Commodore
July 19, 2024

Saturday 20 July – sharks getting way too close for comfort

We had a reasonable night’s sleep and the high winds were fine, but it brought in a big swell so it was quite a rolly night. After a late breakfast the anchorage cleared out, we were the only boat left in our area. Just one cat, Ndebt, who were the only boat to remain down the far end of the bay, they have no internet and I think were blissfully unaware of the predicted big winds. The wind had got us too close to cliffs so Rowan put a stern anchor out to hold us in place. Not much wind in the morning, which is almost the worst for PolePole as she is so high out of the water and light, she has so much windage she spins around like crazy. With no other boats around we were happy.

We decided to take advantage of the sunshine as rain was predicted for the end of the day. We headed over in JeldiJeldi to the small dinghy pass at the northern end of the island, about 2 miles away. The current was rushing through so we snorkelled around just inside the reef, the coral and fish life was great, we had a good long snorkel and saw a few fish we have not seen before. We had a white tip shark who checked us out from afar. We then went into the pass, I was a bit nervous of the current, so Rowan went in and snorkelled dragging JeldiJeldi behind him, he had quite a swim against the current, but was delighted to see an enormous Napoleon Wrasse. He finally said I should get in about halfway through the pass, it was lovely and the visibility was great. It wasn’t long before this big White Tip shark came swimming around, Rowan went to photograph a big outcrop of coral and I thought I would just check on the shark and to my horror found it about 3 feet behind me. I sped to the ladder to climb out desperately trying to shout at Rowan who was way ahead, I had another look around and 3 more sharks arrived. I managed to get Rowan’s attention as I could see they were circling around us. I have never got out so fast and of course nearly dropped my flipper in the rush. Rowan decided to film them for a bit before clambering in, he reckons they were far less interested once I got out!

Sharks getting curious

Lovely healthy coral

These yellow and blue stripy little beauties are Rowan’s current favourite, they were so curious about the camera

Sharks getting curious

Sharks now circling around us

I was pleased to get home to a cup of tea. Sadly the wind had swung 180 degrees and if we hadn’t put the stern anchor out we may have beached which was rather alarming. So we spent a while picking up the anchor and relocating, easier to do now as there are no other boats around. A little while later Alia Vita arrived, the swing of the wind had taken them way too close to the cliffs where they were half way down the island, they decided to come back and join us. The Canadian couple of Ndebt had invited us to join them on the beach for a drink where we were last night, so we picked up Rob and Frances and headed over. Another Kiwi boat arrived and they joined in too. So a completely different crowd from last night, no kids at all, just loads more sailing anecdotes. While we were all on the beach a local boat arrived with five men on board, they had come to ask if we had any cigarettes, disappointingly for them nobody smoked. As a consolation they invited us to church on Sunday!