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Report from Uto Ni Yalo in position Lat 34 17.0(S), Long 179 50.3(E)

We finally departed the viaduct on Tuesday 20^th April after a month in Auckland doing maintenance and waiting for the right weather. It was an emotional farewell to the local Fijian community, friends and well wishers.

Big Vinaka vaka levu to Marama and the Naitasiri ladies for the meals and gifts they brought for us while at the Mangere Marae, Not forgetting the Naitasiri gentleman and others Fijian’s who gave us a good and proper belting with yaqona and sigi drigi, Tilly of the Anglican church Marae where we stayed. Thank you for your patience and putting up with us, Peter Elbourne, Stan and Andrew Smith, Eroni, Tamiana Konrote and everyone else that was there for us, Thank you. Harold, Emily and Chrisi Vinaka vaka levu for the never ending support, you know where you stand.

We departed our berth at the viaduct with the call to “Bole” from Chris Cokanasiga which the crew all followed in Unison followed by a loud cheer from the crowd waving from the shore.

After clearing customs and in high spirits the Uto headed for Great Barrier Island.  At 1655hrs after departure we hooked our first fish of the trip which was a rainbow runner and the second at 1750 hrs also a rainbow runner. We reached Great Barrier Island and dropped our sea anchor at 0200 hrs on the morning of the 21^st. We then dropped our hydrophone to check if we could hear anything but all was pretty quiet for the night

Billy Boy, Sisi, Carson and Loma were on the 3 to 6am watch, and struggled to find ways of entertaining themselves to keep from falling asleep. With the lack of physical work to do while we were drifting on the sea anchor as well as the chilly winds and light showers we were forced us to take shelter in the deckhouse. When the jokes and laughter ran out, sleep crept in.  Any amount of elbowing was happening to keep each other up….

At 0600 hrs we were advised by Capt. Danbolt of Hine Moana to head out to Te Matau A Mawi to get into formation for filming from a helicopter.  We headed toward Te Matau A Maui who by now had the chopper hovering just above the water filming them as well as the rest of the canoes. After about two hours of filming and getting buzzed by the helicopter and a lot of noise and sea spray from the helicopter we headed out on our journey.

Aotearoa 1 journeyed out to the Great Barrier to farewell the crews. As they approached the Uto Ni yalo, their crew performed the Haka after which the Uto Ni Yalo crew responded with the Bole. Straight after the Bole we were graced with a shark right next to us on our starboard beam and about 30 dolphins on the bow. We also had a light shower with a rainbow right over the vaka’s as we departed for the open sea. We needed the mana for this journey of a noble cause and we definitely felt it.

We did our second Hydrophone sounding after changing over rigs from traditional to burmuda but that also was very quiet

Out in the open ocean it was a very cold first night, 10 degrees celcius wind chill and Chris decided to have his first saltwater bath at midnight, so the challenge was layed. Carson beat that by having a saltwater bath after his watch at 0300hrs this morning.