We were in the picture perfect lagoon of Tuao. We had visited bird and coconut crab island, where the trees are filled with hundreds of bird nests, and the sky is a canopy of winged terns singing their songs to their little chicks. The baby boobies are not scared of people and just peck at any appendage that gets too close to them.
There is a group of about 9 people that inhabit the atoll. They are a wonderful gracious people who when we stopped by to say hello opened coconuts for everyone to drink, and tried to give us three of their lobsters, and some of their coconut crabs. We talked them down to one coconut crab, and one lobster, and of course they forced us to take the biggest one.
We brought them in Pamplemousse, honey, and some baguettes. We also offered for them to come out for dinner the following evening. They accepted graciously. The next morning they arrived at the boat, and dove down and got us a blue parrotfish. And later on they brought us a Jack. Dinner worked out great with fish, lots of rice, and veggies. Dessert was burnt brownies, and home made cinnamon rolls. And topped off with a movie in French.
The following day they had us over for lunch, with lots of lobster, coconut crab, rice, and fish prepared four different ways. Incredible!!
So as we were leaving it was about 2pm to 3pm. The sun was creating quite a glare off our port bow, but we appeared to be able to see well enough to spot any boomies. Cassidy was up the mast, I was on the engine controls, and we were talking about a large boomie that I could see on the chart plotter but was not visible by eye. Suddenly a grinding/crunching/shuddering sound and vibration electrified everyone. It went on for a second or two and then stopped, we were only going about 4.5 knots, and I popped the motor into idle. Whew! That wasn't so bad!!! Then CRUNCH/BUMP!!! The whole back of the boat lifted up with a bone crunching, wood shattering, and yes heart-breaking sound. I looked in the water behind/under us, and there was the beautiful boomie just under the surface, and pieces of our home littering the surface. Absolutely devastating!
There was no panic, though I did look up at Cassidy in the mast, and say "Cass!" As though pleading for her to make it not happen. But she was quite sad about it also, and we both should have been taking watching more seriously.
We were free of the boomie and the wind was pushing us toward the charted reef. I started the other motor and started steering us away, when I realized that we needed to do a quick assessment. We dropped the anchor, and Shannon and I got our masks and dove in the see if we were sinking. There was this 20' long deep scrape along the inside of the hull, but not all the way through the fiberglass. Next I went to the rudder, it was bent back at about 30 degrees, and the bottom of it as splayed open with the stainless shaft and ribs bent sticking out the bottom, and the encasing fiberglass and foam flopping in the water. The rear edge of the rudder had broken through the hull making a 1' foot by 4" inch hole through the hull. Upon close examination the hole was found to be in the rudder "groove", and the water would only flood that portion of the boat. Very fortunate!
The propeller is not looking good, with one blade skewed terribly. I disconnected the ruined rudder from the steering arm, and with our one rudder and one functioning motor limped off to our anchorage.
Today we went and dove on the boomie, it was extremely difficult to see, from the surface, even when almost on top of it. It is a jagged spire about 20' by 10' rising almost vertically from the 40' bottom. We apparently straddled the boomie between the two hulls, we just nicked one edge of the boomie with the hull and then the rudder and prop.
On the bright side though we are now heading for another area where we should be able to send this report to you. Also we just landed a 6' blue marlin? Well it is a 6' long bluish fish with no bill. Not sure what it is, but we are pretty sure that it is good to eat!!!
We are all doing great, and the boat is doing as well as can be expected!!!
Courage
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