Whales – Adagio’s Voyage

The Friendly Islands

We left Niue on a two day passage for Tonga. It was an uneventful and easy passage, which we were pretty grateful to have had after some other boats we know that had some rough passages in this area of the South Pacific. We were also very excited to catch a yellowfin tuna on our first day out providing a delicious sashimi dinner!

We arrived in the Ha’apai group in Tonga, which is essentially the middle group of islands that comprise Tonga. Tonga is known as the Friendly Islands, and indeed the people we have encountered have been genuinely nice and helpful. The Ha’apai group is not very heavily populated, and most people living here live in small villages on remote islands where they do not see many outsiders and supplies are hard to come by. We traded some t-shirts and fishing gear for bananas and papayas with local fishermen. And, Mike in his usual Pied Piper manner made friends with all of the children in one of the villages playing on the beach and jumping out of a tree.

We were surprised not to find too many sailboats in the Ha’apai group, other than our friends Marcus and Diana on Allora, whose daughter Maddi was visiting them. So, most of the time we were two boats alone in the anchorage which suited us just fine. Although some of the anchorages are a bit challenging, the effort was certainly worth it to see some of the most beautiful islands and sunsets we have seen to date in the South Pacific.

The challenging conditions meant we had to be willing to anchor in spots where we dropped anchor up close to reefs, which is only ok in the right conditions. If and when the wind shifts we had to be ready to move on a moment’s notice to not end up with our boat on the reef! In one anchorage we kept watches all night to make sure the situation didn’t get dangerous. And, on another occasion we had to pick up anchor at midnight and move when the wind did a 180 degree shift. In that case, a squall came through and the wind shifted around bringing big waves pitching the boat up and down and putting us way too close to the reef. Luckily, we got the anchor up without any problems and made it to a safe anchorage by 2am. Not the most pleasant night, but sometimes you have to be willing to take a chance in order to see some of the most amazing places.

This time of year is also whale season in Tonga. The humpback whales come north from the Antarctic during winter to mate and calve. And, in the Ha’apai group the whales were everywhere. We had whales come by our boat in anchorages, next to our dinghy when we went out exploring, and breaching out of the water to put on a show every time we sailed between anchorages. We could not get enough of these magnificent creatures all around us. We especially loved the young ones that were just learning to leap and splash and play. They were the most curious about us and our boats.

In addition to all the whale watching, we loved the untouched and unspoiled nature of the Ha’apai for the excellent diving. The water is colder here and that means new and different corals and reef fish. We’ve loved all of the soft corals with their different colors and textures. There are also lots of anemonefish (like Nemo!), and we even saw our first zebra shark!

For several weeks, we jumped around from anchorage to anchorage, snorkeling and diving and whale watching. It would be impossible to describe each of the unique places we visited, so I’ll describe what was definitely one of the most memorable days.

We anchored with our friends on Allora near an island called Fonoifua which is surrounded by other smaller, uninhabited islands and reefs. We started the day by doing some exploring in the dinghies to try and find a good dive spot. We had whales around in the distance and it was a perfectly calm and sunny day. We jumped in the water at various spots to check it out, which is where we saw our first zebra shark and also some painted lobsters. (I didn’t get pictures of the lobsters, but they are worth googling.) We finally decided on a plan to do a dive at a nearby island in what looked to be a good spot.

After getting all the dive gear together, the five of us headed out to dive. The random spot we picked turned out to be spectacular. There were interesting coral formations with all kinds and colors of coral. The fish life was great, including spotting a giant trevally. And, one of the best things was hearing the whale songs on the entire dive. We didn’t see the whales on the dive, but we could hear them. They weren’t too far off, because the sounds were pretty loud under water. The most amazing was the deep sounds made from some of the males which was so loud that it vibrated in your chest, almost like someone had the bass on the speakers turned up way too loud. It was fascinating.

We all emerged from our hour long dive thrilled and wanting to do it again, but one tank was all was had time for that day. Mike had brought along a fishing rod and planned to troll back to the boat from the dive, which was about a mile trip. We weren’t really expecting much, but about half way back to the boat, the line started pealing off the reel, and we knew we had a good fish.

I yelled “fish on” at our friends who zipped back over to catch the fish action on video. It was clearly a strong fish, and at first we worried we might have hooked a shark. As Mike started reeling it in, we peered over the side of the dinghy and could see it was some kind of tuna. But, just as we started to see the fish, I also started to see a shark following the fish up. We have lost more than one fish to a shark in the past, so Mike started trying to reel it in as fast as he could. Our dinghy was full of all our scuba gear, so it made it a bit challenging for him to maneuver in the boat. But, soon enough we had a good size dogtooth tuna in the dinghy! We were all so excited for a good tuna dinner. And, it was a fantastic end to a perfect day.

