Apataki

We've been living in the lagoon at Apataki atoll and have been exploring the northeast corner while a steady easterly breeze has been blowing the past few days.
It's absolutely stunning here, with sandy beaches, shallow coastlines dotted with coral heads, and every shade of blue and turquoise you can imagine. We've pulled out most of Namaste's toys and have been playing nonstop. Chris figured out how to launch his kite from the water and spent yesterday ripping around enjoying the steady wind and flat seas. He carried a radio with him and after he dropped the kite, he called for a pickup - dinghy taxi at your service!
I've been paddling close to shore protected from the wind in 3-5 feet of crystal clear water. There is plenty of life in those shallow waters and you can easily see the fish swimming around each coral head. Occasionally, a black-tip reef shark fin appears and you can follow its athletic swimming movement. I had a race with one today, it won by a landslide.
We went out in the lagoon and snorkeled a beautiful spot with hundreds of fish, eagle rays, and gray, white-tip and black-tip reef sharks. There were massive schools of tangs and triggerfish, as well as colorful damselfish and butterfly fish. There are huge formations of soft and hard coral and each head creates its own little microcosm of life. Families, with species from the size of your hand to the size of your fingertip, circle and live within the delicate fingers of the white coral. The life teeming within the lagoon has us both anxious and excited to dive the passes, and see what's out there!
Chris has perfected the art of opening coconuts with a machete - don't try this at home kids! And we've been drinking the fresh liquid and chowing on the delicate meat inside, mixing it in our mango-pineapple-papaya-banana smoothies.
We're going to explore the rest of the atoll over the next few days.