Our passage northwest from Opua, New Zealand to Tonga was a
challenging kick-off to our second year of cruising. We were sailing against variable 20-30 knot
winds with sea waves and swell 2-3 meters high coming from three different
directions. Within 8 hours of sailing, Julie was seasick for the first time. We
were in coconut run cruiser's “survival mode” for 8 days. Used to fair trade wind sailing, we ate very little, slept very little, were
unable to shower, and Julie was honestly questioning her sanity for even being
out on our crazy journey. We were safe,
and Curtis did a great job of constantly adjusting the sails to keep us on
course, but we were both completely exhausted. Of course, God was at work and had
a wonderful plan all along.
When we finally reached the Ha’apai Islands in central
Tonga, it was the middle of the night. We had to heave-to in rough seas to stop the boat from
moving as much as possible and wait for daylight to get any closer to the
island where we intended to drop anchor. The sun rose 6 long hours later.
We were very excited to reach our destination and finally
fully stop the boat. We had drifted during the night and were 10 nautical miles
from the anchorage. We turned on the
engine, set the sails, but found it was impossible to beat directly into the
wind and waves. The wind was blowing 30+ knots, the bow of the boat was bashing
repeatedly into the 3 meter swell, and we were only making 2-3 knots at full
throttle.
So we had to sail on, continuing north to a different potential
anchorage. The next potential anchorage was between 2 small islands with the wind funneling
down the middle. It did not look promising, but a boat we know, Dazzler, was
anchored there. I hailed Jilly on the radio and she reported that the holding
was good and the swell was really not that bad. As much as we wanted to stop
there and enjoy another couple's company after 8 days of just the two of us, we
knew we needed a calmer place to recover from our journey, so we choose to sail
on.
We changed course and sailed with the wind for a short
while. It felt nice, we were passing pretty little islands with white sandy
beaches, and we decided we had enough energy to try again at fishing. We had not
caught any fish at all, which is unusual for us on a long ocean passage as we usually
catch at least a good size tuna. On this trip, we
lost a brand new large squid lure early on, and then it was too rough to even
think about fishing for the rest of the trip. We optimistically let a new lure out, and within 5 minutes
the reel was zinging...fish on!
The first step to bringing in a fish is to slow the boat,
which we failed to do the first time we had a fish on earlier in this passage,
resulting in a lost lure and no fish. We were going to get it right now, so we
turned into the wind, Julie watched our course while Curtis cranked away at the
reel for at least 20 minutes. Finally, a shape appeared in the wake of our
stern. Julie grabbed the gaff hook and watched to see what we had caught. Maybe
a lovely Mahi Mahi or the tasty Wahoo Curtis has been dreaming of! This fish was very grey, and flat, and it did
not jump out of the water. These are not good signs. Julie’s heart sank as she realized
we had caught a shark. On our last squid lure. How were we going to get the
lure back?
As the shark neared the side of the boat, it's fighting
energy was renewed and it swam hard alongside the boat as it became aware of
us for another 20 minutes. I repeatedly tried to hook the shark and after about 8 attempts Curtis was getting extremely tired, still exhausted from the passage. Julie finally hooked
the shark and we both pulled up with all our might to reach the lure. Curtis
used a long pair of bent tip needle nose pliers, and he successfully released
the large hook from the shark's jaws. It was a white tipped reef shark, which
are not aggressive, and close up it's teeth were really quite tiny. The final battle was releasing the shark and Curtis was
finally able to shake it free. We had retrieved our lure, but the rubber squid
was ruined, gashed nearly in two by the shark's razor sharp teeth. Neither of us had the will to drop the line
back in the water.
Now to find an anchorage to rest...
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