We were only given a visa for 30 days upon arrival in Ha’apai, so after a few of weeks we had to leave to go up to Neiafu in the Vava’u group to get a visa extension. It was hard to leave Ha’apai, but we were excited to check out a new part of Tonga. More on that next time…

~katie

Mantas and Whales and Fish, Oh My!

I don’t think I really considered myself an environmentalist until I was (literally) living on and in the ocean everyday. Of course, I always thought protecting the environment was important, but I didn’t feel a true connection to the environment until we went sailing. That got me thinking about why it seems like it’s such a struggle right now to get our society and governments to take action to protect this planet we call home.

It’s disturbing to hear reports of illegal fishing here in the South Pacific, governments (including ours in the States) that want to roll back clean water and air regulations and people complaining about new rules to reduce use of plastic such as grocery bags and straws (that end up in the ocean!). You hear talk of freedom and too much government involvement that just don’t seem to grasp the reality we live in. In a perfect world, we would all “choose” to do the right thing for the environment, but unfortunately we just don’t. The desire for cheaper goods and services and more money in our pockets seems to overrule protecting Mother Earth.

My theory is that it is easy to look the other way when you don’t see it first hand. If you live in the city, drive on concrete roads and sit in air conditioning all day, the environment seems like this far away place that isn’t connected to your daily life. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but it is hard find that connection, that experience, that could actually make you stop and think about how much water you are using, where your electricity is generated, how much plastic you throw away or how your clothes are made. (Side bar: Check out a great documentary called The True Cost about the social, economic and environmental impact of the fashion industry. It is really eye opening.)

So, for those of you living far away from the ocean, I want to share some experiences I have had lately that I hope will encourage you to explore nature where ever you are, think critically about your own individual impact on the environment and encourage your politicians (including voting!) to take actions which make our planet habitable for many generations to come.

Giant Manta in Avea Bay:

We were still in Avea Bay on Huahine one afternoon when Mike headed off with the surfboard in search of waves. The sun was out and the bay was flat calm. With those conditions, and the clear water, you could see the bottom 30-40 feet down throughout the bay. It was a perfect day to enjoy the paddle board. I dropped the board in the water and headed toward a channel marker at the head of the bay about a half mile away. It was incredibly peaceful as no one else seemed to be out for some reason, and I had the water all to myself.

I reached the marker and turned around to head back toward the boat. But, I decided to take a different, more indirect, route back as I wasn’t quite that tired from paddling. I decided to paddle right at the edge of the reef that surrounds the bay where it drops off into deeper water. As I started down the edge of the reef, something caught my eye. I large black mass was just under the surface of the water, and I quickly paddled over to take a closer look.

Gliding right next to my board was a giant manta ray. His wing span was about 8 feet across, and his large mouth was open to feed. Mantas are filter feeders that take in large quantities of water and filter out the small plankton. I tried not to get too close and disturb him, but he didn’t seem bothered by my presence at all. He continued slowly back and forth along the edge of the reef. The best part was when he did a series of backflips next to me, almost as though he was showing off. For the better part of an afternoon, the bay belonged to me and my new manta friend. I had to finally tear myself away before the sun headed below the horizon. It was quite magical.

Diving in Huahine:

We headed back up to Fare and were excited to see a boat that we briefly met in the Tuamotus earlier this year. Ken, Edith and their two daughters live aboard s/v Alondra. Ken and Edith are both marine biologists with lots of diving experience, and they asked us if we wanted to do some diving with them. We hadn’t been diving since the Tuamotus and were excited to check out what was below the surface outside the reef here in Huahine.

The dives were fantastic. We saw lots of healthy corals, colorful reef fish, turtles, schools of trevally and some large milkfish. The best part of diving with Ken and Edith is that they would find interesting little fish and crabs to point out to us that I had never noticed before. And, afterward, we went through the fish guide to identify some of the species we hadn’t seen on other islands.

If you’ve been reading this blog from the beginning, you may remember that I struggled a bit when I was first learning to dive, and it has taken me many, many dives to feel completely confident diving. But, now it is one of my favorite activities. Diving has opened up a whole world under water. Snorkeling is great, but you see so much more when you can stay under water and go to different depths. After a really great dive, I feel like I’m on cloud nine for the rest of the day.

