Wakaya

The trip to Wakaya was without wind but not without it’s thrills (as seen by my previous blog). We had the fishing line and one hand line out before we left the western pass at Makogai. Just before half way I noticed a fish surfing on the hand line. As I pulled it in it submerged giving a little fight. Then things became quite light. By the time I had the line nearly in I could see why. I had only the head left.

Before I had a chance to unhook the head the fishing line started to zing. I had Helen slow the boat to 2 knots as I reeled the beastie in. From time to time it would run but it soon tired. When we had the fish near the boat we could see it was much bigger than our usual catch. I gaffed the fish and brought it up the steps a little. I tried using my ‘nappy pin’ to secure the boat via it’s chin. Wary of the earlier fish we lost we kept the hook in while I bled the fish. It didn’t take long before the ‘nappy pin’ popped. No longer trusting this method to secure the fish I used some spare line to lash the tail. This was no easy task as the fish was bigger than the step I work on and still had a bit of life in it.

After dragging it through the water for a few minutes I pulled it out and weighed it. At 38lb this almost doubles my biggest catch by weight. The wahu had a slimy skin which made quite a mess as I gutted, steaked and partially fileted it. I kept the head and some of the tail steaks in a bowl to give to locals on arrival. The steaks and filets were all bagged and frozen. We have far too much for ourselves so much will be given away.

Upon entering the pass at Wakaya I was reminded the place was a private island resort rather than a village (click the link to see it’s website and $000 dollar prices). We saw a dive boat coming our way. I beckoned them over. The Fijian operators were more than happy to take the fish parts we’d left. I only hope their two mega-dollar paying customers didn’t object to the fishy smell.

We were soon anchored in a bay by the resort. The resort appears newer than the map below as not all the buildings (not that there are many) are visible.

As it was late morning and the sun high we decided to go snorkeling on the reef. This was one of our better snorkels as the waters were crystal clear, fairly shallow and the corals and small fish abundant.

After lunch we noticed we had free wifi from the resort. It was a bit patchy but sufficient to upload all our recent pictures (check back the previous few entries). I was also able to catch up on recent news and download the latest updates for my laptop. In the evening Helen cooked a most delicious chili wahu dinner. I couldn’t eat enough of it.

Overnight the northerly winds kicked in making the anchorage rolly. The forecasts all point to the front coming over this evening so we’ll push on south to Gau today, hopefully under sail.