Navigator Lane

The lane is a long stretch of reef edge on the northern side of the atoll, and it is dived as a drift along that edge at 25 to 40 metres. Current on the reef itself is usually none to light, so the pace is set by how much of the lane you want to cover rather than by the water pushing you. The site is reserved for advanced and experienced divers, and the reason is the profile: you spend the dive deep, with open ocean on one side of you the whole way.

Facing out, giant trevally, barracuda and eagle rays work the edge, and the hammerheads the site is known for school in the current running deep below the level divers hold, in the hundreds when the season is right and with peak sightings in April and May. None of it comes to you. The dive is a matter of holding depth along the lane, keeping the reef on one shoulder and reading the blue on the other for movement.

Turn back towards the reef and the same site works as a macro dive. Nudibranchs and crabs sit in the rocks along the wall, which gives the shallower end of the profile something to do once the deep phase is behind you and gas is running down. Finish by drifting up the reef with the wall on your shoulder rather than ascending out in open water, and the last stretch is spent close in over the rocks.