Our cameraman is on a roll.

For the last two weeks we have been zooming in on the Ocean Below. We have transformed into a party of two mermen and one mermaid. Our fingertips are wrinkled, our ears are popping, our hair is salty, our nails are bleached, and our sinuses are free. In search of the big stuff, we dive accompanied by professionals into the atoll passes both inside and outside the lagoon. For exquisite reef jewels, we snorkel independently around the coral patches inside the lagoons.

Now that our cameraman has joined us, we keep reliving the thrill of it all while selecting and admiring his shots. Never mind that his camera batteries died just as a pair of dolphins swooped down to play with the scuba bubbles of our dive master, who reached out to them with all ten fingers stretched out in pure joy. Witnessing this scene from just behind him, I consumed bars of air in one single breath out of sheer glee. Dolphins always have that effect on me. I’m a dolphoholic.

On one occasion, just as our cameraman was readjusting his diving mask, a massive manta ray positioned itself directly beneath him and struck a long enough pose to be gloriously captured on film. At the same time, on the other side of that same coral bed, My clueless Captain was still scanning the surroundings in vain, while I was busy fending off an aggressive triggerfish in attack mode. In other words, My Captain and I entirely missed the manta spectacle. However, it still felt great to receive living proof that the mantas are alive and flapping. 

To us -privileged visitors of the Tuamotu Archipelago- all the present-day catastrophes on Earth seem nothing more than a distant bad dream. Aznavour knew what he was talking about when he sang ”Il me semble que la misère, serait moins pénible au soleil”. For now, our only “misery” is that our cameraman has been floored by too much underwater action. Instead of popping, his ears started throbbing, signaling the sudden arrival of a nasty ear infection. No more underwater photography for a while. But hey, the tropical winter sun is at its best and the Tradewinds have started blowing, so let’s take the brand-new Cabrinha Switchblade kite out for a spin instead. (Thank you so much, Jan!) As long as his ears remain high and dry above water, our cameraman will be rolling again in no time.