24 July - Manta Dive with some wine and cheese

Well Nic and the kids are well and truly back in Pohnpei. After what can only be described as an ordinary flight (leaving Cairns at Midnight and arriving after lunch in Pohnpei) it took a couple of days for them all to get back to normal. Come Saturday the weather was great and we took the boat out with our neighbours Dean and Heather. The plan was to have a snorkel/dive with some manta rays at low tide then find a nice sheltered spot and have some wine and cheese. So after the babysitter arrived and was settled in, off we went.

The water wasn't as clear as it has been of late due to massive amounts of rain causing the streams and rivers to purge into the ocean. The water was a beautiful 28 degrees so it was certainly a nice dive. Nic and Scott got to the bottom at about 18 metres and enjoyed seeing all the fish and a couple of huge manta rays.

Not a bad photo of a huge manta gliding on by.

Nic picked up some new jigs for Scott so of course one of them had to be tested while we were out there. It didn't take too long at all for some success with a little coral trout joining us in the boat.

Relaxing after a couple of wines on the way back home.

Dean and Heather enjoying the fact that they don't have any kids, yet.....

03 July - Fishing

I can't let a weekend pass without fishing while Nic, Jaxon and Indi are away. Beru (our Pohnpeian boat driver) and I headed over to Ant Atoll for the day. We trolled there but didn't even get a touch. I already decided that it was going to be a bait-free day, so trolling, casting and jigging lures was only way I could catch fish.
Once we got to Ant I tried some casting but nothing seemed to be interested. I changed over to a jig and after working the lure on the bottom for about 15 seconds, bang. A nice little coral trout snaffled it and came onboard.

We changed spots shortly after that I and I landed a beautiful Napoleon Wrasse.

We then headed off to our third spot and I caught this nice little brown-marbled grouper. Nothing huge but nice looking fish.

So it wasn't the best day fishing ever but it is always a good feeling to catch fish on lures.

01 July - More Chickens

While we were away on holiday our neighbour Heather told us that one of the chickens that lives on the compound had laid eggs in one of our hanging baskets. They probably do this to keep them safe from the cats, dogs, toads and land crabs.

At 0617 I was woken up by a bit of a ruckus out my balcony door. I had a look and there was the mother hen sitting on the railing beside the basket. A signal that I had to go and help her.

I carried the basket downstairs and she flew down to meet me.

The basket was tipped over and they all jumped out and ran to mum.

They are still running about. They come over to see me everytime I go downstairs and I'll give them a handful of rice. I even have the little chicks sitting in my hand now. Pretty cool.

30 June - Fishing

I honestly had no intention of going fishing this day. Honestly. I was laying on the bed at about a quarter to five after a full day at work and trying to recover from fishing the day before when the phone rings. Its Alois from the Pohnpei Surf Club. 'Hi Scott, what are you doing?' To which I reply 'Nothing'. 'Grab your casting pole, come to the club, we're going fishing' and hangs up. What could I do, I didn't even have a chance to reply.

15 minutes later we were casting and enjoying some beautiful flat water. After about 25 minutes I hooked and landed my fish Blackjack Trevally in Pohnpei. A small one but a good fish all the same.

I stopped fishing just long enough to savour a beautiful Pohnpeian sunset.

My lure having a little rest.

I caught one other nice trevally about ten minutes after the first one. A little bigger at 7kgs. When we got back to the surf club I rang up Jaxon's school teacher and offered her a fish. They accepted it greatfully so all in all another great afternoon/evening.

Fishing 29 June

As is the way while Nic, Jaxon and Indi are away the fishing time must be maximised.

The boat was already in the water so after work we went out for an afternoon/sunset fish. First fish onboard was a 5.5kg Albacore Tuna. Not a bad start at all.

Not long after we saw a large flock of birds working the surface and we went to try and catch ourselved a yellowfin tuna. It didn't take too long for one of the rods to burst into action with line screaming off. Pony eventually got the rod out of the rod holder and started what became an awesome battle.

There were no tears but I'm sure Pony was ready to give up more than once.

Unfortunately it wasn't the yellowfin that we were after. It ended up being a 100kg+ shark that must have been feeding on the tuna school. Either way it was a great fish and was released in the water to annoy us again another day.

By the time the shark was released the tuna had disappeared so we headed back to the reef and trolled hoping to get a wahoo. Didn't take too long and we were hooked up. Scott's turn to wind in a fish a shortly after we had our first Dogtooth Tuna in the boat. A nice fish at over 12kgs. A great afternoon on the water.

Fishing 26 June

As most of you know Nic, Jaxon and Indi are in Perth visiting family until the 19th of July. So unfortunately poor Scott is back in Pohnpei all by himself trying to find things to do. He got off the plane Friday afternoon after the 'hell flight' from Cairns. It leaves at midnight, arrives Guam about 0500 and then you change planes leaving Guam about 0800 and get into Pohnpei about 1300. Not a whole lot of opportunity to sleep. No doubting it will be pretty hard for Nic with the kids doing it on her own.

The weather for next day looked good so the boat was put in the water and Scott and Dean went in search of Marlin. 20 minutes after the lures were in a marlin hit one of the lures but didn't stay connected. About four hours later (see it's not as easy as it looks) one of the reels started screaming. A massive marlin just about took all the line off the reel and it didn't look like it was going to stop at any point. We decided to turn the boat and try and chase it but at about the same time the hooks came out. Spewen. Oh well, that's fishing. With about an hour to go we came across a huge school of skipjack tuna and caught eleven in the last hour, leaving the school to get home before dark.

