Operation Fin (Part 1)
After a great breakfast cooked by Miriam of scrambled eggs and bacon, we found a friendly face looking at us from the steps of our unit. It turns out this was Scratch, a slightly sinister looking tabby who turned out to be quite friendly.
Having had no luck searching the internet for the type of fin I need to buy to replace the broken one from my windsurfing yesterday, I decided to have a look for the missing fin itself.
Taking a single kayak, I went back to the area where I hit the coral head and paddled around a bit pretty certain that I knew, more-or-less, where it was. Remember, I am an expert at finding things underwater via kayak - i.e. my missing cray pot! The water was not as crystal clear as where we swim but the coral heads are obvious dark patches under the water. It didn't take long to find a likely candidate and, hey presto, there was the fin vaguely discernable about a metre down in top of the 2m wide coral platform.
The next problem was how to retrieve it. If I got out of the kayak, I could get the fin but by then the kayak would have drifted away with the steady breeze. The location was about 100m from shore or 50m from a shallow coral spit that was a more accessible launching point to swim out from. I didn't have any flippers with me and the place we are staying doesn't have any.
I paddled home again and we decided to consider the next step over lunch. So back to the Koru Cafe for Tuna sandwiches and a Corona.
