continues to increase as it sweeps us up and over the ledge, and you can see a big chunk that got undercut enough to fall and was teetering on the edge of the deep water.

The current swept us out of the pass and into shallower water. About 30 feet here and the bottom is a carpet of green coral.

We are still hanging on to the dingy as we drift along. This must be done when there is no one to stay in the dingy and wait. That is how we do it with just the two of us, both diving.

I have no idea how fast we were being pushed through the water, but it was rapid and we had to come up as the bottom rose up, so not to get caught on those big pieces of coral.

We spotted some more fish finally. Here is a parrot fish and an Emperor Angel.

The Emperor actually turned to look at me as his partner swam away and into a hole in the coral.

These two looked like jailbirds with their black stripes. Probably some other type of Trevally.

Just barely got a glimpse of this marbled grouper before he hid in the coral.

Since we did our dive early in the morning, we sailed back to mid mo anchorage for one more night on the way back to the village. And the sun was setting on another amazing day in paradise, somewhere over the rainbow.