The passage to Niue was certainly not our
favourite. Starting out we had light but reasonable winds of 12 to 15 knots but
there was a large triple swell from different directions which tossed the boat
about more than usual and made sleeping difficult.
By our second afternoon we were saying, “be
careful what you wish for”, because we were hoping to see whales on this route
which they too travel from June to October as part of their migration. However,
on the second morning we had what we think was a false killer whale pursuing our
towed generator; when it realised that the black prop wasn't edible it head
butted our rudder knocking off the wheel lock we use when the wind vane steering
is working and sending the wheel spinning. What a fright, we were afraid it
would come back for another go but it didn't, thank goodness, and apart from
some scrapes and gouges we think the rudder must be fine as the steering is
still perfect.
Below is the wind generator prop, which we hauled
out later, the teeth marks and gouges clearly visible with one blade seriously
bent.. We think now that this creature injured its teeth and mouth and perhaps
didn't head butt the rudder deliberately but crashed into it in distress.
Although it gave us a very nasty shock we definitely hope that it is okay.
Chris had his arms put to the test the
following evening as we caught a 21 pound
wahoo, a very long quite slender
powerhouse of fish muscle (the fish was quite strong too), it took some landing.
It was too late and dark to start the skinning etc so Chris just gutted it and
hung it and I spent the next morning dealing with it, we still have plenty in
the freezer.
