Question Fakarava, Rangiroa, Tahiti questions on tides & humpbacks

[burritogirl]

My bf and I are planning a trip to French Polynesia for the latter part of October. We are experienced divers and want to do the wall of sharks in South Fakarava, as well as try for the best conditions in general for diving the passes in Fakarava and Rangiroa. From what I've read, diving during the incoming tide provides the best visibility and conditions. My question is: do we need to aim for certain days in order to dive on the incoming tide? Or do the operators time the dives around that so that you could potentially dive the incoming tide on any day? Our dates aren't set yet, so I'm trying to figure out if there are certain dates I should be targeting.

Separate question I have is about swimming with humpback whales. I wanted to do this in Rurutu, but I don't think we've going to have time to get there. I've read that in Moorea there are no limit on the number of boats or people per whale, so your whale experience will probably be with 20-30 other people. Is that right? If we do this in Tahiti vs. Moorea, would it be less of a zoo?

Lastly, I welcome any and all recommendations on dive operators in Fakarava and Rangiroa, as well as operators for whale swimming in Tahiti or Moorea. Thanks!!

 

[Manuel Sam]

Changing of tides tends to be a daily occurrence - twice a day, as a matter of fact. It changes by about 50 minutes from day to day; ie, if 10:00am today, it is likely that it will be 10:50am tomorrow. But you do not need to concern yourself with this: the dive operators will tell you pick-up time for the following day. So to answer your question, no, you do not need to aim for certain days.

Having said that, ve had one instance where there was no incoming for 3 days in Rangiroa because the lagoon was full of water and it remained outgoing the whole day. I've also had one instance in Fakarava when there was an incoming, but it was very slow to virtually no incoming current for 4 days). It is Nature and luck (or lack thereof) - not sure that there is any predictability to this.

While diving the pass on the incoming is, to me, the more interesting of the dives offered, you will usually and inevitably dive the outside reef/sloping wall dives when the current is outgoing . Those can be good dives as well: my best dolphin encounters have been on those outside dives.

As for dive operators, you will get many opinions. If staying in South Fakarava, I've always stayed at Tetamanu and used their dive operation If staying in North Fakarava,, I've always used Kaina Plongée. In Rangiroa, I've always used Raie Manta.

I did whale swimming in late September last year in both Rurutu and in Tahiti. In Tahiti, I used Tahiti Dive Management. They are based at the marina in Punaauia, about 10 minutes west of the Papeete airport by car. We did one full day and three half-days. I felt that in the afternoons, the wind tended to pick up, and once you have white caps on the water, the whale blows become harder to spot.

Out of those 4 outings, we had 3 days when we had the whales to ourselves, and one day when there were several boats on the same whale(s). I won't bore you with the details, but if going out with Tahiti Dive Management were to appeal to you, I will fill you in on the logistics - lodging, food, and getting around.

 

[burritogirl]

Changing of tides tends to be a daily occurrence - twice a day, as a matter of fact. It changes by about 50 minutes from day to day; ie, if 10:00am today, it is likely that it will be 10:50am tomorrow. But you do not need to concern yourself with this: the dive operators will tell you pick-up time for the following day. So to answer your question, no, you do not need to aim for certain days.

Having said that, ve had one instance where there was no incoming for 3 days in Rangiroa because the lagoon was full of water and it remained outgoing the whole day. I've also had one instance in Fakarava when there was an incoming, but it was very slow to virtually no incoming current for 4 days). It is Nature and luck (or lack thereof) - not sure that there is any predictability to this.

While diving the pass on the incoming is, to me, the more interesting of the dives offered, you will usually and inevitably dive the outside reef/sloping wall dives when the current is outgoing . Those can be good dives as well: my best dolphin encounters have been on those outside dives.

As for dive operators, you will get many opinions. If staying in South Fakarava, I've always stayed at Tetamanu and used their dive operation If staying in North Fakarava,, I've always used Kaina Plongée. In Rangiroa, I've always used Raie Manta.

I did whale swimming in late September last year in both Rurutu and in Tahiti. In Tahiti, I used Tahiti Dive Management. They are based at the marina in Punaauia, about 10 minutes west of the Papeete airport by car. We did one full day and three half-days. I felt that in the afternoons, the wind tended to pick up, and once you have white caps on the water, the whale blows become harder to spot.

