Unspeakably unbelievable! Don’t really know how to describe it. You know we have mentioned before we’ve had dolphins zipping jumping and twisting, rays swirling and gliding, sharks hunting and gouging…..and turtles meandering NOW we are into whales and it just keeps getting better!
Our 6 day passage from Suwarrow was a mixed bag from
delightful calm breezes and becalmed weather to sporadic showers and gusty
robust winds coming from all different angles. Now this stretch of the Pacific
is reknowned for treacherous weather and has reduced many an ocean hardened
sailor to land so we feel we had been dealt a good hand overall. Stories are
still coming in of battered boats and crew with the last one losing its mast
and sending out a MAY DAY call.
We rounded the north of Vava’u at 0300 hours so reduced sail
and kept out to sea waiting for the sun to rise. Marion grabbed some sleep
while I kept a watch and as soon as she came up motor came on and in we headed.
Dramatic, it felt like Sydney heads, no no…the Spanish rias. In any case, it was
dramatic; green vegetative cliffs rising out from the sea, a huge sheltered bay
with inhospitable islands rising vertical from the navy blue depths, and as the
morning wore on sail boats gliding noiselessly along.
We saw some boats down sail and soon realised they were
whale watching. Now we don’t believe in chasing creatures, they will come if
they so choose. And our welcome committee was superb. It wasn’t long before we
spotted a couple of whales heading our way, the closest one not more than 50m
away. We could hear the bursting exhale of the whales with the accompanying
mist as we spotted their surfacing barnacled backs and were treated to the
spectacle of their raised ‘fluke’ (tail) as they descended to the depths once
again. No photos, we were glad to have this solitary experience to ourselves
and the whales.
We took a mooring once we got well inside the protected
anchorage, packed the boat up, and had the obligatory Bloody Mary breakfast
complete with herbed pork sausages, fantastic.
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| Mmmmm, Bloody Mary breky, with sausages! |
Our next few days were spent checking in, cleaning the boat,
and scouting out the town while catching up with new and old friends. Now many
had said we must do the whale watching……really not our thing going on these
touristy outings but we were told we would not be disappointed and that it is
illegal to do it without a tourist operator.
What a day……. These no zoom photos of the calf playing with us while mother and escort waited below will give you an idea.
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| Ticklin the tummy eh? |
Our second week was spent taking a charter (where we did no
work and pretended to be on holidays) exploring some of the outlying islands;
walking on beaches, catching up with friends new and old, snorkelling coral
gardens and listening to the fishing tournament reports. The coral gardens had
some of the most vibrant coloured and different types coral we have ever seen
so we had to swim over the reef twice to snorkel it.
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| Islands dotted everywhere (3 here) unexplored beaches on all. |
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| Extremely poisonous sea snake spotted alongside Zenna just before our snorkel! |
We headed back into town on Saturday, a lovely sail, to
regroup and get supplies and were treated to the tournament weigh in. A great
laugh and while we were there saw a ‘record’ fish weigh in. Amazing how big
these things are in real life!
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| Lady in the pink landed this 232kg monster! |
We kept listening to the tournament on the Monday and
Tuesday to the 2 hourly reports; “This is Reel Addiction, we have 2-2-0 on Blue
Marlin, Denise in the chair, in the area Tonga Motor Parts”. This meant in the
last period of 2 hours they had 2 strikes, 2 hook ups, but 0 landed of Blue
Marlin with Denise currently trying to pull one of the hook ups into land and
tag & release a Blue Marlin. It all became quite addictive to the point I
went to a weigh in and asked around to get on a boat, I was ready to pay big
money for this, it sounded great, but no takers. Next time, eh.
Tonga has a law on Sunday where NO commercial activity is to
take place….we kind of like this law, even working on your boat is frowned
upon. But people must eat and while the locals prepare all their feasting for
Sunday on Saturday for others it is not so easy. So off to a Tongan Feast we
went for a suckling pig and all the traditional Tongan fare ‘your stomach can
take’.Monday we prepared for another weeks stay so done the provisioning and while catching up on e-mails had word requiring us in Fiji……another weeks stay now cancelled and preparations for departure to Fiji commenced.
Our preparations to depart included buying some new lures
after being spurred on by the fishing tournament, and we were not disappointed.
Not long after clearing out, motoring through the passage and setting sail the
lures went out. An hour later we had a strike, ‘Ohhh, did you see that’ I
called to Marion as I ran to the back of the boat. We had a strike, and as I
was at the back of the boat I could see the green torpedo stealthily eyeing off
my lure. ‘Look look Marion, can you see it’, yeah yeah came the reply. I
grabbed hold of the line and started jiggling it like a crazed Kuna. It was at
this point I wondered if I really wanted a marlin on the end of my line after
seeing the weigh in. Too late, we got a hook up! Ohh sh_t! This fish thrashed
once and took off, in the opposite direction to us! The reel was whistling
while the line was burning as it ran out, ‘help help I cried out to Marion’,
Marion pulled in the other line, we definitely didn’t need two hook ups! I
grabbed the reel and tightened the drag careful not to touch the line. Just a
little was all it took and the Blue Marlin was up, half out the water and
heading left. Both Marion and I stopped what were doing in amazement of this
beast and watched it plough through the water until it was out to the side of
the boat about 100m away. Wow, what a spectacle! It disappeared, and at this
point I noticed my line was still heading out the back of the boat, it was not
taut while he was doing this. Ohhh no, he’s off again the line, though not taut
is zipping through the water to our right…….. and he’s out of the water again
this time right up on his tail, look at it thrash, he’s walking on water and
out the right hand side of the boat. I started to reel in, I was not really
sure why or what I was going to do with this 80 kg (est) fish when I got it to
the boat. But I needn’t have worried, it spat it out and was free again. I
really didn’t want to lose a new lure!
Marion and I just stood looking at each other in amazement,
‘did you see that, did you see that’.i yelled, Marion was as spell bound as I
and saw all that happened except for the last few seconds as she dived for the camera. Truly amazing! In our excitement I got on the radio and called in, " this is Zenna, Zenna, Zenna, 1-1-0, on Blue Marlin, Mark on the back deck, on our way to Fiji". One of the fishing boats, none of which had seen a Marlin all day, came back on the radio and said, "I bet you're glad he came off, not sure what you would have done with it!". He was right!
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