{"id":4754,"date":"2016-11-14T01:17:07","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T01:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=4754"},"modified":"2017-01-29T01:21:12","modified_gmt":"2017-01-29T01:21:12","slug":"shredder-huon-reef-new-caledonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=4754","title":{"rendered":"Shredder – Huon Reef, New Caledonia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_2581_2\"Remember Shredder in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie? He was the big bad villain and we suspect he\u2019s alive and well and living at Huon Reef\u2026<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s what happened. We\u2019d had another wonderful day at Huon \u2013 snorkeling, beach-combing, reading, doing a few small boat jobs and now it was time for sundowners on the trampoline, watching the huge red sun gradually sink below the horizon on a glassed-out sea. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever felt quite so relaxed and peaceful.\"IMG_2636\"<\/p>\n

As darkness fell I went inside to begin preparing dinner when suddenly there was a huge commotion at the back of the boat – a humongous splashing and thrashing. At first I thought it was amorous turtles who\u2019d surfaced behind the boat (perhaps it was?) but then came Bruce\u2019s call \u201cA turtle\u2019s collided with the dinghy\u201d. At first we chuckled, they\u2019re not the smartest of animals and we\u2019d already discovered their eyesight isn\u2019t great. But then Bruce pulled the dinghy alongside and we discovered the starboard tube had deflated. Expecting a small puncture we hoisted the dinghy out of the water to examine the damage. No, it definitely was NOT a small puncture \u2013 the whole aft pontoon (the conical bit) had been well and truly shredded, either by the turtle\u2019s fins, shell, mouth or all of the above. Either way, we were no longer laughing \u2013 it was way too big a repair job for the little hypalon patches and glue in our repair kit. To say we were stunned would be an understatement \u2013 these type of freak events aren\u2019t supposed to happen in paradise!<\/p>\n

\"Hard
Hard to believe a turtle could do this much damage..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Without a working dinghy our diving and exploring days are now over \u2013 at least we have the kayaks to get to the beach, but diving out on the reef is way too far to paddle. More worrying (apart from the cost) is that we\u2019ll need a dinghy once we get home to ferry us from our mooring to shore. Talk about putting a dampener on things Mr Turtle! Suddenly we didn\u2019t feel quite so warm and fuzzy about our shellback friends. I guess that would be turtles -1, dinghy \u2013 0.<\/p>\n

\"The
The stunning Huon Reef – but now hard to explore without the dinghy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the weather remaining glorious, it\u2019s taken the edge off paradise for us. We\u2019ve been looking closely at the weather too, and it seems there may be a nasty tropical low developing to the north-west of us, so it\u2019s time to pack our bags and get out of here. Being caught in a coral atoll with little protection is not where we want to be in a storm. Our plan has been to stop at Chesterfield Reef to break the journey south, but we may have to forego that too if the bad weather eventuates. So as of this morning (Mon 14th<\/sup> Nov) we\u2019re underway, in very light winds from the NNE.<\/p>\n

Bundaberg would be the nearest port of entry for us, but because we\u2019re importing the boat we\u2019ve been advised to clear into a NSW port. Coffs Harbour was our first choice but the marina is still closed for repairs so Border Control have told us we\u2019ll need to clear into Newcastle. That\u2019s a long slog from here (over 1000nm) so we expect to be on passage for 7-8 days. Hopefully we\u2019ll be able to break the journey at either Chesterfield or Cato reefs on the way but, as always, that\u2019s up to Huey.<\/p>\n

\"The
The silver lining? At least we’re nearly home and hopefully can get the dinghy repaired.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember Shredder in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie? He was the big bad villain and we suspect he\u2019s alive and well and living at Huon Reef\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The blog is back up at last - check out our latest posts on Huon Reef!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B46t-1eG","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4755,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754\/revisions\/4755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}