Vava'u
20th September
Vava'u Group is quite different from the other Pacific Islands. Instead
of reef fringed islands and atolls, Faihava channel resembles a little the
fjords, but a lot lower. As we approached Neiafu we were stunned by the
scenery and eager to explore all the secluded bays and nice anchorages.
There are at least 40 of them! We arrived just in time for the BBQ on
Resolve. But it was an early night for us, a lot of sleep to catch up
after our passage.
21st September
After completing formalities with Customs and Immigrations, we had a
look around Neiafu. It is very cheerful with lots colourful bars, the
buildings are slightly ramshackle spread over few hills. We heard that the
yacht club has Tongan dance and music in the evening. Together with Noel,
Nat, Terry and Linn we headed for the night life. Pete and Fliss joined us
as well. We haven't seen Nadezhda for a month, they cruised the Northern
Cooks while we visited the Southern part. Unfortunately the yacht club did
not have Tongan music that night, but it was ladies night. Free rum punch
for the girls! Also 2 free beers as we were new arrivals.
22nd September
It was a busy morning provisioning and getting water. Finally in the
afternoon we were ready to explore some of the anchorages. We headed to
Nuku, where Pete and Fliss were anchored. It is a tiny island with a
golden sandy spit and fantastic turquoise water. It is a favoured spot for
official functions, even Prince Edward had an official BBQ here! Rob and
Lil from Mariah III were also there. It was Rob's birthday and nothing
better to celebrate than a party on the beach! Lil took candles and the
drinks were flowing. Because of the lights, lots of crabs came wandering
up to see us, it was magic.
23rd September
Snorkeling is fantastic, there are blue and pink starfishes, clownfish
and very interesting coral heads. We also saw a whale from distance. Same
as Nuie, Tonga is also a breeding area for the Humpbacks. In the evening,
together with Nadezhda, Maria III and Clarabella we had a BBQ on the
beach. It all got spoiled by a huge downpour, that only lasted 5 minutes
but everybody got complete wet.
25th September
One anchorage up from Nuku is Port Maurelle, a very sheltered bay. As
the wind was blowing hard we sought refuge in this bay. Swallows cave is a
short dinghy ride from the anchorage. The cave is inhabited by hundreds of
swiftlets and it is great for snorkeling.
26th September
Again we went back to Neiafu, this time to fill gas bottles. But in the
evening, at Tongan Bob's it was "Les Girls" night! We could not
miss it! Les Girls are a bunch of drag queens entertaining the crowd. They
are known here as fakaletis, men who live their lives as women, quite a
common thing here as well as in the rest of Polynesia . It was fun, but
not as risqué as we imagined. Two of the girls were interacting with the audience,
specially the male ones. But the other girls were more happy doing their
Tongan dances and staying away from trouble.
29th September
The Rugby World Champion was a good reason to head back to Neiafu,
after spending 2 days in the peaceful anchorage at Anu Beach. This time we
took a taxi and left Nomad Life safely moored near the Ark Gallery- a
floating art studio and home of Sheri, an American living in Tonga for over 20
years. It was an early start as the match started at 8 in the morning. But
we wanted to experience the atmosphere of Tonga Vs England. The Mango bar
was crowded with a mixture of Tongans and yachties, only a few of us
supporting England. But it wasn't Tonga's lucky day and they lost their
space in the quarter-finals. Meanwhile in Tonga Bob's it was kicking off
with the Fakaletis doing a show packed with drunken people, due the free
beer. It was all
fun, the Tongans know how to party!
The best of the day was reserved for the evening. Finally we came
around to experience the Tongan Feast. A full on Tongan night with a Kava
circle, local dancing, singing and the infamous Umu and seafood
extravaganza. The drinking of Kava remain a strong social tradition in
some of the Pacific Islands. As well as a form of welcome, it's used to
celebrate births, deaths and marriages. The modern technique involves
pounding the Kava root in a bucket. The Kava is then served in a coconut shell
cup. It should make your lips go numb, the limbs heavy and your speech
will slow. I was in the circle early enough to be picked to serve the Kava, that
entailed stirring the liquid with a cup and then pouring into the coconut
shells. Slowly the circle got very busy as all the guests wanted to try
the famous drink. In between serving I had a few cups but didn't notice
any effect at all. The Kava was cleared away, while the local children
came to give us a dance show. After that came the Tongan Feast, before getting your fingers
literally dirty (eat as the Tongans do, with your fingers) the host said a
prayer, after that we tucked in. All the food was dished in papayas, coconuts,
celery leafs and some parcels wrapped in banana leafs. Every parcel had a
different content, either pork or bread all steamed in a pit covered with
hot stones. Unfortunately some very few people did not get into the spirit
of the feast, either because they had to eat with the hands or maybe
because of the uncertainty of what you were eating. We absolutely loved
it!
