I'll try and not make this too long. My wife and I just got back from two weeks in the Society and Tuamotu Islands aboard the Windjammer ship 'Amazing Grace' (windjammer). It's a small 250 foot vessel that usually delivers supplies to Windjammer's Tall ships in the Caribbean, but is in French Polynesia testing the waters with 10 day cruises. The Amazing Grace doen't include diving in the cruise package, but offers it through venders at each island.
We flew into Faaa, Tahiti, on Air Tahiti Nui. Excellent airline. Not only do they offer your own individual tv screen with a selection of movies, games, etc. for free, all your mixed drinks and beer are complimentary along with two meals on the 8 hour flight from LAX.
Our 1st dive was with Aquatica Dive Center in Faaa the next day. We drove from the ship in Papeete to the Intercontinental Beachcomber in Faaa where the dive shop is located.
We were the only two divers going out that morning and with us were the divemaster and the dive boat's skipper. Our 1st dive was going to be at a place called 'the Spring' where a fresh water spring bubbles up through the sea. On the way out we spotted a humpback whale and watched as it breached a couple of times. The DM told us to hurry and get suited up as the boat inched closer to where the whale was swimming. When the whale surfaced and then resubmerged close by, the DM told us to go over.
I litteraly landed right on the whale and it pushed me out of the way with its latteral fin. I was snapping away frantically with the camera as the whale swam around me checking me out, then it swam off into the blue. I was thrilled! What a way to start the dive. I can't even remember much about the rest of that dive.
One weird thing the dive operators do in French Polynesia, is instead of bringing the 2nd tank for a two tank dive, they go back to the shop and retrieve them before going back to the next dive spot.
Our 2nd dive of the morning was on the wreck of a goelette, which is a late 19th century French Schooner, and a Catalina PBY. They were nice wrecks with plenty of fish life. I thoroughly enjoyed diving with Aquatica and would highly recommend them.
For all the diving in French Polynesia I wore a 0.5 mm Henderson Microprene wetsuit and my wife wore a 3 mm wetsuit. The water temperatures were consistantly 80 degrees F. throughout. All the dive shops had steel 3000 psi tanks, so I needed no weights.
The 2nd island we hit was Moorea. A beautiful island with fantastic diving. We did two tanks here also and the diving was fantastic. We dove with Top Dive and there were four of us from the ship diving the 1st dive and 6 on the 2nd dive. The main attraction here were the sharks, and they were everywhere. The coral reefs in Moorea, as with all the other places we were to dive, was diverse and proliferous. A very healthy reef. The max depths on these dives were 80' and 70' and the visibility was over 100', just absolutly beautiful.
The next day found us diving in Bora Bora. It was a windy day with occasional showers and sun, so the visibility was down to around 80' or so. Here we encountered wonderfully thick and colorful reefs and say many eagle rays, manta's and sharks, plus a plethora of other fish. Again we dove with Top Dive Bora Bora.
The next day was a sea day as we motored twards the Tuamotu Islands almost 300 miles to the northeast.
At Rangiroa Atoll in the Tuamotus we hooked up with Top Dive for three dives in and around Tiputa pass. This was the most awesome diving of any of the places that we have dove to date. The drift dive in Tiputa pass was like being shot down a water hose, we must have been moving about 8 knots in crystal clear water at 70' depth with so many fish it looked just like the scene of all the fish in the Australian Current from 'Finding Nemo'. We were moving so fast if felt like we were flying. Here again we saw the ubiquitous sharks (6 different species, the most of any of the islands), turtles, barracudas, and many other fish. This place is a must do dive!!!
After 2 days in Rangiroa Atoll, we headed back south to the island of Taha'a back in the Societies and dove on a little motu called Mahae. The pass here was beautiful with brightly colored corals and many species of Moray eels.
Next we were at the island of Huahine on our way back to Tahiti. We were only able to do one tank on Huahine due to the ship getting into the dock late, but it was fantastic. Here we saw octopus, sharks, turtles, eels and plenty of coral and fish. This was to be our last dive of the trip as we were to fly out of Tahiti the next evening.
