Nuku Diving

We had asked the people at Nuku Diving if they could pick up Bill and I from the boat – we were concerned about leaving the dingy tied to the dock all day (and I assure you it was not for fear it would be stolen). We were told that because of the big ocean swells they did not pick up at boats and we should meet them at the dock at 7:30am.

Nuku Diving dive boat

About 7am we noticed Teiki, the Captain of the boat and local partner, paddling out to retrieve the boat, so Bill and I jumped in the dingy (pumped it up), flagged him down and asked if we could leave our dingy on their mooring ball and go into the pier with him. His English was more limited than my French, but we managed to get him to understand we were “plunger avec Nuku Dive”. We raced back to our boat, grabbed our gear, and climbed aboard.

Julie our Dive Master and her husband Alex, both from France and living here for 5 years now, helped load the scuba gear onboard, they shooed us off the boat until 7:30 as 2 other divers were joining us.

Our first dive was at the very tip of the land at the Bay de Controller we had anchored in before with the small village and risqué wood carving. Diving here is different that many places I have dived before as it is a wall of rock on one side as the mountain that continues to drop beneath the waves. There was a significant surge as the water above crashed against the rocks and we were coached on not fighting the surge but timing our kicks to avoid being dragged in and up.

This was my first dive since 2018 in Australia and Bill had not dived since 2020, so Julie was very good about a refresher and letting us take our time. I had brought along a dive camera I had bought Nancy years earlier, but Julie advised worrying about the dive and not the camera until we were comfortable (good advice). We did see a large manta ray almost as soon as we were down, and she pointed out different kinds of moray eels and other fish as we went.

Bill though my bubbles

During the break, Julie, Bill and I started talking dinghies, and no surprise she was good friends with Cecile at the Marine store. She had bought Cecile’s sailboat for here and her husband! She called to find out what time the store closed (2:30pm) so we would be able to get in and pick up the new dingy.  

The second dive was back near town at the Sentinal, a large rock at where this bay meets the ocean. The visibility was better and both Bill and I were more comfortable with everything after the first dive.

Although the visibility was not great like in a coral lagoon, it was still much better. Almost immediately again we saw some manta rays and a hammerhead shark. I did not manage to get the camera in action but did accidentally start a video which I had not been able to figure out how to do the night before. Sorry for the low quality a jerkiness 😊

The cliff wall and colourful plants

Many schools of fish – some I even recognized (Parrot, Angel)!

A manta comes up and Meysa the photographer gets in close

Julie pointing out a Leaf Fish(?)

One of 2 hammerheads come back to check us out

A large manta comes up and swims under me, maybe 8 or 10 ft

Then does a turn in front – amazing!

There were many other creatures Julie pointed out, a Dragon Eel (with horns), a Lemon Moray (yellow face), Scorpion Fish and more. You know she dives here all the time as she knew just which crevasse each lived in. What is hard is that without speech underwater, it is hard to communicate and remember the names after the fact – but the experience was awesome.

We were then returned to our dingy and back to Turtlebones, rinsed our gear (and ourselves) and raced into the Marine Store to arrive about 2:10pm. Cecile had her husband come by with a pickup about 3:00 to drive us and the dingy back to the pier.

New dinghy

After a number of hours transferring the engine, and working out lifting points to raise the dinghy, I can tell Bill is conflicted. This has been referred to as the “rental”, sufficient to get to New Zealand and buy a proper dingy. In the store this looked “big”, on the davits it is short so the engine will hit the support bar. It will stay inflated, but it will be a wetter ride.

We are getting ready to head in for baguettes and rumour is Kevin at Yacht Services will take the old dingy off our hands and may try and fix/sell or simply chop up for parts. As Bill has pointed out, she has been “well used” for over a decade – fully amortized.

We have a couple more days for reprovisioning, and likely heading on to Fakarava – recommended by Julie. I see Teiki heading over to the pier for their 7:30am start today. Time for us to get going or the baguettes will be gone!

Teiki heading to the pier to start another day

Back from town – baguettes a success. Meet Julie and heard no diving today as the swell was to strong. We were lucky to get our dive in!