Our first days in Tonga



We just arrived in Vava'u, Tonga. Haven't had email access for a
bit as we stayed on a remote island in northern Tonga for a while that had no Internet. Yes, places still exist without internet!! So I guess we’ll have to begin by going back to leaving Apia, Samoa!

Nuiatoputapu (pronounced new-ae-toe-pu-taa-pu) is 190 nm from Apia harbor and at 5 knots that’s about 38 hours. Meant we left in the dark ghosting through the harbor entrance and continuing north west for about 30 miles before travelling between the two main Samoan islands. Once through the gap we had a clear passage south west to Nuiatoputapu. Nuiatoputapu has a narrow intimidating pass so we knew we had to make it there no later than mid-afternoon.  We made it to the pass around 1100 the next day, the pass was much easier to negotiate than it looked. Too bad we couldn’t say the same thing about the passage itself. In short it was awful, 3 meter swell hitting the boat just forward of the beam with 20 to 25 knots of breeze…oh it was also raining pretty hard at times too. Neither of us felt very good with the sea sickness and we were very pleased it was only a short passage.  At least we weren’t the only ones feeling exhausted, Knot Tide Down also had a rough trip and Sudoest lost their autopilot and had to hand steer the last 6 hours or so. JB, you would like Jonathon and Kerry of Sudoest a Beneteau First 45. They leave hours after everyone else and arrive hours earlier, they really do scamper along.

We arrived extremely relieved to have the difficult passage over with. We dropped our anchor amongst the 7 other boats in the bay, of which 5 left about the same time as us from Apia – so we all knew each other. Once again it was us with Tony and Steve on Knot Tide Down, Leighanne and Craig from True Blue V, Jonothan, Keri and their very cool daughter Emily on Sudoest, and Vincent and Dominique on Dreamweaver. Actually, Dreamweaver and True Blue V didn’t intend on stopping at Nuiatoputapu and were heading directly to Vava’u but chose to divert here due to the rough ocean conditions. Nobody had a good passage! Ugh. Thankfully, Nuiatoputapu offered a great refuge with its secure and sheltered anchorage.

So we were anchored in the bay and started going about getting the boat out of ‘passage’ mode and into ‘we’re anchored and chilling out’ mode when we hear Knot Tide Down calling for assistance coming through the pass. The island is surrounded by a coral reef with a narrow entrance pass which is exactly where ‘the girls’ suffered engine failure. Three separate boats (Dreamweaver, another Kiwi boat and Sudoest) leapt in their dingys and went to their rescue by pulling them through the pass and bringing them in to lay anchor. It ended up their impeller failed - so it was an easy fix, but of course it happened exactly when you don’t want it to! Hummm, which is it, loose the engine? Run the boat on a reef? Aah, call for help! 

Knot Tide Down getting dingy assistance

So with that drama over, we flew our quarantine flag and waited patiently for the check-in officials to come to the boat. It was good timing that so many of us arrived at the same time so the officials could clear all the new arrivals in one foul swoop. Unfortunately, it was windy and rainy which made dingying the three rather large Tongan officials between the 5 boats rather unpleasant. Once they came aboard Kailani, we all squeezed into the cockpit and began the check in procedure of Customs, Health and Immigration. We heard offering drinks and nibbles is customary, so Carolyn revived her Kiwi etiquette skills and set about brewing coffee and preparing a plate of bikkies! I need to get back into the swing of Kiwi-ness! So with all the formalities of clearance out of the way, we were free to go ashore and explore.

Tying up at the wharf in the main village

"Down Town". The island was loaded with horses, pigs, dogs and chickens all wandering blissfully free.

Local women walking down the road with their....eh....brooms!?

The biggest Ficus trees I've ever seen are on this island. See the guys under the tree?

The cemetery was filled with elaborately decorated graves which are partially above ground

Net fishing at low tide

The homes are modest but very well kept single room dwellings.

The dump. Notice the sign reading "Welcome Yachties. Garbage Please" with a pig enjoying the spoils!

