Who hasn’t dreamed of an uninhabited coral atoll in the middle of the Pacific? A ring of living coral and waving palm trees encircling a transparent blue lagoon. And floating gently at anchor a tiny sailing boat, alone under the blue blue sky.
Here we are. At Tahenea living the dream. Artemis is anchored in her own bay far from the rest of the world. The reef keeps the breakers at bay and the minimal wind leaves the surface mirror flat so that we can glance at the “aquarium” we are floating on. We look down and see fish floating past the coral boms below us.
In the night the full moon is so bright that we can still see the sea floor fifteen meters below us.
At sunrise there was no wind so we breakfasted in the cockpit on fresh, home made bread while enjoying the absolute stillness here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Today friends sailed up to join us briefly and take us drift snorkelling in the nearby pass through the reef. We took our dinghys out in to the ocean just as the tide turned and then jumped over the side and let the current carry us back in to the lagoon passing gently over forests of coral, multitudes of fish and the occasional shark and ray. It was so amazing that we fought our way back out again against the current and “zoomed” back in along the other side of the channel, barely skimming the coral below us. We would have done a third run but our dinghy motor could not beat the considerable current as the lagoon filled with water.
We both agree – we made the correct decision when we decided to sail away and see the world.
A dream