Lo's Fish

Nomuka Iki was our last cruising stop in Tonga before we got serious about getting ready for the gauntlet to NZ. We made sure we took full advantage of our beautiful surroundings, having a blast with Ummagumma and Dancyn (in photo above; a similar size to Demelza). On our last day in the Ha’apai, we went spearfishing at one of the outer reefs to the south of the island with John and Heather.

While Lo had been honing her free diving technique all season, she had been reluctant to actually shoot/kill a fish. Well, with our departure imminent, she relented and took the speargun for a hunt. We both went searching for a realistic candidate; I found a nice “easy” one in shallow water, but Lo had her eye on a big grouper in about 15ft of water. She did a practice dive to see if it was within her range, then handed me the gun in acknowledgement that it was not. We already had one fish, so it didn’t make sense to get more than two for just the four of us. I handed the gun back to Lo, thinking that the fish was as safe as the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.

“Whatever you do, please don’t shoot the spear at the reef” were my last words as she dived under. The fish moved away onto a patch of reef while she descended, but then moved off and into slightly deeper water over a sand patch. I thought it was game over, but Lo pushed deeper than she had ever gone and slowly took aim. “THWANGH” went the spear, flying through the water and straight into the fish! Unbelievable, she hit a fish her first try!!! She started pulling in the retrieval line while ascending, but the fish had other ideas, lodging itself under a ledge in the reef. Lo looked up with a “what now?” expression and I waved her up, knowing that the gun stock floated and that her lungs must be burning. She thought my wave meant “come on you little milk pup, get that fish up here” and persisted until the fish popped out. I think Lo’s grin says it all about how she felt after that awesome dive.