O’ua is an interesting anchorage. We were not exactly anchored off the island but rather off of the extensive reef that surrounds it. It was one of the rolliest anchorages we’d been in, and it was at its worst at high tide when the reef provides less protection. There’s actually a winding channel through the reef to navigate back to a much more protected anchorage just off the island, but we opted to stay outside the reef with faster access to spear fishing spots. There were two small islets near where we anchored that looked inviting to explore, but the weather conditions (rainy and windy) pretty much kept me on the boat the whole time. It’s not exactly fun paddle boarding with 15 kts of wind in your face and 2 ft wind chop on the water. Since we were with Iguana, we still had some fun together, including some pretty intense game nights playing Resistance.
We didn’t stay long at O’ua. We heard on the SSB net that there were 13 boats at Uoleva heading south and we wanted to stay ahead of the crowd.
Tim doesn’t often write any notes in our logbook, so most days I write, “T/J – spearfish…” and then include what their catch of the day was. All the other exciting or not so exciting things that happen remain in Tim’s head and I hope that one day he’ll write a little about his spear fishing adventures all over the world. However, while we were in O’ua Tim wrote this note in the log: “spearfishing expedition to Whickham reef. Amazing spot. Made holes in 4 tuna and 2 coral trout but came back empty. Huge bull shark and leopard shark said hi.”
Gresham Family Exodus 