Humpback Whales:

We headed out one day with Alondra to find a dive spot up near the airport. It was flat calm out so we weren’t too concerned about a long dinghy ride outside the lagoon. We knew it was whale season when the humpback whales come up from the south to calve and mate. Ken explained that when the calves are born, they don’t have that much fat on them, so the whales give birth to them in the warmer water before heading back down south.

We were hoping maybe we would see some whales as we left the lagoon, and got really excited when we saw a blow not to far in the distance. Then, we saw a whale completely breach out of the water. As we started to approach the whale, we idled the dinghies and threw on our masks and fins. We didn’t want to spook the whale. When we got pretty close to him, we turned off the outboards and slipped into the water where we could see nothing but blue as the water continued several hundred feet below us.

We towed the dinghies as we slowly swam toward the whale, letting Ken be the lead on how close we could get. The whale was a good 40-50 feet long and could do some serious damage if it accidentally hit us or our dinghies with its powerful tail.

The water was really clear, and we could see the whale just in front of us. Suddenly, it turned toward us, flipped its tail up out of the water, and turned to head down into the deep ocean below. Ken caught it all on video (see our Facebook page). It was awesome and the first time we’ve actually seen one while we were in the water. We’re hoping to see some more whales as we head back to Moorea and Tahiti. They should be around for the next couple of months. Anyone who witnesses one of these whales in person and isn’t in complete awe and appreciation of God’s creations needs their head examined!

So, there are my three stories from the last couple of weeks of my nature encounters. I hope you find your own nature stories, even if it is just to go sit at a local park and watch the birds or go for a hike at a local greenbelt. I hope you get inspired to think critically about the impact the dollars you spend have on the environment. Our society is capable of great things, great scientific and technological advancements and innovation. We do not need to rely on old ways of doing things that are harmful to the planet we live on. We have the capacity to transcend the current, outdated way of doing things…if we all want it.

~katie

Humpback Whales!

We finally left Panama City for the Las Perlas Islands, which are a group of islands in the Gulf of Panama. If you look at a map, Panama City is in the middle of the arch shape that makes up the country of Panama, and the Las Perlas Islands are directly south. They are a group of islands fairly close together. Some are inhabited with small villages or vacation homes for wealthy Panamanians, but others are uninhabited and wild. We were excited to get away from the city and hopefully get some time in the water. So far, we have not been disappointed.

Right away our day started out great as we hooked two sierra while trolling out toward the islands. We took this as a good sign that there were going to be more fish in our future in the islands.

Our first stop was Isla Pacheca, a small island that is privately owned. As we were approaching the island, we spotted blows from a pod of whales not too far in the distance. A quick look through the binoculars confirmed our suspicions that we had found humpback whales! The humpbacks have a very distinctive white pattern on their tales (or flukes). So, if you are lucky enough to spot one, you will recognize the humpbacks.

We dropped anchor in about 30 feet of water, recognizing that it was close to high tide. The tides in Panama can be 10-15 feet or more, so you really have to watch your depth and the tide charts when anchoring, or you could end up with your boat on the sand at low tide! We were delighted when we looked over the side of the boat and could see our anchor chain on the bottom. I’ll take 30 feet of visibility any day. After getting everything situated on the boat before the sun started to fade, we could still see and hear the whales off in the distance. Awesome.

We stayed at Pacheca for two nights, but after some squalls came through during the night making it a quite uncomfortable anchorage, we decided to move over to Isla Contadora just a couple of miles away. Contadora is one of the few islands that is inhabited, and although small even has a runway for small planes to land.

There were a couple other sailboats anchored at Contadora, and later that afternoon we were greeted by Tassio and Isabelle from the sailboat Yoyo. Tassio had been out spearfishing and brought us a huge piece of Amberjack. THAT is a great way to make new friends!

The next morning we got a call on the radio from Yoyo just as we were finishing breakfast that two humpback whales were right by our boat. We quickly ran outside with the video camera to catch a mama and her calf slowly drifting by us with the current. The baby was having some fun rolling around and slapping his fins on the water. Tassio and Isabelle rowed over and jumped in with their masks and snorkels to try and get a better look, but the whales soon decided to move on.

Later that day we invited our new friends on Yoyo to join us in some snorkeling and free diving. As we were crossing the bay to one of the other islands, we came across the mama and calf whales again. We got about as close as you would want to get to them, as the adults can be 40-50 feet in length. Our little 10 foot dinghy would be no match for the whales.