30th September
It has been another rainy day in Tonga with strong winds, all the
anchorages on the eastern side are unattainable. We decided to stay at Anu
beach, where we are totally protected. To top it all up the peace in the anchorage has been seriously disturbed.
Three charter boats arrived with kids that zoom around the bay at high
speed in the dinghy while screaming and swearing. That is all
you need on a Sunday afternoon, whilst nursing a sore head....
01st October
Despite the rain and strong winds we left Anu beach to go back to Port
Maurelle. As we left the shelter of the bay, the wind was up to 30 knots.
Because most of the islands are between reefs, the seas were flat. So we
had a fantastic sail, just with the headsail up we were flying at 7 knots!
The rain didn't seize all day so Graham did some varnishing while I baked
a cake.
02nd October
Tonga is the first place in the Pacific where diving is affordable, so
we took advantage of that! We went together with Gerard, from yacht
Clarabella. The dive boat came to pick us up from our anchorage in Port Maurelle.
The first dive was in a cave then through a gorge and finished in a drop
off. Unfortunately the corals are not as colourful as the ones in French
Polynesia. The second dive was a drop off, we had some
torches and it was great fun checking out the crevices.
03rd October
Fed up with the constant rain we headed back to Neiafu. At least
in town we had entertainment. It was another "Les Girls" night.
This time Natalie, Noel, Terry, Lynn and a bunch of other yachties came
out to play. It was Lynn and Terry's wedding anniversary, we made sure Terry
got plenty of attention from the fakaletis!
05th October
Friday
is racing day in the Yacht Club. Motivated by the prizes we entered a
dinghy race. It was a very light winded day in the bay, so one person per
dinghy would have been wise. Graham insisted that I joined him and I
bought with me Jonathan, Gerard's 5 years old son. Being fully loaded we
didn't move very far. Heather, from Chica Bonita, left us well behind,
followed by Gerard and Tom from Clarabella, then Tony from Checkmate.
Meanwhile we were going nowhere. Monica, Gerard's wife, came to our assistance
in their dinghy and gave us a good push. After that we got our oars out to
get back to the yacht club!!
06th
October
After more then one week of rain and miserable weather, finally
the sun came out. The weather forecast is looking good to sail again.
There was an exodus of boats this morning, either leaving to the Haapai
Group or New Zealand. After two months cruising together, we said our
goodbyes to Lynn and Terry who left for NZ. Pete and Fliss left for
the Haapai. Noel and Natalie went to another anchorage and will be going to NZ
tomorrow. We still not ready for the "big trip", from here we
are going to Nuku'alofa, 180 miles South, the capital of Tonga.
07th
October
Early start for us due to the rugby. It was England Vs
Australia, played at 2 am local time. Tonga Bob's was full of Aussie
supporters, the owner of the bar being one of them. Again we were
minority, but a noisy one. The match was fantastic and even better the
result. It was a tight game but England won. Four hours later Graham got
up again to watch France Vs New Zealand, with Tony and the guys off yacht
Wherever. It wasn't the antipodeans lucky day. It is an European semi-
final.
09th October
Mariner's Cave was a must do in our list,
however I wasn't too sure that I would have the courage to do it. To get
to the cave you have to swim through an underwater channel, it is possible
to do it in one breath, without diving equipment. We went on yacht
Clarabella, together with Gerard, Monica and the kids. The entrance is not
obvious and all the description from the books was inaccurate. Graham and
Gerard went with the dinghy to find the entrance. Suddenly we saw Graham
taking a deep breath and disappeared for a while. When he came back up he
gave a positive sign, he had found the cave. I still wasn't sure that I would
do it, Monica was adamant that she would not do it. Gerard went next and
when he came back, he was very impressed. I had to give it a go, so did
Monica. Going in was the difficult part, as you don't know how long you
got to go, just as I was running out of air we came up inside the cave. It
is dark but the interesting phenomenon is the fog that forms every few
seconds caused by the swelling sea. Well worth a try even for those a bit
scared.