This was definetly an abreviated version of the dive trip report, if anyone wants any more info, shoot me a PM. I will say that the coral reefs in FP are some of the healthiest and thickest that I have ever experienced.
Check out some of the pictures from the dives in my gallery (My Gallery)
We flew into Faaa, Tahiti, on Air Tahiti Nui. Excellent airline. Not only do they offer your own individual tv screen with a selection of movies, games, etc. for free, all your mixed drinks and beer are complimentary along with two meals on the 8 hour flight from LAX.
Our 1st dive was with Aquatica Dive Center in Faaa the next day. We drove from the ship in Papeete to the Intercontinental Beachcomber in Faaa where the dive shop is located.
We were the only two divers going out that morning and with us were the divemaster and the dive boat's skipper. Our 1st dive was going to be at a place called 'the Spring' where a fresh water spring bubbles up through the sea. On the way out we spotted a humpback whale and watched as it breached a couple of times. The DM told us to hurry and get suited up as the boat inched closer to where the whale was swimming. When the whale surfaced and then resubmerged close by, the DM told us to go over.
I litteraly landed right on the whale and it pushed me out of the way with its latteral fin. I was snapping away frantically with the camera as the whale swam around me checking me out, then it swam off into the blue. I was thrilled! What a way to start the dive. I can't even remember much about the rest of that dive.
One weird thing the dive operators do in French Polynesia, is instead of bringing the 2nd tank for a two tank dive, they go back to the shop and retrieve them before going back to the next dive spot.
Our 2nd dive of the morning was on the wreck of a goelette, which is a late 19th century French Schooner, and a Catalina PBY. They were nice wrecks with plenty of fish life. I thoroughly enjoyed diving with Aquatica and would highly recommend them.
For all the diving in French Polynesia I wore a 0.5 mm Henderson Microprene wetsuit and my wife wore a 3 mm wetsuit. The water temperatures were consistantly 80 degrees F. throughout. All the dive shops had steel 3000 psi tanks, so I needed no weights.
The 2nd island we hit was Moorea. A beautiful island with fantastic diving. We did two tanks here also and the diving was fantastic. We dove with Top Dive and there were four of us from the ship diving the 1st dive and 6 on the 2nd dive. The main attraction here were the sharks, and they were everywhere. The coral reefs in Moorea, as with all the other places we were to dive, was diverse and proliferous. A very healthy reef. The max depths on these dives were 80' and 70' and the visibility was over 100', just absolutly beautiful.
The next day found us diving in Bora Bora. It was a windy day with occasional showers and sun, so the visibility was down to around 80' or so. Here we encountered wonderfully thick and colorful reefs and say many eagle rays, manta's and sharks, plus a plethora of other fish. Again we dove with Top Dive Bora Bora.
The next day was a sea day as we motored twards the Tuamotu Islands almost 300 miles to the northeast.
At Rangiroa Atoll in the Tuamotus we hooked up with Top Dive for three dives in and around Tiputa pass. This was the most awesome diving of any of the places that we have dove to date. The drift dive in Tiputa pass was like being shot down a water hose, we must have been moving about 8 knots in crystal clear water at 70' depth with so many fish it looked just like the scene of all the fish in the Australian Current from 'Finding Nemo'. We were moving so fast if felt like we were flying. Here again we saw the ubiquitous sharks (6 different species, the most of any of the islands), turtles, barracudas, and many other fish. This place is a must do dive!!!
After 2 days in Rangiroa Atoll, we headed back south to the island of Taha'a back in the Societies and dove on a little motu called Mahae. The pass here was beautiful with brightly colored corals and many species of Moray eels.
Next we were at the island of Huahine on our way back to Tahiti. We were only able to do one tank on Huahine due to the ship getting into the dock late, but it was fantastic. Here we saw octopus, sharks, turtles, eels and plenty of coral and fish. This was to be our last dive of the trip as we were to fly out of Tahiti the next evening.
This was definetly an abreviated version of the dive trip report, if anyone wants any more info, shoot me a PM. I will say that the coral reefs in FP are some of the healthiest and thickest that I have ever experienced.
Check out some of the pictures from the dives in my gallery (My Gallery)