Out of those 4 outings, we had 3 days when we had the whales to ourselves, and one day when there were several boats on the same whale(s). I won't bore you with the details, but if going out with Tahiti Dive Management were to appeal to you, I will fill you in on the logistics - lodging, food, and getting around.

Thank you, this is very helpful! Yes, I would be interested in Tahiti Dive Management if you don't mind sharing details. Do you recommend doing multiple days with the whales? I know it depends on personal preference. I personally could spend every day of my life swimming alongside humpback whales if that was an option, but I think my bf would be happy with 1 day if we get a "quality" encounter, so I'm trying to balance our interests.

Also, FYI for others that may read this thread. I asked O2 Divers about the tides and their answer was brief, but seems to be in line with what Manuel Sam stated for the most part. However, as an operator in the North that sometimes does day trips to the South, they did say that some days would not be an option for going to the South because of current and tides (and they told me some specific dates), which makes sense in terms of being practical to get there/back since it's a 1.5 boat ride away. Also, I think all of the operators in the North will only do day trips to the South with a minimum of 4 divers.

 

[Manuel Sam]

Surely. This is their website.

Tahiti Dive Management - Private Dive Guides - French Polynesia.

With over 28 years living and diving the waters surrounding French Polynesia, Tahiti Dive Management is built on unmatched expertise and outstanding service.

www.tahiti-dive-management.com

If you look under About Us at the Team, you will find Baptiste. He is my contact at TDM. I met Baptiste while diving in Tetamanu in 2021.

His email is tdm.baptiste@gmail.com.

We had Julien as our guide for three of the four whale days. He was excellent.

You asked if I recommend multiple days with the whales. I did 5 days of whales in Rurutu and 4 days in Tahiti. The way I figured, I wanted to give myself the best chance to cross it off my list - ie, be able to say that I don't need to see another humpback in a while.

In addition, I tend to allow for a dog day in which I'll get skunked. Or a day of bad weather. You obviously can't cover all of the contingencies, but you are not spending chump change to get there: if you go out for only one day and get skunked or have a marginal encounter, you may end up wanting to do it again.

Logistics: This is what we did.

Lodging: We opted to stay somewhere near TDM. The closest hotel is the Te Moana in Punaauia - it is a nice place, which is why you can expect to pay at least $300/nt. And yet, it is still a 20+ minute walk to the marina. Fortunately, Baptiste offered to bring the boat everyday to pick us up and drop us off at the hotel's dock at no extra charge. There are probably some less expensive lodging options, including Airbnb, but you'd need to arrange car rides to/from the marina everyday.

Meals: meals at the Te Moana Hotel are thru the roof. There is a market up the street from the hotel in the direction of the highway and a bigger one next to the marina. We made our own breakfasts and lunches. French baguettes in French Polynesia are delicious and cheap. If you do a full day outing, lunch is of course provided. For dinner, there are number of food trucks and roulottes within walking distance of the hotel. Those are reasonably priced.

Getting around: given our lodging choice, we walked everywhere or arranged for a cab when needed.

As far as doing South Fakarava while staying in the North, indeed it may not be possible to go on some days. But it's not because there is no incoming on those days: if you were to stay in South Fakarava, then yes, you would be able to dive the incoming everyday provided the lagoon isn't full.

The reasons: You mentioned the minimum of 4 divers as one of the reasons. The other is because if the incoming is at let's say 2:00am, with the next incoming about 12 hrs 25 minutes later, I don't think anyone is going to take divers down there at those hours.

 

[burritogirl]

Surely. This is their website.

Tahiti Dive Management - Private Dive Guides - French Polynesia.

With over 28 years living and diving the waters surrounding French Polynesia, Tahiti Dive Management is built on unmatched expertise and outstanding service.

www.tahiti-dive-management.com

If you look under About Us at the Team, you will find Baptiste. He is my contact at TDM. I met Baptiste while diving in Tetamanu in 2021.

His email is tdm.baptiste@gmail.com.

We had Julien as our guide for three of the four whale days. He was excellent.

You asked if I recommend multiple days with the whales. I did 5 days of whales in Rurutu and 4 days in Tahiti. The way I figured, I wanted to give myself the best chance to cross it off my list - ie, be able to say that I don't need to see another humpback in a while.

