password] Tsar12
[position]13 24.79S 163 10.78W
[weather]cloudy wind E 12-14 knots
[status] afterward 4 nights at sea we were looking forward to seeing landfall at dawn- however just before dawn we had a big rain cell which pummelled us with rain and the wind dropped so we had to motor 28 mikes before the wind came up enough to enable us to sail the last bit.. On approaching Suwarrow it definitely started bringing back memories of 2010 especially as it was a similar time we got here.
I had 2 lures out when both were hit at the same time - a wahoo jumping over the other line and we were only a few hundred metres off the reef . Jumping into action the first one dropped the lure so we cleared that line and worked the other which ended up being 15 kg Wahoo - what a welcome - this place is magic
On entering the pass we saw the masts of several other boats at anchor - 6 in total including us now.
At anchor the black tip sharks immediately were circling the boat just like last time - we counted 14. and by the time I had finished filleting the wahoo there were more !
It took a little while for the caretakers to come out and clear us - I had obtained previous clearance but even with that there were bio security ( they sprayed the boat) , immigration and customs - this is an island with no permanent population and miles from anywhere !
With that done I needed to dive on the anchor as the chain was caught on a bombie - while clearing that a grey shark came right up to me so close I had to use my flipper op him coming any closer. Despite being fobbed off he circled really close and several times more he got an extended flipper to keep him at bay- despite having dived with literally a thousand sharks his behaviour was a little un Nerving - ha had no fear and was too curious - even slightly aggressive.
This place is something very special - we won?t go ashore until tomorrow as there were chores like washing and cleaning up but everyone is quite excited about exploring this little haven tomorrow
[END]