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!
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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.
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Tying up at the wharf in the main village |
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"Down Town". The island was loaded with horses, pigs, dogs and chickens all wandering blissfully free. |
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Local women walking down the road with their....eh....brooms!? |
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The biggest Ficus trees I've ever seen are on this island. See the guys under the tree? |
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The cemetery was filled with elaborately decorated graves which are partially above ground |
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Net fishing at low tide |
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The homes are modest but very well kept single room dwellings. |
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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.
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The cruisers loading their plates! |
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A local boy |
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One of the many skinny dogs. |
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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.
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Exploring the motu |
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Emily from Sudoest in her self-constructed tree house with debris collected on the beach. Such a clever girl! |
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Exploring the reef. Bill in the foreground with Tony and Steve from Knot Tide Down in the distance |
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While walking along we came across a giant clam! |
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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 2nd 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.
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Arrival drinks at the Bounty Bar |
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The mooring field in a fantastically protected harbor. We finally had beautiful weather! |
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Little fish in the bay |
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The visitor center |
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No Bill, you can't buy gasoline at the church! |
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Pigs, pigs everywhere |
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A group of us enjoying the atmosphere at the Aquarium Bar |
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Sunset in the harbor |
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Hula girls at the Aquarium Bar |
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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 :)
Hi Bill and Carolyn, It's a rainy day here in Wisconsin and I finally caught up on your blog. It brings back fond memories of many of those same anchorages. I love sailing on Lake Superior, but I miss the palm trees and have started planning the next trip. Mackenzie and Samantha are 10 and 11 now and asking to return to NZ to see their birthplace so maybe we'll sail there. It seems you outfitted Kailani well and she has served you well in kind. I look forward to your future blogs. Good luck on your passage south. Lance Olson (formerly S/V Freebird)
ReplyDeleteVery cool, Ace
ReplyDelete