Redemption

I woke up at 4am and started kayaking just before 5am.  I was heading back to Yakabi Island, where I went last Sunday and lost my zorrie in a flipped-kayak melee.  Last night's full moon combined with a rising tide and low wind gave me a lot of hope that I might find a fish to bring home.

[it looks small, but really I'm just big]

But the first three hours of fishing proved fruitless so I went in to a southern beach to begin working my way back northwards in search of the missing zorrie.  No luck on the first beach, but after I successfully escaped its surf I threw a couple casts and nailed a 10lb. rainbow runner (スムブリ) that put up an impressive fight.  I was really psyched as this could very well be the only fish I catch this year (my two-year average is somewhere around 1.5/yr) from a kayak.

There were lots of reasons why my zorrie would not be found - a waxing moon means ever-increasing tides this week so beach trash has trouble staying on beaches, it had been a week since I lost the zorrie, the ocean is big, there are currents in the ocean, the zorrie is black - but I defied all of those and found it resting right-side-up just about 30m from where I lost it.

[back to two Chacos]

[dinner tonight: blackened sashimi (thanks Palau for the recipe!)]

Purple Flowers

Ocean Shots

Some more shots from Sunday's kayak excursion:

Tomoko and Iyo

The bride and the groom are from mainland Japan, but they met while working seasonal jobs on Zamami two years ago.  They both stayed longer than a season - maybe a year each - before getting engaged and then going to work in Australia for six months.  They came back recently to fulfill a promise of having a wedding ceremony on Zamami.  I met the girl (Tomoko) through the eisa group.  Her English was decent at the time, now both are much better after their time in Australia.

I had grand notions of rocking the photography for them, but it just didn't pan out.  I will admit to being in a bad mood for the first hour, after taking the advice of 3-4 people to wear a suit, then discovering that I was the ONLY person there in a suit (not even the fathers were wearing them!).  I had the discomfort of the suit compounded by the discomfort of standing out.  And I need to be comfortable to photograph well, I learned.

I wasn't very happy with the photos, but here's the best of them:

I found out after the wedding that they are staying on Zamami.  I really love these two so this makes me very happy.  Also, I found out she's one month pregnant!  Maybe I can have better luck photographing their baby?

Two notable events from the wedding:

*They did a 'game' where everybody who was in attendance had their name in a box.  The bride and groom randomly drew out names and those people had to come give a speech.  Yep, I was one of the four chosen.  This was one of the situations I've learned it is probably better to use my English than practice my Japanese, and I'm glad I did.

*It was a little windy for the bouquet toss so they did something I've never seen before (I'm not exactly a seasoned wedding attendee, however): The bride held 15 long red ribbons in her hand, one of which was tied to the bouquet.  On her count of three everybody pulled their ribbon - and the winner of the next marriage was attached to the bouquet.

My First Kayak Trip Abroad

Today was my first kayak venture [this year] outside the main island chain.  We were supposed to go marlin fishing, but stupid customers came to busy the marlin captain so I was on my own.  I was excited to get over to Yakabi because usually the first trip of the year yields some good beach treasure.  As I pulled in to the beach I noted the waves were significant enough to pay attention.  I timed my entry and thought I had done well, but I hadn't.  A wave rolled the kayak and my stuff went everywhere.  Immediately another wave nailed me.  My fishing rod was tied to my kayak so I saved that first, then scavenged the paddle and pushed the cumbersome kayak towards shore to get it going away from the waves.  I lost a flip-flop in the ruckus, but managed to grab my camera bag, food bag, and lures as they were all floating out to sea.  The zorrie and both my water bottles floated away.  :(

I was sorta stuck at this point, with only one piece of footwear, no water to drink, and waves too big to scale to get back to sea easily.  I assessed my situation: I wasn't thirsty and I wanted another zorrie.  So I went about my planned beach scavenging trip and found a replacement zorrie within 3 minutes.  Unfortunately that was the highlight of all the beaches walked today.

Next I attacked the 'getting back to sea' part.  It was too rough where I was so I decided to drag my kayak 200 meters (see above picture - I came from that BIG rock in the center) to a place out of the wind.  When I got there I found both my water bottles!  Obviously a collection point for beach garbage, I stuck around another hour hoping my zorrie would show up.  It didn't.  :(

[my kayak with water bottles (right) where I found them]

[No idea why the one on the right leaked?]

[A China and a Chaco]

I fished another two hours after getting back to sea and had one fish come up and splash around my lure but no solid hookup.  Then I kayaked 2 hours into the wind home and now I'm dead tired.  The blog will be busy this week with more pre-disaster kayak trip photos and Saturday wedding photos.  Come back!

Tug-of-War, A Bonus Sequence

Tug of War With a Twist

We have a cool take on Tug of War that we play on the beach for our beach opening ceremony.  There are two teams starting behind a line and five ropes between the two teams.  The first team to get three ropes behind their line wins.  There are all sorts of strategies to win this game and just when I think I've got it figured out I see somebody implement my strategy and lose.

[failing at the white rope]

[not doing so well on red, either]

[they ended up dragging this kid across the line before he let go]