Tahanea has three main passes into the atoll. The smallest one is a playground for drift diving and fish watching.

The technique is to run the dinghy out to the mouth of the pass and drift with it as the tide is coming in, bringing gin-clear pelagic water into the atoll.

It’s a crazy ride at 4 kts across pristine low coral with hardly an inch of bare sand anywhere. Huge schools of blue Anthias stream across the bottom in clouds and conga lines.

The inshore edges of the channel give way to wide fields of shallow coral with less current

and lots of vibrant activity.

K was pleased to see this less common whitetip. S was pleased to practice her new sea-launch trick into the dinghy.  “He violated my personal space,” she maintains.