Day 10: Wednesday 18 August

A view from the boat, sun on the clouds.

Slow day today again. Good wind direction from the West/South West, but light. The boat can do quite well at 8-9 knots of wind speed – reaching speeds of nearly 5-6 knots, but anything less is slow going.  I’m on the midnight to 3.00AM watch tonight, and in light winds it is a good time to reflect on the day!

Cooked banana pancakes for breakfast to use up more of our copious supply of rapidly ripening bananas, then geared up for our anticipated 10,000m deep swim! We were passing over the deepest part of the Kermadec Trench on our route to Niue and we couldn’t let that go uncelebrated. The Kermadec – Tonga Trench is the second deepest place on earth next to the Marianas Trench. Created by the collision and then sliding under(subduction) of the Pacific Tectonic Plate under the Australasian Plate, the earth’s crust at the bottom of the sea is forced down towards the hot mantle, causing it to melt and then rise as magma creating what is known as a volcanic arc. This Kermadec Ridge on which the Kermadec Islands sit is recognised as internationally significant for its geological processes. A huge number of undersea volcanoes exist along this arc, many only discovered as recently as 2007. This whole area is also on the World Heritage nomination list for New Zealand for its biodiversity and geodiversity.

So, what an opportunity – to swim in one of the deepest places on the planet! Leaving Chris on the boat and lines trailing behind in case we misjudged and floated off, in we dove, with masks at the ready to gaze into the deepness.  Wow, incredible blueness! Bright, deeply intense blue. Bottomless blue.  

We are getting used to seeing localised rain/wind events which can catapult the boat from a leisurely 5 knots to nearly 20 knots. Much time is spent tracking and discussing if, when and what effect these local events will have. These give us a bit of much needed wind speed in between the bobbing about but can create havoc if we don’t respond quickly.  

With light winds it was another great opportunity to listen for whales. Again distant humpbacks and this time even a buzzing sound – I’m hoping will turn out to be beaked whales homing in on their prey!

Passed out of NZ’s 200nm EEZ today! In international waters – and just to prove it tonight have seen foreign fishing vessel – huge bright lights on a ship around 70m long. Must have been fishing for squid. Didn’t respond to our frantic calls as it was heading straight towards us, but must have seen us eventually as it veered to our stern. Whew.

Lat/long at midday- 27^o00.0; 175^o08.7