Niue
Sea Topaz
Duncan Briggs
Tue 8 Sep 2009 23:23
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19.03.193 S 169.55.378 W
We arrived safely in Niue at around 04.00 on Sunday
morning, having caught a nice Mahi Mahi in the evening before. We went to bed
first and then had a fried breakfast at around midday. We were thrilled to
see three Humpback whales swimming leisurely amongst the few boats that are here
on mooring buoys. Two very, very big females and one baby calf (we heard later
that is only one week old). It was fantastic watching them turning over and
breaching, all in slow motion. The little one was slapping his tail on the
water. It is so difficult to get some decent pictures though.
Yesterday we went ashore to check in with customs
and immigration and the Niue Yacht Club. We were made very welcome by everyone
we met, they are so friendly, we even got the life stories of several people we
met. It is a bit awkward to get ashore, the
dinghy has to be hauled out of the water on a crane. When we got back to the
warf we found that half of the dinghy had collapsed. We did manage to get back
to the boat and discovered that we must have caught something on the warf wall
as there was a small leak, which has now been repaired.
We are planning to go around the island in a hire
car tomorrow, play nine holes of golf (if they can find us some clubs), Duncan
hopes to go diving on Friday and then we'll leave over the weekend for Vava'u
Tonga. We will have to look at the weather to find a good window. The weather is
a bit unsettled. It is still grey, but the rain has stopped for
now.
  Our best effort so far of a picture of the
whale
Sea Topaz on a mooring
buoy
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