Matthews visit to Vanuatu

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Pleasant Surprise!

Matthew has been able to get 4 days off work this week so we made the arrangements and he flew in last night at 9.00pm. After a few beers and a feed at the Waterfront bar we returned with him to Migaloo at about Midnight.
Today we went to the Mele-Maat Cascades, a track winds it way past a dozen or so crystal clear rock pools with small waterfalls cascading into each one, culminating at the top of the track with a 35m waterfall. We spent a couple of hours swimming in the pools, standing under the waterfall and exploring a few small caves, a great place to cool off in a beautiful natural setting. (See photo gallery). It was a very popular spot today as a P&O cruise liner arrived last night and it`s 2000 or so passengers were busy taking in all they could in their short 24 hour visit , it would be great to return to cascades when there were not so many people but it was still an enjoyable day
Tonight we head to the Namberwan café for movie night, beers, pizza and a free movie, looking forward to it. Tomorrow we have booked a half day fishing charter with a local operator, they have been brining in to the waterfront catches of Marlin, Tuna , Mahi-mahi & Wahoo so we decided to give Matt the opportunity to catch a Marlin,,,,,,,,,,,, will let you know how it goes.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Well as you all know by now we had a bit of a scare today with a Tsunami warning for Vanuatu and as you also would know by now nothing eventuated. During this drama we were about 20nm offshore trolling for Marlin. We left at 7.00am and our skipper Charlie & Deckhand Richard made us familiar with our craft for the day "Reel Capture" .
The target species was Marlin as there have been a number tagged and or landed by various charter operators over the past few days. Unfortunately the weather wasn`t great with 80% cloud cover and about 20kts of E -S/E wind which cad created a choppy sea , never the less we were still hopeful.
We trolled 6 huge popper lures at various distances from the boat aided by the outriggers that allow a wider spread of lines (see photo gallery). We pursed this method for about 2 hours without success and by now the sea was a bit confused due to the wind on the swell, this combined with a short sharp swell created by wind against tide made things pretty uncomfortable on board and we got a few waves over the boat leaving us all quite wet. Matt started to feel the effects of sea sickness but did well to fight it off.
Having no success with the poppers we switched to live baits (1-2kg Bonito) hooked up and allowed to swim. We had a couple of strikes on these but were not successful in hooking up a Marlin. We also has a number of inquiries from Mahi -Mahi (Dolphin Fish) and soon enough we heard the long awaited call to duty "FISH ON" . Matt was strapped into the game fishing chair and proceeded to do battle with this very powerful fish. After about 10 mins of pulling and winding Richard has the gaff in the fish and we had it on Board (see photo gallery).

Soon after we had another Marlin in pursuit of one of our Bonito and also a large Wahoo hunting the other. The Wahoo struck first but we didn`t get him in the boat, he managed to free himself leaving behind less that half of the Bonito. As Richard was recovering what was left of the Bonito a very large Hammerhead shark attacked it and the fight was on again, Matt was back strapped into the chair and fighting this very powerful shark. After about 20 minutes of back breaking pump and wind, pump and wind, Matt had him to the surface at the back of the boat and Richard recovered the tackle and set this awesome creature free, very exciting. (No photos of this one only video, sorry) By now Matt was exhausted and succumbing to the sea sickness so he lay down and rested. We continues to troll lures, Live baits & strip baits but to no further avail and headed home after 4 full hours of hunting . Richard and Charlie worked hard the whole time and really wanted for Matt to get a Marlin but not this time.
We arrived back in Vila about 2.30pm, took a couple of pictures of Matt, Richard and the Mahi-Mahi (see photo gallery) and then after Richard has filleted it for us we were on our way back to Migaloo. On our return I looked at the Sat Phone and saw that 6 new emails had arrived since 7.00am and then checked my mobile and there were 8 missed calls and a number of text messages, every-one was calling to see if we were ok because of the Tsunami warning that had been issued whilst we were fishing, thanks every-one for thinking of us and sorry that we caused you some anxious hours whilst we were un-contactable.
Matt is keen to eat his catch for dinner and has prepared a coconut milk (among other things) so it fresh Mahi-Mahi for dinner tonight
Going to have a quite one tomorrow, think we will go and bum around at Iriki Island resort, swim in the pool and look out over the harbor whilst sinking a few Tuskers and Cocktails, and people ask me if I miss work!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, October 09, 2009

Quite start to the day , had to go to customs and get duty for exemption for parts n stuff that Frank & Jane are brining , then off to Duty free shop , Matt go a 2ltr bottle of Jim Beam for $24 which he is pretty excited about. Then it was off to Iriki resort for lunch and beers beside the pool (see photo gallery) Matt off home tomorrow about 9.00pm (more tears I guess when he goes) Frank & Jane arrive tomorrow afternoon at 2.00pm.
Frank and Jane are friends from Brisbane who we met in 2002 when we on the Lizard Island trip. They have been sailing and living aboard there yacht "Escondido" for 20 odd years and were the people who started us thinking about a yacht. They join us for the passage back to Noumea and then onto NZ so they will be with us for about a month.
Has been great to see Matt and thanks to his awesome bosses Will & Mellissa who gave him time off on short notice so we could have him join us.

What now?????

Will be around here for a few more days and then when the weather is right we will head for Noumea, we hope to be there around the 20th so we can catch up with the ICA rally gang and join them when they depart for NZ around 25th.