Superb day on the water for the 30 mile passage between Aur and Maloelap. We had two lines out for the short passage and managed to get 6 strikes on one of the lines. Early morning leaving Tabal we caught a good-sized rainbow runner. Next was a 1.5m barracuda that is probably leaping around the lagoon with new vigour after it’s near death experience. We couldn’t quite fathom battling with the teeth, nor eating such a big, not so nice tasting, fish. In fact Robin looked quite disgusted as he hauled it out of the water.
After that came a tuna, and another rainbow runner. Then there were the two that got away. Finally we pulled in our second line finding some huge chomper had chomped through the steel trace. The fridge and our stomachs are groaning – but then again there’s nothing like from ocean to stomach in sub 2 hours. We’ll take the second rainbow runner ashore tomorrow and try to trade it for some fruit and vegies.
We are now anchored in Taroa island, next to the remains of a sunken Japanese freighter ship that was bombed by the Americans in WWII. The ship came to grief firstly by a US submarine, and then finally by an air attack in the early 1940s. The two masts of the ship protrude approximately 15m in the air – an interesting sight, and apparently a great place to snorkel. We’ll check out the 100m long ship tomorrow.
Picture of the sun setting over our fish dinner avec new dingy in the foreground!
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