Day 172, Year 2: Of Reefs and Sharks
Date: Saturday, October 13, 2007
Weather: Picture Perfect Day; Winds N 8-10 Early and Then No Wind
Latitude: S 22 degrees 46.340 minutes
Longitude: E 166 degrees 48.099 minutes
Location: Kouare Island, New Caledonia
We sailed out of Kuto Bay early this morning. We were on a perfect beam reach with eight to ten knots of wind which moved us along at four to five knots. It was too perfect to be true, and soon the winds did go below eight knots and we had to give the sails a motor-assist. We glided across the water in company with Scot Free II and Ranger. It was just a delightful passage, but then it was time to go through a pass in the reef and senses heightened. It was a narrow pass, but we went through with
the sun overhead which allowed us to see the shallow areas clearly. Narrow passes through reefs are a fact of life out here, but you never get used to it. You have to be on watch constantly. But once through the pass, we could again relax. We started seeing very small islets with beautiful white beaches. We could only hope our chosen destination would be as beautiful. And in the early afternoon, our hopes were granted. Kouare is a small uninhabited island surrounded by by a reef and a white
sand beach. By the time we arrived, there was virtually no wind, so the anchorage was totally calm. We put down the anchor and before we were done with the process, I spotted a large gray fish, probably six feet or longer with a huge rounded head, cruising by Windbird. I saw no fins, so ruled out the “shark” possibility. I was looking forward to getting into the water and coming face to face with such a large fish.
Shortly after anchoring, we put the dinghy in the water just in case we might need it, and then we swam away from Windbird toward the reef surrounding the island. We didn’t need to use the dinghy to get to these close reefs. From Windbird we could see one huge coral head between us and the reef, so we made that our first stop. The coral here is beautiful. The colors range from neon green to goldenrod to lilac to raspberry pink. It was definitely the nicest coral we have seen since Fiji, and
maybe the nicest we have seen anywhere. But like many places we snorkeled in Fiji, there was a great variety of fish life, but not many of any one kind. What there was an abundance of were the very poisonous sea snakes. The consolation is that their mouths are very tiny and they would have a hard time sinking their poisonous fangs into us, but these guys were the biggest that we have seen. They are not aggressive, so we kept our distance and just watched as they wound themselves in and around
the coral formations. We were working our way along the reef when I came up to clear my mask. As I looked toward the beach, I saw something moving through the water. It looked a little like a shark fin, so I watched closely. I thought maybe it was one of our friends snorkeling, but as I focused in, I definitely saw triangular fins. This means sharks, so I tapped Mark and had him come up for a look. He agreed that the moving objects looked like shark fins, so we headed back to Windbird. We
were a good distance away, but we calmly made our way. I stopped every little bit to look back to see if we had followers, but thankfully we didn’t. When we got back we could see that Gerry and Donna were heading back to their boat, but Paul and Marie were heading right toward the area where we had seen the fins. We got in the dinghy and went over to tell them that they might want to curtail their snorkeling journey until we could make a positive identification. None of us had our glasses with
us, but Paul agreed that what we were seeing looked like shark fins. We took Paul and Marie back to Ranger, and then we stopped at Windbird to get our glasses and binoculars. Mark and I went back to make sure what we were seeing were sharks, and sure enough, that’s what they were. They were chumming for fish between the fringing reef and the beach. It was low tide, so they might have had a little difficulty getting across the top of the reef to us on the other side. And that was a good thing.
Mark took me back to Windbird and then went over to Ranger to tell them of our findings. Paul thought it sounded like Black-tipped Reef Sharks. While Mark was sitting there in the dinghy, they spotted two sharks under Ranger. The reef here is so beautiful and we had hoped to continue our snorkeling adventures, but the positive identification led us to a decision to leave here in the morning and travel on to our next island destination. We were planning to get in the water and clean the bottom
of the boat in the morning, but after seeing the sharks under Ranger, that activity was canceled.
After showers, we relaxed into the afternoon. I took our “Sharks of the World” book out on the foredeck and sat and looked at every picture. There was no mistaking what we saw. It was definitely black-tipped reef sharks–black fin tips highlighted by white. In the book it says,” . . . very occasionally bites people that are swimming or wading on reefs, but more circumspect when encountering divers.” They are very active swimmers that keep their dorsal fins above the surface in very shallow water.
Yep, that’s what we saw. But sitting on the deck, I was completely safe from sharks and sea snakes and I just melted into the afternoon. The water was totally placid and the hundreds, probably thousands of “Audi” birds that nest on the island flew back and forth in front of me. As the sun went lower in the sky, the water and the sky all became a shimmering silver. As the sun was going down, it left its reddish-orange reflection bouncing across the still water. It was a very special sunset and
this is a very special place. If it weren’t for the sharks, I would stay here for the next couple of days, but there are sharks, so on we go to Ilot Mato.
