Fatu Hiva to Tahiti: Day 5 - Repel pirates!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Up until now, we had only seen one or two birds at a time flying around our boat, and fish would very rarely bite onto our line. But today there were some 50 birds going nuts around our boat. It looked like they were having some kind of big feeding frenzy. Then, we noticed our gaff hook (what you impale the fish with when you get them near your boat to secure them) went overboard at some point last night without anyone noticing. We noticed it was missing just after putting the line out and joked about a fish biting on immediately, and shockingly enough, it happened. We lost the first fish to have a second one bite onto the line immediately after, and then a third after that, all while the birds were going crazy. We thought it was the twilight zone. A squall suddenly hit us while all this was happening and we got down poured with rain and wind of up to 30 knots.

Supposedly fish and birds start acting crazy when there is a change in atmospheric pressure and can be a signal that a squall is approaching.

Here is a big rain cloud chasing us. It caught up to us fairly easily.

Another weird thing happened today. Usually when we see another ship (motorized, not sail), they are much faster than us, so we watch them motor on by in the distance until out of sight. Well today, we had this bigger rickety-looking boat come out of nowhere and motor alongside us (between 1 and 2 miles away) and maintain the same speed and course as us for hours. It was as if he was watching us. The scariest thing is that he is still there now as I write this and the sun just went below the horizon!

We prepped the cutlass, the flare guns, the 2 million candle mega-flashlight, and some wasp killer that sprays 30 feet and can blind people. So we are all ready to repel pirates tonight!

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Our friend circled our boat until around midnight (8 hours total) and then disappeared into the darkness, not to be seen again. That was very creepy...