[password] Tsar12
[position] 14 94.25 S 147 71.07W
[weather] wind E 10-14 knots skies generally clear - few clouds temp 32
[status] sorry the lack of updates but life seems to be so busy! Since arriving back in Rangiora after an easy overnight sail from Ahe we have said goodbye to the remainder of original crew - Martin , and Greg plus Greg?s wife Mary who joined for 3 weeks plus we have greeted brother Grant , and friends Dave and Alex who all arrived on the same flight. With Dave and Alex being keen divers we stepped straight into the diving and were doing 2 dives a day the last 3 days through a local operator as the Pass at Tiputa is a strong current dive and in open water on the outside of the reef..
During those 3 days we have had some world class diving with yesterday being the highlight. Some of the dives included seeing 200-300 white tip sharks who are congregating for mating - they were literally swarming under us at about 50 m - quite a sight. Then yesterday had an hours encounter with a small group of bottlenose dolphins ( 5) who literally came up to us and demanded we rub their them- stopping upright in the water beside us and just drifting dormant with us as we gave them a gentle tickle - smiling at us in appreciation was a once in a lifetime experience especially as they stayed so long and the video footage we have will be a cherished memory of the experience. Just to finish that dive off we saw some barracuda and some
Sharks.. The afternoon dive started with Dolphins in the first 2 minutes of the dive t- this time they only stayed 10 mins ( we are getting spoilt!) .Then to continue that dive we saw probably around 100 sharks , more barracuda plus a Tiger Shark of around 3.5 m which is the first Tiger Shark I have seen in all my diving - the three of us came out of the water
buzzing from what we had experienced and with Alex and I having over 3000 dives between us to be able to say that was one of the best days diving either of us had experienced is really something.
After the afternoon dive we upped anchor and motored down to the Avatoru Pass where our American friends from Ahe on s/v Sea Dragon had come down overnight. Brian has bought a 47? Cat in the Caribbean and is flying out tomorrow to check her out and take it over - we are very excited for him and Kristin and celebrated in style with them rafting up along side on the mooring at the side of the Pass. Dinner and drinks went into the night!
Also good news yesterday is that good friends Steve and Heather who are selling their property in Sydney are due to join the boat for the trip back from Tahiti but were in doubt because of issues with the sale have confirmed that they will be joining so that topped off a great day.
Today we will see if the supermarket at this end of the motu has any better produce than the 2 at the other end which wouldn?t be hard as there was nothing in the other two! Plus we hope to do a drift dive of the pass .
Also won?t be long before the rest of the family join in Papeete on the 3rd so need to start thinking about leaving Rangiora probably in about 3 days time and maybe head for Moorea for a few days before getting to Papeete for the 3rd.
Will be sad to leave the Tuomotus especially not getting to Fakarava as it was a goal but we can?t control Mother Nature.
All for now .....

Note: Sending a brief description of the weather you are experiencing is a great help to David and Patricia (Gulf Harbour Radio) for monitoring the weather.

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