Good morning. We were woken by whoops of joy from neighboring boats as they sighted 3 humpback whales meandering through the anchorage just metres from us. Fabulous. Janet jumped in the water and I jumped for my camera.

Life’s unreal. Unexpected delights are offered up unbidden each day.


That little black dot to the left of the diving whale is our friend Alene getting up close to the whale.

And that's Bruce, of Migration, next to the whale. Janet was in the water too but a little out of position when this whale surfaced. Very special.

We've borrowed our neighbor's antenae and have fabulous internet connection so we've been able to receive a number of emails in response to our last mass mailing. So good to hear news from friends and family. It seems that the blog is working pretty well, at least for those we've heared from. Any feedback is most welcome.

Here's our next account of Niue and there's another on the way.

Last night’s nocturnal snorkel with Bruce and Alene from the yacht Migration.

What a trip it was. On this island the reef extends as a shelf to about 100 metres from the shoreline cliffs. The reef is exposed at low tide and covered to a metre or less at high tide. At its seaward edge it drops off almost vertically to about 7 to 10 metres. Everywhere are canyons and crevasses, and fissures, holes and caves in the reef. The canyons are often quite deep to a sandy bottom. Some wind a good distance through the reef. Others are huge holes surrounded on all sides by cliffs of coral. The surface and walls of these coral formations are rich in sea life of all kinds. We saw a few wary crays and captured none but the sea life after dark and with a torch was magic. It’s the dark and torch light that does it. Many more creatures are out feeding, some sleeping or dozy, and with a torch the colours are terrific: bright oranges and reds, electric blues and greens, glowing yellow and red eyes of creatures we could not see, orange coloured lion fish named for their mane of white filaments, one huge red crab that was missing a claw and casually feeding with the other. There were black and white banded sea snakes meandering around and Janet saw a small yellow and white eel. Thankfully no sharks although earlier in the day Alene was annoyed by a white tip shark.

Swimming in the dark is spooky, as you’d expect. You can’t see anything except where the torch beam is directed and anything could be lurking outside that comforting ray of light. It’s easy to lose your sense of direction in amongst the canyons and crevasses and from the reef it’s not altogether clear which of those wee anchor lights bobbing in the distance belongs to your little haven. But the dark and torch beams dancing through the water, picking out extraordinary and beautiful sea creatures also created a magic that we loved.

Janet and I began to get cold, even with wet suits and so swam back to Navire leaving Bruce and Alene to keep searching for crays. While having desert of truffles and lemon cello, listening to music and playing cards I heard an unusual noise from outside. “Quick. Turn off the music.” I said, dashing outside. “It’s whales. Pass up that torch. They’re everywhere. We’re surrounded!!” I could just about see them and smell them. I definitely heard them. As I fumbled to get the torch on, that low, long note of whale song erupted in laughter and my beam of light picked out Bruce and Alene bobbing in the water and in hysterics as they realised how completely they had fooled us. To add insult they reported this morning seeing the real thing from their boat a few hours later into the night.

We’re off shortly to Alofi, Niue’s main town, to listen to a local whale research report complete with musical entertainment and games. Could be interesting.


David
Niue
28.8.10