We got a few more free diving trips in the next few days and Mike tried his hand at spearfishing. Although he didn’t spear anything, we had a great time checking out the large schools of fish. We also saw some dolphins, a turtle and a huge ray.

But, all was not lost on the fishing front as our new best friend and expert spearfisherman Tassio kept us fed in fish for days! He speared a red snapper, white sea bass (corvina) and sierra, not to mention the amberjack. We were very grateful for all the fish!

We’re now looking forward to moving on to some of the other islands here in the Perlas, and hopefully will have some more fun with the diving and fishing. It’s nice to be back in the water.

~katie

Shamu, Is that You?

We left San Evaristo yesterday afternoon headed to Puerto Los Gatos, about 20 miles north up the Baja coast in the Sea of Cortez. Because we were in the San Jose Channel, between the Baja peninsula and Isla San Jose, a large island, there wasn’t a lot of wind for our sail north. We left in the afternoon and needed to make the anchorage before it got dark, so we were motoring along at about 5 kts.

We had only gone a few miles when I heard us being hailed on the VHF radio. It was our friends on Allora, who we hadn’t seen since they left La Paz in early June. They had traveled north up into the Sea and were now headed back south toward Puerto Vallarta. I picked up the radio and heard Diana say “Look to starboard and wave.” I got the binoculars out and saw a sailboat a few miles away across the channel near the coast of Isla San Jose. Allora had spotted us on the AIS.

For non-boaters… AIS is a system where you can transmit and receive information about other boats nearby. Not every boat has AIS, but all of the commercial boats do. It is especially helpful when sailing at night and you can pick up a boat nearby. It will tell you the boat name, length, speed and direction, so you can tell if you are on a collision course and need to alter course. It is a very helpful tool and something we installed before we left California. So, Allora had seen us pop up on AIS.

I chatted with Diana for a few minutes and wished them well. We were both sorry that we were passing each other and would not be able to get together in an anchorage. We’re hoping that we may catch up with them at the end of the year on the mainland side of Mexico when we will both be traveling south.

I had only signed off the VHF for less than a minute when Diana excitedly hailed us back. “There are killer whales right by the boat!” she exclaimed. Mike and I both got really excited, because we have never seen killer whales while out sailing. We saw Allora suddenly do a 360 and were speeding back up the coast at 9 kts (faster than Adagio can do…). We heard from Allora that the killer whales were chasing a dolphin and they were following, struggling to keep up.

They were a few miles away from us, but we decided we had time, so we altered course and started heading toward Isla San Jose to intercept Allora. After a few minutes we saw Allora basically stop and Marcus came on the radio to say they were pretty sure that the whales caught the dolphin and now they were just playing around their boat. I know it is the circle of life and all, but I’m a bit glad I didn’t see that part. I would have been rooting for the dolphin.

We got closer to Allora and could see the whales just off their stern through the binoculars. As we approached we heard Allora yell “they’re coming right toward you.” Sure enough the killer whales came right toward us. I was racing up to the bow with my GoPro while Mike was at the helm when one breached not ten feet away from us. It was fantastic! They were now heading behind us, so we quickly turned around to follow. We saw the whales ahead of us, when they turned back toward Adagio and came right at us again. Three of them came directly toward the starboard side just below the surface and dove down right before they got to the hull. Mike swears one of them turned to the side and looked up at him just before he went down. Unbelievable.

Both boats tried following them, but they had gone under and we appeared to have lost them. After a few minutes, we said goodbye to Allora and headed north as they turned south. We had gone about a mile when we saw the orcas in front of us again. There was one off our starboard side and two off port. I was at the bow again with the video camera trying to get the perfect shot. The whales started for our boat from both directions. I had my camera trained on the starboard side and caught him diving down under the boat right as Mike yelled “over there!” I whipped my camera around as the two on port breached right next to the boat and dove under. They were seriously close enough to reach out and touch them! We’ve never had any kind of whale play around the boat before, but dolphins do it all the time. These whales reminded me of giant dolphins! They were huge though and absolutely beautiful. I can’t wait to clip together the video. I know it won’t do the experience justice (it never does), but I still want to share it.

Once we got to the tip of San Jose the wind finally picked up. We pulled out the sails and turned off the diesel. We had a beautiful sail to Puerto Los Gatos and got in the anchorage just before the sun dipped down beneath the horizon. We’re excited to go out and explore this beautiful place that is full of reefs and stunning red rock faces. We will probably be here a few days before heading to Bahia Agua Verde.

~katie