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Air Tahiti Magazine 56
destination banc de priacanthes, tres frequent dans la passe d avatoru / crescent-tail bigeye > nous touchons enfin le fond a une dizaine de metres de profondeur. je sens que l eau est plus froide, aux alentours de 22°c seulement. je n ai pas le temps de m attarder sur cette impression car au meme moment, un banc de napoleon fonce droit vers nous pour s ecarter in extremis, juste devant nos yeux. partout, les poissons tous plus surprenants les uns que les autres ont l air d embrasser le corail, et jouent a cache-cache. les plus curieux flirtent avec les vitres de nos masques, nous frolent les mains. les volutes dessinees par le corail ont l air de petits nuages vaporeux, il me suffit de poser la main dessus pour comprendre a quel point il peut se reveler coupant et inhospitalier pour les humains. de temps a autres, je leve la tete, la surface me semble loin. a quelle profondeur sommes-nous ? je n en sais rien. je sais que les rouleaux qui se forment a la surface ne me permettraient pas de remonter tout de suite. je me repose donc totalement sur yann qui a l air, lui, d etre dans son element. sur chaque cote ondulent des raies manta d une taille impressionnante.elles ouvrent grand la bouche pour aspirer l eau chargee de planctons. leur nonchalance est presque rassurante. guides par le courrant, nous passons d un paysage a l autre, tantot feerique et colore, tantot tres gris et hostile, a l image de rangiroa. avant de remonter doucement, nous croisons une murene qui semble garder jalousement sa grotte. ses deux grands yeux noirs me confirment que nous ne sommes ici que des visiteurs,dans un monde qui leur appartient.yann deplie une bouee gonflable qu il laisse courir au bout d un fil jusqu a la surface. elle permettra au bateau de nous reperer. petit a petit, nous remontons. j ai l impression que nous sommes restes une eternite sous l eau. loin d etre pressee de revenir en surface, je commence a comprendre le mutisme des grands plongeurs : je suis comme hypnotisee par le moment qui vient de se jouer. nous sortons la tete de l eau et c est un retour brutal a la realite. d impressionnantes vagues arrivent face a nous. elles sont > > the center of the pass, underwater in about fifteen minutes. we seat ourselves on the edge of the zodiac and fall backwards into the water. everything goes so fast. we have to stay at the surface for a few minutes even though it's difficult with the weight of our dive bottles and belts wanting to pull us down. even though the ocean looks calm, once we're in it there are waves and plenty of current. already we are feeling the strength of the elements as we begin our descent. even in the first few meters, we are transported to another world. while the waves pulled and pushed at us at the surface, underwater there is only calm and at several meters we reach total silence. but even though the water feels calm, the current has already began to bring us towards the entrance of the pass and the lagoon. it isn't even necessary to kick as the tides carry me where we are going. below, i see some black tip reef sharks. the bottom looks quite far away but the water is so clear that i can see all the reds, oranges and pinks of the corals. yann holds my hand to keep us stable amidst the current. his experience makes this easy for him but for me it's a little harder - as soon as he lets go i drift away like an astronaut into outer space. we finally touch down on the bottom, which is about 10 meters below the surface at this point. i feel that the water is much cooler at this depth, around 22°c. before i have time to feel cold, a school of napoleon fish dart straight for us to branch off in either direction to go around us, human obstacles. fish are everywhere each more extraordinary than the next and many seem to be playing hide and seek in and out of the craggy coral. the most curious flirt with the glass of our masks and brush against our hands. spirals made of coral look like little vaporous clouds yet when i reach out to touch them i realize how their sharpness make this underwater world much less hospitable than it looks. every now and then i look up at the surface, which now seems > r e v u e d e b o r d n ° 5 6 / a i r ta h i t i / o n - b o a r d m a g a z i n e n ° 5 6 19 © p. bacchet
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