In addition, I tend to allow for a dog day in which I'll get skunked. Or a day of bad weather. You obviously can't cover all of the contingencies, but you are not spending chump change to get there: if you go out for only one day and get skunked or have a marginal encounter, you may end up wanting to do it again.

Logistics: This is what we did.

Lodging: We opted to stay somewhere near TDM. The closest hotel is the Te Moana in Punaauia - it is a nice place, which is why you can expect to pay at least $300/nt. And yet, it is still a 20+ minute walk to the marina. Fortunately, Baptiste offered to bring the boat everyday to pick us up and drop us off at the hotel's dock at no extra charge. There are probably some less expensive lodging options, including Airbnb, but you'd need to arrange car rides to/from the marina everyday.

Meals: meals at the Te Moana Hotel are thru the roof. There is a market up the street from the hotel in the direction of the highway and a bigger one next to the marina. We made our own breakfasts and lunches. French baguettes in French Polynesia are delicious and cheap. If you do a full day outing, lunch is of course provided. For dinner, there are number of food trucks and roulottes within walking distance of the hotel. Those are reasonably priced.

Getting around: given our lodging choice, we walked everywhere or arranged for a cab when needed.

As far as doing South Fakarava while staying in the North, indeed it may not be possible to go on some days. But it's not because there is no incoming on those days: if you were to stay in South Fakarava, then yes, you would be able to dive the incoming everyday provided the lagoon isn't full.

The reasons: You mentioned the minimum of 4 divers as one of the reasons. The other is because if the incoming is at let's say 2:00am, with the next incoming about 12 hrs 25 minutes later, I don't think anyone is going to take divers down there at those hours.

This is incredibly helpful! Thank you so much!

 

[Manuel Sam]

You are most welcome!!

I reread this whole thread. Here are a couple of afterthoughts:

In my original reply, I said that some of my best dives with dolphins were on the outside dives. Those were in Rangiroa, not in Fakarava.

Regarding diving the incoming in South Fakarava while staying in the North, as you are contemplating doing: I've only done this once - it was during my very first trip to Fakarava. I liked it so much that I I knew that I'd want to stay in Tetamanu on subsequent trips. That's why I've only done it from the North once.

But I am telling you the above NOT to persuade you to stay down there but because: It usually takes six hours and a bit for the water level to go from low to high tide. Since the dive operators probably have tide charts for at least the remainder of this year, with careful planning and guidance from the operator you choose, you ought to be able to book a South Fakarava trip on one of a few successive days in which the dive operator is able to fit in two dives during the incoming, even with the surface interval in between.

I wasn't as thorough with my planning back then. For me, it was strictly a stroke of luck that we happened to go on one such day day when both dives were with the incoming.

Lastly, getting back to the whales. I have absolutely no regrets about having done the whales out of Tahiti and with Tahiti Dive Management, but it'd make sense for you to explore other options as well, including doing it out of Moorea, to see what works best for you. Moorea is just a ferry ride back and forth.

 

[burritogirl]

You are most welcome!!

I reread this whole thread. Here are a couple of afterthoughts:

In my original reply, I said that some of my best dives with dolphins were on the outside dives. Those were in Rangiroa, not in Fakarava.

Regarding diving the incoming in South Fakarava while staying in the North, as you are contemplating doing: I've only done this once - it was during my very first trip to Fakarava. I liked it so much that I I knew that I'd want to stay in Tetamanu on subsequent trips. That's why I've only done it from the North once.

But I am telling you the above NOT to persuade you to stay down there but because: It usually takes six hours and a bit for the water level to go from low to high tide. Since the dive operators probably have tide charts for at least the remainder of this year, with careful planning and guidance from the operator you choose, you ought to be able to book a South Fakarava trip on one of a few successive days in which the dive operator is able to fit in two dives during the incoming, even with the surface interval in between.

I wasn't as thorough with my planning back then. For me, it was strictly a stroke of luck that we happened to go on one such day day when both dives were with the incoming.

Lastly, getting back to the whales. I have absolutely no regrets about having done the whales out of Tahiti and with Tahiti Dive Management, but it'd make sense for you to explore other options as well, including doing it out of Moorea, to see what works best for you. Moorea is just a ferry ride back and forth.

