Today Bill and I and Jim and Ana went on an excursion trip to Bird Island on Rangiroa. It was quite the adventure. There were 8 of us packed in this little fishing boat going 25-30 kts across the lagoon to the island. We, as sailors are not used to that kind of speed. Hold onto your hats! We arrived to a beautiful blue shade of water never seen by any of us. It was gorgeous!
Of course we thought we would get off at a dock and walk along the shore to find birds. Turns out we had to walk 1/4 of a mile to shore across the coral and among a ton of black tip sharks and mantas. At first we were apprehensive. We did manage to get to shore and those sharks never bothered us. We just had to be careful not to step on the coral or the tails of the sting rays. Our leader carted all the picnic ashore and treated us to the most bountiful and delicious lunch. We had Mahi, chicken, rice, a coconut bread, ceviche, and topped off with a chocolate cake. All was cooked over an open fire with coconuts used to flavor the wood too. MMMM good.
The lagoon we visited was a lagoon within the lagoon. Rangiroa is already an atoll so the lagoon was within the atoll. There were several islands that encircled this lagoon and made for a wonderful swimming hole. The only problem was because of our poor use of French we didn't know we were supposed to bring our suits or snorkeling gear. We stilll wandered among the islands and saw some wonderful fish and a few birds.
When we arrived back at the boat our leader had some tuna scraps and fed them to a swarm of feeding sharks that suddenly appeared in the very water we just walked through. Our fearless leader even brought one aboard which was about 3 feet long. He had the teeth marks in his hand to prove that this is not always the wisest move. What an adventure. We all agreed this was something we didn't expect at all. Not our idea of a quiet bird watching experience! Ana and I decided we never know what to expect on this trip.
Rosemary, Bill and Matt