Surprisingly, all the boats in the bay were invited to a feast at the home of a local family. What an incredible invitation! They asked that we each bring a vegetable plate to share and whatever we wanted to drink. They asked that we contribute a bit of money toward the feast, which we gladly did. I think I need to back track a bit here to explain that the people on this island truly live off the land. The market or grocery store had little else than canned corned beef, crackers, peanuts, soap/shampoo and (of all things) strawberry cake mix. It ends up the pigs and dogs are the main sources of meat, as well as the fruits and vegetables grown on the island. It seems they use the chickens only for the eggs claiming that the meat is too ‘gamey’. Humm. Chicken or dog – I know which one I’d choose! Anyway, we definitely were treated to a pig – the head was still attached as proof!

The pig is wrapped in plastic to keep the flies off. Wrapped in the leaf packet is corned beef with taro leaves. There was also baked papaya with onions, taro root, bread fruit, etc. along with all the food the yachties brought.

The cruisers loading their plates!

A local boy

One of the many skinny dogs.

Part of the family hosts

It was at the feast that we heard the full story of the tsunami. They had no warning of its approach. Sere (our host) said she heard people yelling from the beach that the ocean in the bay was emptied. She jumped in her truck to collect her children from school, and that usually when she started the truck and opened the gate to her home all the dogs would try to jump into the truck, but all the animals were gone. Not just the dogs, but the pigs, chickens and horses too. She raced down the road to the school, and lucky for her, that was a part of the island where the tsunami didn’t hit. There’s a neighboring island not far away from Nuiatoputapu that took the first hit which spared the center of Nuiatoputapu. Unfortunately for Sere, her home was completely destroyed but thankfully her family was ok. The Red Cross helped rebuild the villages and supplied the single room dwellings seen everywhere on the island.

The island has no services, so the lucky families have one or two solar panels that charge car type batteries and water tanks to collect rain water. So, it’s no surprise at the lack of Internet facilities on the island! We donated some clothes, kitchen items and sewing tools to the locals, but they could use so much more. 

 

So the island was a pretty amazing place. We spent a bit of time at a motu on the reef barrier. There was some fantastic snorkeling here with some of the most beautiful coral we've seen.

 

Exploring the motu

Emily from Sudoest in her self-constructed tree house with debris collected on the beach. Such a clever girl!

Exploring the reef. Bill in the foreground with Tony and Steve from Knot Tide Down in the distance

While walking along we came across a giant clam!



Nuiatoputapu in the background. The reef extended quite a way out.


There was lots of chatter amongst the anchored boats about when to leave the island. Another boat in the bay Small World II was stuck in Nuiatoputapu for 3 weeks waiting for a weather window to leave the island. We wanted to spend more time on the island, but when the weather came right for a departure to Vava’u, we had to take it. So we only managed to stay 5 days in Nuiatoputapu before we had to pull up the sails.

Passage to Vava’u 163 nm
When you have 7 boats all gathering weather at the same time you can imagine there is a fair amount of discussion. Usually along the lines of “I just don’t want to get our arses kicked again” or “should we leave on Wednesday or Thursday” – knowing the wind is stronger on Wednesday but also knowing the wind will blow hard from the south on the nose on Friday. Such are the dilemmas of our small community. Anyway after much “toing and froing” we left together with Knot Tide Down and True Blue 5 around 0800 on Wednesday. You probably can guess where this is going – yes we all got pasted again by the choppy seas and the 20 to 25 knots of wind right on the nose…..So after 36 hours of bashing our way through the seas avoiding the countless sea mounts along the way we found ourselves about 17 nm west of Vavau, we had held off tacking west. Carolyn thought we should continue south until we were in the lee (shelter) of Vavau before tacking west. This tactic proved to be a good option as the seas had definitely reduced. We turned 90 degrees and motor sailed to the waypoint at the entrance to Vavau. By this time the wind had moderated and the 17 miles was over in no time (especially for me asleep down below). Only problem we faced now at 0200 being whether to enter the harbor now or hold off until morning. As luck would have it the skies were clear with a beautiful full moon (we have not had many clear days on this trip) so we opted to enter the harbor.  By 0400 we had picked up a mooring in the harbor and were sipping a beer. Turned out navigating the channel and harbor was very easy, the charts and the lights are very good. Not surprisingly Knot Tide Down arrived around 12 hours before we did (they did motor sail though) and surprisingly we arrived before True Blue 5. Normally being the smallest boat we are last so it was good to be 2^nd for a change.

