Day 135 Feeding the sharks

Suwarrow beach party
Mike from Just Dessert organized a beach party for tonight so he took Kurt and Andy in his dinghy to get the fish for the barbecue.
Just after they left, our old friends Paul and Lee Ellen on Gata Go arrived so I went over to say hello. We last time we saw them was in Tahiti at Marina Taina when Lee Ellen left on a trip to the U.S. and Paul was waiting for her return. We spent some time catching up on our respective travels since then and on exchanging news (and probably gossip) about other boats that we both knew. They had some very good times in Marina Opoiti in Ra'iatea where we had spent time and they met some of the same boats we knew when we were there. They reported that our friends on Soul's Calling were on their way to Suwarrow and would likely arrive on Monday.
I was back on Southern Star when the fishermen returned. I got out the camera and waited on deck to get a good shot of their conquests. As their dinghy pulled alongside, Kurt held up the head of a fish that had probably been about 2 ½ feet long. They were very disappointed that this was their only catch. They had only had a few bites and when Kurt hooked this one, he tried to reel it in as fast as he could but by the time he got it to the boat only the head was left and Mike had use the gaff to knock off the two sharks that were still clinging to it. They said there were probably a dozen small lemon colored black-tipped reef sharks in a frenzy around the dinghy when they brought in the fish. At the end off the day the score was sharks 1 and fishermen zero. Fortunately a few other boats had fish on board that they had caught during their last passage so we had enough for the barbecue.
I prepared our standard cole slaw and a pesto-pasta salad as our contribution to the beach party. I was expecting that we would make a bunch of sushi but that was not to be. Maybe the next time we will make shark steaks.
By 6 o'clock the yachties were assembling on shore at the house of the caretakers. There were at least 8 boats represented and most of them I had not met before so there were a lot of new faces. The table was stacked with food but within an hour it had all been consumed.
The caretaker's kids showed us what a coconut crab looks like by producing a "small" sample that was about 18" across. They are pretty amazing creatures as they can easily climb trees and their favorite food comes from the coconuts that they crack open. They also eat fish and any small animal they can catch. The guide book says they can get to be 3 feet in diameter. Not something you would want to meet in a dark alley at night - or a dark jungle, for that matter.
John, the caretaker is proficient at the guitar and he and his wife Veronica know many songs so the evening ended with singing and talking and exchanging stories about our travels.