13th October
The Princess of the Kingdom of Tonga
arrived today for an official visit. Neiafu has been cleaned up and some buildings
even had a lick of paint . She arrived on a barge, decorated with flowers
then she got on a car followed by lorries also decorated with flowers and
full of people. The procession went around town a few times, it almost
looked like a carnaval. As for us, we had a few busy days getting
the boat ready for the trip.
14th October
Zazoo just arrived today. We
haven't seen Ben, Rosangela, Josh and Luke since Marquesas, so we had a
lot to catch up. They came from Niue.
Tongatapu
16th October
It was time to go
again, start heading South. We were two minded on going today or staying a
bit longer with Zazoo. After a lot of hesitation we left Nuku anchorage 5
hours late, we had to sail fast to catch up the time lost and arrive at
daylight. Tongatapu is 160 miles south of Vava'u. We
were heading to Nuku'alofa as we have a leak in the engine cooling system,
hoping to sort it out before the passage. The trip started well, with
15-20 knots of wind and calm seas. We saw a whale with a calf not far from
the boat, couple of hours later we saw a wonderful acrobatic show put up
by another whale. It leaped from the water, belly up, arched
backwards, and plunged back into the water headfirst.
17 October
Poor
Graham did not get a lot of sleep at night. Unfortunately we were dodging the reefs
of Haapai at night. We had
intervals of 1 hour and half sleep, constantly monitoring the reefs and
little islands on the radar. We arrived early afternoon in the entrance of
channel leading to Nuku'alofa. There were more reefs around the entrance of the harbour, and
very badly marked by buoys. Some were very difficult to spot others were
missing all together. Once inside the harbour we had to anchor Tahitian
style, reversing the boat near the wharf, securing the bow with an anchor
and the stern with ropes to the wharf. We have moored this way before in
Rarotonga and Nomad Life reverses beautifully, so it wasn't a problem for
us, just a bit of a work. Thankfully Pete was there to help with the
lines. After that it was beer time with Pete, Fliss, Tony. Later Morgan
and Vanessa from Mostly Harmless joined in. It wasn't the early night that
I expected!
18th October
The town is partially blocked due to the
South Pacific Forum, all the Pacific country leaders are gathering here.
There is a bustle of journalists and camera crew around. We tried to clear
in with immigrations, but quickly we gave up. The immigration office has
moved due to the forum and nobody knew where it was. We had formally
cleared out of Tonga and have all the paper work to enter New Zealand, so
we did not press to hard. In the afternoon an engineer came onboard to
check on the engine leak . Ben was very honest with us and told that they
will have to order the part from Sweden, that can take up to 2 weeks,
furthermore the water pump should last the trip and we better off sorting
it out there. Now we are ready to go as soon as weather permits.
19th
October
The weather, again, has been the main topic of conversation
between yachties. When to adventure out in the Southern Seas.
During the evening we
had a few beers with Trevor, the owner of a local cafe in the harbour. He
is originally from New Zealand but lived in Tonga for 30
years. We noticed some black and purple cloths at the
gates on some houses, Graham thought it was Halloween celebrations. We
were wrong, according to Trevor these are part of preparations for a
funeral. The tombs here are amazing, with huge colourful boards
displayed at the back of the tombs, it really looks like carnival. Then he
told us about the riots last year, mainly caused by the increasing
population of Chinese in the islands and indirectly due to the dissatisfaction
with the monarchal state. Lots of the Chinese shops were destroyed and
now they have thick bars on the doors and windows. Trevor told us that the Tongans
aren't the most industrious people, while the Chinese are eager business
people. Then we got introduced to one of his friends, Gloriana. Shortly
into the conversation we realized that she was one of the Princesses in
persona. Apparently there are lots of them
20th October
In the
afternoon together with Tony, Seaton and Buert we went around the island.
The Royal Palace and the Tombs are very lavish. The blow holes of Houma
were spectacular, they stretch for 5 km. Today for once, we were glad that it was a
windy day with big swells. When the water is forced up through the vents, it
can shoot up to 30 metres. Certainly Tonga is one of the most intriguing
countries that we have visited during this trip. During the little time we
have spent here we had a glimpse of their culture but at the same time it is
totally incomprehensible
for us.
21st October
Now that the Rugby World Cup is over, we can concentrate
again on sailing. Shame about the result... We are leaving tomorrow for
the most feared passage of this trip. Leaving the nice breeze of trade winds
and the stable weather of the Tropics to adventure out into the Southern
Ocean. Not a trip to be taken lightly but we are ready. Next port of call
is Opua, New Zealand.
