Oct. 28th: 2 headed dragons and Tongatapu

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21 07.78 S
175 09.86 W

At Anchor near Big Mama's shipwreck bar across from Nuku'alofa

Crew: Cyrus & Pete washing waterline, Mac sitting on deck, Brett cooking dinner, Colby exploring main village of Nuku'alofa, Brooke writing (and feeling much better than last time I wrote)

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When we departed the magical volcanic island of Kao yesterday, it was obvious that we all felt we could easily have spent many more days exploring this crazy place. A day was spent getting to know this little hot spot on our planet. Peter and Mac bushwhacked and forged their way in the toughest hike of their lives to the top of the volcano. Their photos are exceptional and they returned with a feeling of pride, exhaustion and serious dehydration (particularly Peter who did not take near enough water with him). The rest of us stayed near the shore within eyesight of our lovely Volpaia. I hiked into the pine forest on my own and was rewarded with a visit from some exceptionally curious birds sporting little yellow leather patches on their cheeks with a red dot for an extra bit of fancy. They hung from branches around my head warbling, clucking and chirping. I felt as if I had a visit from small feathered dinosaurs. They are very social and were constantly flitting around with each other, dancing in the air around me. The cliffs and shoreline in this part of the island is insane. Brett got his fill of Insane rock climbing. He could climb inverted into the top of the open mouths of jagged caverns .. get tired? No problem.. just drop into the water. I watched Brett climbing and floating and swimming in the water, laughing to himself.. I believe I caught a glimpse of him in his happy place. Cyrus and I hiked down into a chasm that echoed blue light and took a peek below the waves to find it crackling with life.. octopus, crabs, shrimps all clicking and scratching away.. baby corals are taking root here and the fish are happily gliding around the giant car sized boulders. Colby enjoyed his share of cliff jumping and had a large smile plastered on his face for most of the day.

Everyone has probably thought about what it would be like to have a visit from the extraterrestrial kind. I believe a visit from squid and cuttlefish might be as close as most of us will ever get. For those of you who have had the blessed moment to have a visit from one of these intelligent creatures, you will agree. A large squid about a foot long zipped up to me, I could just hear the jetsons sound effects. It would motor up to my face, then put it in reverse, then forward again, looking at me, wiggling her tentacles at me and curiously staring at me while pulsing colors... greens and blues and speckles of maroon,,, as if trying to hypnotize me... "you are getting veeeery sleeepy... yoouuuu like the preeeettttyyy colors? Thaaaat's right. Stare into my eyeball. .... You do not like calamari. Yooouuuu doooo nooooot liiiiike calamaaaari." This at least is what I would assume she would be trying to drill into my head. She seemed to be trying to communicate something anyway, then zipped off into the blue. Ahhh a visit from the depths. (I scared Cyrus. Apparently I involuntarily screamed through my snorkel when she arrived. 😊 )

It is now time for us to free dive the cavernous areas we have been driving by as we made our way to the only low spot in the cliffs where we could find a place to clammer up onto the island. I plop into the clear water with anticipation riding on my flippers. We have been talking about trying this. Approaching the cliffs is otherworldly. Like a dragon's armor, the rock face is a shield of geometric pointy scales protecting the island. We swim into the first cavern. The ocean surges up and down in the darkness. Above the rocks are perfect geometric squares cut with precision. One piece has been knocked out, leaving a perfect square sky light. As we swim to wards the dark back of the cave, the water sucks down, revealing pink rock crusted with barnacles and other little bits of suctioned life. We are in a mouth. We are in a mouth! I am peering into the throat of the island. Cyrus is filming and pops up with a smile, "Awesome, huh?" he says.... "We are in a mouth." I say. "What?" he responds. "WE... ARE... IN... A... MOUTH." I repeat. He turns and looks behind him to where I am staring and the water lowers revealing the soft tissue of the throat. and looks at me and beyond, out of the mouth. He finally says, "oh. yes... we... are.". And I flipper out looking again at the cave. It is a dragon's mouth. I am quite certain. Next cavern, I can see the throat is larger this time... I am in the lead with Cyrus and Peter diving around the entrance. I take a deep breath and think "don't eat me"... as I swim to wards the back of the dark throat. The throat curves to my left... as I turn the corner under the island, the neck is long and water ruffles and bubbles with saliva as it is sucking the life from the sea. It appears to be a turbulent under-island river. I can see light. I smile. Ahhhh, so it is a two headed dragon. As I arrive at the 2nd throat, I can see this mouth is smaller and has teeth. I see it gulping water and spitting it back out. I time it and dive.. I am spit out. Actually, I am shot out of the mouth at high speed. My heart is racing and a large smile is on my face. All I can think of is that... I was swallowed then hocked back out by a large two-headed dragon! Cyrus and Peter were spat out alongside me laughing. What a ride. It was one of the most beautiful and unusual free-dives we have ever done. We swam from cavern to cavern, through archways and boulders.. light filtering through the openings like sheer draperies unveiling shimmering fishes and rolling bubbles. I cannot think of words to describe the otherworldly rugged beauty here.

Then as you know we sailed South in less than desirable seas. It is fine as long as one does not sit at a computer below... thus the message you received. Everyone kept their stomach contents and we even were able to add to it later as Cyrus and I were on deck for our watch when the pole jumped and screamed. We yelled for Peter who has been desperately trying to catch a fish. We were soon the proud owners of a gorgeous 50 lb. mahi mahi. We had mahi burgers upon arrival and tonight we are grilling mahi steaks at sunset. We are in Tongatapu.. our last stop before our big jump to New Zealand.

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