We gave all but two (kept for bait) away to our Pohnpein friends. They love eating them and either can't afford them or don't own a boat to catch them themselves. After cleaning and refuelling the boat it was over to Dean and Heathers house for a feed of spagetti marinara and to watch the Aust v Ireland rugby test. Heather cooked up a cracka of a feed and Scott fell asleep on their couch during the rugby. A great day all in all.

Cairns - Baby Sitters

It was a great family holiday to Cairns, we did as much together as we could. Though every now and again it was great to have other people step up and take over.

How could you not love em......

Nana C. Straight off the plane and out to lunch and straight into reading stories.

Stand-by child minders Uncles Rowan and Sean.

Chris (Lyndons brother) lives in Cairns and we caught up with him a few times. Mostly for Scott to spin navy stories and drink beer with but even he got cornered by Jaxon for story-time.

Indi had to make sure Chris was on the money with the details of the story.

Cairns - Breakfast with the Beasts

Reading the title of the blog you might have thought this was about Jaxon and Indi..... but you would wrong. Hosting the largest pride of lions in Australiasia the Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve is certainly another 'must do' if you ever visit Cairns. We combined the visit with what they call Breakfast with the Beasts. A fantastic opportunity to get up close with the lions, first time Jaxon and Indi were quiet for any length of time for ages.

They put on a great spread: cereal, fruit, toast, hot breakfast - pretty much as much you want. A huge hit with Indi.

Here kitty kitty.

Nothing like a bit of a tease. I'm sure all of those lions wanted some Indi for breakfast.

It's not all lions at the reserve. It is spread out over quite a large area. All the animals have really impressive sized pens. So big that you struggle to see the animals at times unless they are close to the fence.

Big Daddy.

Cairns Visit 2

Cairns Coconut Village Resort has a water park very similiar to the one at Seaworld on the Gold Coast. Jaxon and Indi loved it and we couldn't keep them off of it, even when the artic winds blew through dropping the temperature to 17 degrees. We were lucky enough to have Nanna C (Scott's Mum), and Uncles Rowan and Sean fly up from Brisbane for a couple of days. Rowan and Sean were quickly sliding down slides with Jaxon and Indi.

Launch the Indi. Get ready to catch Uncle Sean.

Every three minutes or so the big pipeapple on top fills up to tipping-over point and covers everyone with water.

The slide didn't bother Indi at all. We would get her out of the water and she would be off up the stairs to do it all over again.

One at a time please. Yeah right.

Uncle Rowan attempting to drown Jaxon.

Cairns - Coconut Village Caravan Park

On our return to Cairns we stayed at the Cairns Coconut Village Resort. Apparently it's voted the number one caravan park in the southern hemisphere. It wasn't that expensive for what you got so it gets two big thumbs up from us. Great variety in accomodation options, jumping pillows, water park, heaps of pools, play grounds, pool tables, table tennis, mini golf, out-door movies; the list goes on. So do yourself a favour if you're ever in Cairns and stay a night or two.

We loved the jumping pillows, Indi wouldn't stop screaming with laughter the whole time.

Nothing like a bit of Happy Gilmore style golf. Indi was just making sure it went in the hole.

'Muddys' is another place that we visited a lot while in Cairns. It's a little water park on the Cairn Esplanade. It has a little cafe for coffees for Mum and Dad while the kids go nuts.

Nic, Jaxon and Indi were going to visit Perth after Scott went back to Pohnpei. Cold weather preparation was required. Dora gets a guernsey with Indi.

Hey Homie. Lightning Macqueen is Jaxon's favourite and he was happy to wear his new beanie in Cairns. Crazy kid.

Hamilton Island 4

Ever wonder what James Packer spends his money on.

Now you know.

A sunset cruise. Jaxon and Indi are taken care of with a babysitter and we're off. No blue puffer vests in sight. A few cocktails on the upperdeck as the sun set and then into the main cabin for a seafood smorgasboard. Heaven (pretty close any way).

Got few nice sunset photos.

Hamilton Island 3

Continued..... We took advantage of the Clownfish Club again (child care centre) and spent the day out on the Banjo Pattern, one the yachts doing day trips out of Hamilton Island. We visited Whitehaven Beach (voted one of the top ten beaches in the world and number one in Australia), had a beautiful lunch on the yacht and then visited a place called 'Chalky's Beach' for a snorkel. The water was 24 degrees and even though we were in thin wetsuits Scott was shivering from within ten minutes. Getting soft after too much of the good life in Pohnpei.

Whitehaven beach, squeaky clean. A beautiful place for sure. Nic enjoyed just relaxing and reading a magazine. Scott played some beach cricket with some others off of the yacht.

Lunch is served. Does it get any better than white wine and prawns while anchored up at Whitehaven Beach.

The trip home was great fun. It was too windy to put the spinnaker up but the main sail helped us lay over enough.

The blue puffer-vest. It's a long story. Scott packed one of his jumpers when we left Pohnpei. When Nic repacked the bags she decided that Cairns/Hamilton Island are tropical places and it doesn't get cold. What the hell is Scott doing packing a jumper and it was prompting removed. Needless to say Hamilton Island is an extremely expensive part of the world so a cheap puffer vest was the best option. Gay but warm.

Nic took the wheel for about 20 minutes and after five minutes of leaving a wiggly wake very much had the hang of it and kept us on course. Nic loved it - tick that one off the 'to do' list.