10:56.87s 152:42.33e

25^th July 2010

We sailed to windward in quite strong 25-30 knot winds for a couple of hours, but not too much of a sea thankfully.  Kamatal is a tiny sheltered lagoon within a lagoon with a small island used by fishermen with around 12 permanent inhabitants.  The sky was a clear bright blue, showing up the magical turquoise colours of the shallow sandy waters around the protective reef.  Despite having the sun right in our eyes at the midday zenith, we could make out the edge of the reef and entrance into this welcoming lagoon.  The lagoon is so small, there was not room for our friend's boat on Swanky to drop anchor within it, as there was already one smaller German boat here.  They had to anchor in deeper lagoon about half a mile away. Ollie checked on our anchor to make sure it was well dug into the sand and that we had enough chain out.  He spotted some huge fish also checking to see if we had dug up any fish for them!  When he threw the chicken carcass into the sea, they were very fast at snapping that up too!  OOOh, time to put the fishing line and hook out with some chicken skin maybe?  No good, it wouldn't bite!  Olly reckons they were red throated emperors, and so big, they are obviously cunning! We went snorkeling holding onto the sides of our dinghy, drifting with the wind and tide along the edge of the inside coral reef.  The visibility was excellent, as was the quality of the coral, and plenty of reef fish.  David went up the mast to check what the problem was with our wind vane indicator - and found that the vane had actually broken off!  While up there, he took photos of the local dugout sailing boat just coming in through the reef pass.  It must be so scary for 6 people on such a tiny 8 meter vessel to be out at sea in such a fragile boat, not properly set up for sailing against the wind. We are most impressed with these local people.  They are incredibly fit and strong, having a subsistence living on whatever they can catch or grow on these volcanic islands.

Jimmy, the landowner of this island and the other three nearby has set up home here with his wife, son, daughter and her son and three kids plus another brother and his sister’s son.  That nephew was taken away from his father last year.  The father was a medico of some sort, and had murdered his wife and thrown her body in the sea never to be found again!  The trial was carried out in another island near the mainland, and the man put in jail.  Jimmy had come over to introduce himself to us, brought us over some bananas and the visitors book to fill in and told us the story.

The wind got stronger next day, and Swanky decided it was too much of a worry being anchored in such deep water with little scope if their anchor dragged, so left after a fierce squall next morning.  The small sailing outrigger had gone out just before the squall, and got all its sails ripped to shreds, and had to paddle back to the island again.  Later that day they paddled all the way back to Moturina, with the wind pushing them in the right direction.  I cannot imagine how many lives must get lost in those fragile boats with the strong winds they have to contend with.  Olly and I took a walk around the island, at low water it was OK walking over the coral debris on the windward side, checking the water pools out for shells, starfish and a snake wriggling at high speed towards me frightened the life out of me – it turned out to be more frightened that I was.  We identified it as a small Moray eel.

The forecast was for lighter winds next day, which it was, but loads of rain to go with it!

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