The Eastern Pacific - Pacific Crossing Notes: A Sailor's Guide to the Coconut Milk Run - page 261

and save the second-story acrobatics for unmarked passes in other atolls - at slack tide,
mind you!
Once through Tiputu Pass in Rangiroa, it's a simple matter of slinging directly to the
nearest village anchorage. In Fakarava, running the north pass and navigating the main
channel is straightforward, thanks to excellent markers. Assuming the sun is high in the
sky, isolated coral heads are easily distinguishable as shallow green or brown patches
against the darker blues of deep water. In fact, newcomers will quickly realize that mark-
ers are largely superfluous in fair weather. Conversely, cloudy skies or low sunlight will
make coral heads much harder to spot. At the same time, crew members must keep an eye
out for the small buoys that mark pearl farms inside the lagoons. These are lessons that
one can quickly learn in the tamer Tuamotus before going on to navigating unmarked sec-
tions of the main lagoons or in atolls off the main byways.