First stop after two days at sea Aitutaki, an island within the Cook Islands. Today’s activities are diving/snorkeling and potentially kite boarding. The main reason people are drawn to this spot is because of the lagoon. It is approximately 15km by 12km. It’s filled with colorful fish, giant clams, and sea turtles. Aitutaki is filled with uninhabited motus (islands.) While there are great restaurant and tiki bars, I saw none of that as my time was spent on or in the water.
Map of the expedition. Follow the yellow trail as I proceed westward in my journey. At the extreme left of the image is the eastern coast of Australia. I will include this in my future entries all along the way.At this point it is important to see the expedition vessel. It accommodates 240 passengers. The Seabourn Pursuit is equipped with 24 zodiac inflatable boats of varying sizes, 18 kayaks, as well as two submarines, capable of depths of 400 meters (or 1200 feet.) It also is capable of dynamic positioning. Dynamic positioning allows the vessel to remain in a specific spot without the use of anchors. It does this using its GPS and all the thrusters and propellers the ship is equipped with. This allows it to remain in place without causing damage to the ocean floor or coral reefs. Also important to note is that there is a fabulous expedition team consisting of anthropologists, marine biologists, ornithologists, dive experts, naturalists, and lecturers. Image courtesy of JD Andrews.
On the zodiac out to the first dive sight. In the distance is the sparsely populated main island of Aitutaki..The beach (sandbar) nearby to the dive/snorkel sight. This was a stunningly sparse yet beautiful island. This place brought back images of Tom Hanks in Castaway.Here is a large hermit crab. I wish I had included an object for perspective. It was the size of a kid’s baseball glove. This island has no inhabitants and it’s only about 1 foot above sea level. Not sure if I’d do an overnight here, unless I was in the trees.Deserted Beach courtesy of my friend JD Andrews.Here we go. Nope, we don’t. Not nearly enough wind. So the only option was some pretty good snorkeling.Can’t go up, so let’s go down. Excellent visibility and colors in the reefs today.Beautiful colors as well as some small fish. Black tip sharks were seen in the area but I wasn’t lucky enough this time to capture an image.Giant sea clams were all around. These creatures were about 30 inches (76cm) wide. The approximate weight was 75 pounds (34kg). Think how much chowder you could make from just one of these.A few more of these beauties.My snorkel buddy in red diving for a closer look see.Just one more for color at this location.
Short entry, but that’s it for now. The next landing will be in Tonga, approximately 1,000 miles away.