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time on these thorough replies! Can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I've actually been spending a lot of time reconsidering whether we should stay in South Fakarava for 2-3 days instead of doing a day trip from the North. I've been hesitant about Tetamanu because there are some really bad reviews out there, but that does come with the territory for a rustic place with no creature comforts. I can deal with that, but what concerns me are the complaints about dive safety (I read a couple reviews that talked about 20-30 divers per dive master), old dive equipment, and dives being cancelled without notice due to a staffing situation last year. Hopefully that was an isolated incident? But I would love to hear your thoughts/experience on any of that.

On the other hand, if we just do a day trip from the north, we'd probably only dive 1 day in the south since it's such a long boat ride. And of course we could get unlucky with conditions so it would be nice to be able to do more than 1 day. And a number of reviews say to definitely do a night dive in the south, which I'm sure we could only do we we stay in the south.

 

[Manuel Sam]

Easy one first, because this could be the straw that breaks your camel's back as it relates to staying in Tetamanu.

When I was there in 2017 and in late June 2021, I did the night shark dives, and they were indeed amazing - better than the ones in Cocos when they were still being offered there. But I heard from someone who was there in July 2022 that the night dives were no longer offered because the scientists were concerned that about altering the sharks' behavior.

Now to your Tetamanu concerns. altho before that, you could also research Motu Aito Paradise, which is another place in the south with its own dive operation. I've never stayed there so I can't offer any insights.

Staffing: the resort does have trouble retaining dive guides, no doubt. Living and working conditions with a minimum of creature comforts have to be tough. Other than the resort owner who sometimes doubles as a dive guide, I have never seen the previous dive guides when I made a subsequent return trip a couple of years later. For really busy times, they contract freelance dive guides usually based in Papeete to help out the resident ones (if they have any).

Diver safety: The 20-30 divers per dive guide is merely a ratio and at least in my experience, not a case of one dive guide actually leading 20-30 divers at a time.

I know that the place gets overrun with divers around June and/or July, during the annual marbled grouper spawning. That is when upwards of 50 divers converge on a resort that, in my opinion, is not set up to handle that many.

I was there for the late June 2021 spawning so I have some first hand experience. They let divers with a minimum of CMAS 3-Star certification (equates to at least PADI Divemaster certification) dive with their buddy or buddies on their own. Since I only have Rescue, which is recognized as CMAS 2-star, I was one of those who always had to have a dive guide. So it is more like an in-water 6-8 to 1 diver to dive guide, sometimes even less - 4:1 for example.

While this may sound a bit haphazard, navigating thru the channel on an incoming and finding one's way back to the dock is not rocket science. Do it once and you know.

I don’t know all the nitty-gritty of what occurred last year because I wasn’t there during the 2022 spawning event. But when I did the whales in September last year, I spoke with one of those freelance dive guides from Papeete (coincidentally he works for Tahiti Dive Management on occasions) who was there.

You could say that they got hit by a perfect storm of not enough dive guides, too many divers and an offshore storm that brought very high waters. Those waters rushing in from everywhere flooded Tetamanu Sauvage and caused quite of bit of damage and havoc, including washing away the footbridge that connected Sauvage to the main resort/village. Tetamanu Sauvage is an adjacent motu or islet on which they built additional bungalows. When the bungalows at the main resort fill up, they put up additional divers there. It is about a 7-minute walk from Sauvage to the resort’s dining area. I can also speculate that when the dive guides who are leading dives are also the ones who are filling tanks for 50 divers, something has to give.

The other times that I have stayed there - whether January, February or April - there weren't 50 divers staying there so things ran pretty smoothly.

 

[hiloboy]

I was at Tetamanu a couple of weeks ago and they do offer night dives. It was cool but in my experience, Cocos was much better, although I was in Cocos 15 years ago.

 

[burritogirl]

I was at Tetamanu a couple of weeks ago and they do offer night dives. It was cool but in my experience, Cocos was much better, although I was in Cocos 15 years ago.

Good to know! Did you encounter any issues with dive safety, unsafe rental equipment, staffing issues, or any other major issues with diving or accommodation that would make us want to avoid Tetamanu? I'm just trying to reconcile the bad reviews. We're leaning towards going ahead and staying/diving with them, as I'm thinking that most of the bad reviews can be explained by what Manuel Sam described with the grouper spawning fiasco.