So it was another difficult but thankfully short passage to Vava’u which is where we are now. We had a few welcome drinks with True Blue V and Knot Tide Down on our arrival.

Arrival drinks at the Bounty Bar

The mooring field in a fantastically protected harbor. We finally had beautiful weather!

Little fish in the bay

The visitor center

No Bill, you can't buy gasoline at the church!

Pigs, pigs everywhere

A group of us enjoying the atmosphere at the Aquarium Bar

Sunset in the harbor

Hula girls at the Aquarium Bar

Mischievous Emily tying Steve's feet to the table!

Well, that's about it for us now. Tomorrow we'll head out to one of the many bays in the Vava'u group. We can't wait!! While we're here, we'll have to come back to town to re-provision and will try to update the blog then! Should be here for at least a month of blissful cruising :)





We Love Samoa!

Well, there’s only one word to say about Samoa – FANTASTIC.

We’ve had such a fantastic time here. It’s not that Samoa is the most beautiful island we’ve visited, it’s really the people that make this island so great. Everyone has a smile and genuine kindness that comes naturally to the young and old.

We’ve been staying in a marina for our time here. Initially it was so we could repair the main sail, but after we got that taken care of, the convenience of staying on the dock was too tempting to resist so we remained tied up for the entire two weeks we’ve been here. Aaaaa, an endless supply of fresh water has been liberating!

You might want to know what we’ve done while here…. Honestly, we haven’t done a lot. I really believe it’s the people you meet and spend time with along the way that make the best memories, and Samoa has been full of great people. It’s also been a magnet for a lot of cruisers we’ve met in our travels. It’s been great to catch up with everyone!

So, I have no fabulous stories to pass along – and it’s too darn hot siting here typing this so I’m going straight into photos!

Tony from Knot Tide Down welcomed our arrival to Apia marina! We ended up enjoying a number of happy hours with him and a host of other cruisers we’ve met along the way.

We went to a Samoan cultural show that was wonderful. I don’t usually go for these types of shows, but this one was great. They explained the Samoan culture within the family, how traditional foods are prepared, the native art of tattooing (we couldn’t photograph that), the creation of tapa cloths, how to make fire from two sticks (yes, it really does work!), etc, etc. I could go on and on, but I’m far too hot sitting here! Samoa is humid!

Preparing the food for the fire. See the way he’s wrapping the tuna in a palm frond? In the foreground the palusami is being prepared.

Bread fruit, tuna and palusami. We fell in love with palusami. It’s taro leaves and coconut milk wrapped in leaves. It’s so simple and delicious!

Dancing with fire. This guy was really funny.

Samoan dancing. They were REALLY good, but best of all, they didn’t act like they were doing it for the tourists – they genuinely seemed to be having fun doing it! 

The fish market. I didn’t photograph the large tuna and mahi mahi, but the reef fish were too colorful to pass up! The woman didn't want her picture taken... but I wanted to get the fish!!

The flea market where all types of Samoan crafts and food can be found. Yummm.

The Samoan busses are as colorful as the people.

We went snorkeling at a reserve. Despite the fact that it was a rainy day (cloudy skies and murky water) the coral was colorful and there were loads of little tropical fish. The highlight was spotting a large sea turtle that didn’t seem to mind us watching him from a distance!

In the picture from left to right; Bill, Leighanne, Steve, Tony, Craig and Dell.

So that's it for Samoa. Tonight, we're heading to a remote island in Tonga which I don't know how to spell, but it's something like Nuiatoputapu. We've heard a rumor that the King of Tonga is visiting the island in the coming days so we're off to socialize with royalty!
It's only 186 nautical miles, so we should be there in 37 or so hours. It's quite a remote place where internet is intermittent at best, so don't expect to hear from us soon!

Hope you all are doing well and we'll catch you next time :)