Suwarovv day out
Luceyblue
Ina&Buc&Simon&Amanda
Tue 11 Aug 2009 19:38
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What a day! 0900 10 aug Vagabond Heart, Lucey Blue,
Silja, Yarrabonga? crews all met on the beach where John, the warden
drew a map to advise us where the best snorkeling , most bird/fish etc were to
be found.
Then, after distributing kids into everyones
dinghies so we could all plane, we set out. A ten minute trip in the
dinghy alongside the reefs, with the bottom clearly visible only 6 feet
under the hull, all the fish zipping away from us. smaller motus with
thousands of nesting birds, and pristine beaches. We arrived at whale
island, so named because they recently found a 60 sperm whale, dead and
beached on the reef. Its jaw was cut off, and has been partially buried on the
beach at anchorage island to clean it up before being sent back to be
studied. One can see bits of the jaw and teeth sticking up through the
sand.
We anchor off the beach at whale island, in about 2
feet of clear water, and wade ashore. The noise from all the birds is quite
incredible, they nest on the ground, not in the trees, and the eggs are
laid on the ground. White, speckled in brown, they are quite hard to
spot. We then walk gently round the northern edge of the atoll, along a
sand and coral beach, with a reef extending off out to sea.
On the way we break into small groups, I am lucky
enough to walk along holding Amanda`s hand and chating quietly about the trip so
far. Once we stop to investigate what seems to be a pile of shells, it turns out
to be about ten of twelve hermit crabs all climbing over each other.
Intrigued wwe settle into see what is going on. The largest shell is perhaps 1.5
cms long, and they decrease in size from there. There is much jostling, and then
all of a sudden we see the largest hermit crab pop out of his shell and
into the empty one he has been holding and manoeuvering into the right
position. As soon as his move is complete, and his shell is empty, the next
largest crab pops out of his, and takes over the empty shell, and so on it goes.
The move is completed very quickly, as soon as one is vacated it is filled
by a new crab. Really quite amazing to see, and all over in perhaps 90
seconds.
There is a small shallow channel between whale and
the next island, (I rather gather these islands change names as various people
visit them, and talk to John) a cooling wade through the channel brings us
to another bird full island, walking round that one brings us to
Turtle island. No turtles here at the moment, or birds either, quite surprising
after so many birds crushed on the last two little islands. There a real palm
trees on this island, rather than the scrub that we have seen on the others,
aparently there are also some Frigate birdds nesting in the trees, and they are
predatory towards the much smaller swifts.
Once we reach the southern most end of the atoll
the kids decide they need to cool off, so wade out into the swell to stand
facing the waves at the edge of the reef. Great to watch all six of them playing
out there, whilst the adults sit and chat with their feet in a rock
pool.
The walk back is a little faster, the sun is high
up, and beating down now, and no one thought to bring watree with us. Soon we
are back at the beach for a little picnic lunch. Then it is back into the
dinghies, and a short way away there is a litttle pinacle of rock sticking
up out of the depths, (generally 30/40 mtrs in the lagoon here) with masses of
coral on it. Carefully setting the anchors, (that actually involves handing the
dinghy anchor to one of the children, and then having them jump over the
side and set the anchor in the sand), fins and masks on and it is off for a
snorkell. Lots of incredibly colorful Parrot fish
working away at the coral, plus thousands of others that I have
no idea what they are called, plus coral and clams. Even a couple of black
tip reef sharks (6 or 7 ft long) swim by, but keep their distance.
Somehow on the way home, all the
boys have managed to work themselves into the dinghy with the biggest
engine (hint for those who are thinking of going cruising, your street cred is
greatly enhanced by having a 15 or even better a 25 hp motor on the dinghy, of
course you will be begged to take every kid in theanchorage out wakeboarding!)
so they streak off ahead of us, curling back to hop over the other boats
wake. Bill and Debs on Vagabond Heart, free of kids decide to troll a line
on the way back (it`s just a way to get some more peace and quiet) whilst we
take Alice back to Lucey Blue.
Once back aboard, the girls settle in for some more
needlework, Alice has designed a momentoe to leave here on the wall of flags,
Amanda is working on one of her other projects. The boys have found out that
they are going to drag two boogie boardds behind our dinghy for the rest of the
afternoon. Ina sets to in the galley, (in trmendous heat), to conjure
up something for tonights potluck birthday party. I end up doing odd jobs about
the boat, and watching Bill install some software on my computer for
me.
After a while the girls get a bit hot, and join the
boys on the boogie boards, then it is back to decorate the cakes, and make
birthday cards. All of a sudden it is 1700, we have to get ashore for the start
of the party. One of the other boats has landed their HARP! which is just part
of the musical accompaniment for the evening.
The festivities start by taking the scraps of fish
(caught by John and his boys in the morning) out to feed the sharks, on the
outside of the lagoon!, then moves on throught a quick welcoming speach from
John, Grace was said, and then a magnificent spread begun.
The kids were all done with eating, they went off
to play rugby,and various other games as it got dark, including catching coconut
crabs, and hanging them in the trees, using their claws. The crab sits there for
a bit,and then if left alone just climbs back down and heads off. The crabs
are a remarkable range of colours, reds, blues, greens etc.
Heads are starting to droop, and the party is
starting, so we tak the kids back to the boat, where we all
lie on the nets forwards, watching the shooting stars, billions of
stars, and fell asleep out there.
What a life!
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