by Judy Handley | Oct 12, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Vava'u |
Day 359, Year 1: Connections
Date: Thursday, October 12, 2006
Weather: Rain and Wind with A Low Sitting On Top of Tonga
Location: Fangakima Cove, Kapa Island, Vava’u Group, Tonga–Anchorage #7
Last night I was reading a book loaned to me by another cruiser. The book is Mahina Tiare Pacific Passages by John Neal and Barbara Marrett. Janice on Splashes loaned it to me because she knows John and Barbara and she thought I would enjoy their discussion of their passage from New Zealand to Fiji. Actually they were planning to leave New Zealand on a passage to Chile, Patagonia, Cape Horn, and Antarctica. But they met Bob and Beth Lux. I came upon this paragraph in the book: “Luckily, before we did major provisioning, we met with Bob and Beth Lux on Rhodera. They had recently rounded Cape Horn on their Hinkley Bermuda 40 and had spent several months cruising the 2,200-mile length of Chile. While John and Bob went over charts in the drizzly cockpit, Beth and I talked below about amoebas, parasites, water quality, and food availability in Chile. She descried living aboard in the cold, damp channels which crisscross southern Chile, the stark primeval beauty of the landscape, the shades of crystal blue glaciers, waters teeming with fish seabirds, seals, and penguins.” This discussion was enough to help Barbara and John change their minds and head to the warm water of Fiji only a 1,000 miles away. I relate this story because it really exemplifies the connections between cruisers. Bob and Beth Lux are members of our beloved Concord Yacht Club back in New Hampshire. They have been awarded the prestigious Blue Water Cruising Medal for their accomplishments as sailors, so you would expect to read about them. But still it is always a wonderful surprise to unexpectedly stumble upon the names of friends in a book.
And that brings me to another connection. On Sunday when we went to Mariner’s Cave on Quantum Leap, a couple named Trevor and Annie from Iron Bark II were with us. When we got back, Kathleen from Quantum Leap and Annie from Iron Bark came over to Windbird to talk. Annie wanted to borrow our Moorings book about cruising in Tonga. She has been sailing for many years, first with one partner, and now with Trevor. Trevor is from Australia and she is from England. They met in some remote part of the world. She started sailing with him, but she has never been to Australia. She seemed quite knowledgeable, but then so does almost everyone out here, so I didn’t think much about it. Then yesterday Arni of Jade was talking about Annie and one of the books she wrote. Mark immediately said, “Do you mean that she is Anne Hammick?” And indeed she is. We have a couple of her books aboard. She and her previous partner, Gavin McLaren, wrote The Atlantic Cruising Guide and Anne authored Ocean Cruising On A Budget. Now I know why she seemed so knowledgeable. She is.
The rain started last night and is continuing into this night. We had a very short period in the late afternoon when the rain slowed down and the sky became brighter. I was cleaning the mildew stains off the inside of our dodger and bimini at the time and Mark was working on getting weather faxes. But I called down to him with a plea to head to Swallow’s Cave. This cave is two mile dinghy ride from our anchorage and I really wanted to see it. We immediately put on our foul weather gear, gathered our camera and a flashlight, and headed out for the cave. It is called Swallow’s Cave, but the birds that live inside are White-rumped Swiftlets. The cave is big enough to enter in the dinghy. It is quite interesting inside, almost ghoulish. Many people over the last 150 years have been leaving their mark inside, so the cave walls are covered in graffiti. We’d like to return on a really sunny afternoon to see how the sunlight plays on the walls of the cave and in the water, but if that doesn’t happen, at least we have seen it.
We will leave here sometime in the morning and head for Tapana Island. We plan to meet John and Janice aboard Splashes for dinner tomorrow night at Le Paella, a restaurant on Tapana. And then we hope to meet up with Doug and Sylvia on Windcastle to attend a Tongan feast on Hinakauea Beach on Saturday night. After that we will get back to Neiafu and get really serious about heading south for New Zealand.
by Judy Handley | Oct 11, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Vava'u |
Day 358, Year 1: Fangakima Cove on Kapa Island or Anchorage #7
Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Weather: Overcast Day
Location: Fangakima Cove, Kapa Island, Vava’u Group, Tonga–Anchorage #7
We did just what we had promised ourselves this morning. We listened to the radio nets, went into town to drop off our garbage with “Pete the Meat” who comes to the dock each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to collect trash, went to the Coconet to upload pictures to the website, bought a few fresh veggies at the market, and then headed back to Windbird ready to take off. Our only problem was that we didn’t know where we were going, so we got out the books and map and made some decisions. Before I go into that, I want to backtrack for just a minute and talk about “Pete the Meat”. He and his wife, Potato, run a little store that specializes in local and New Zealand meat called “Pete the Meat and Potato”. I took a picture of the sign as I think this might be one of the treasures of the South Pacific. Now on with the story of today.
After realizing that we are just not going to be able to visit all forty some anchorages here, we settled on four locations that we would use as our targets. As we were doing this, George and Barbara from Gdansk came over to visit and talk about trip planning from here to New Zealand, and then John and Janice from Splashes came over to make plans for meeting at an anchorage on Friday. George and Barbara have been here much longer than us and they have been amazed at the fact that the local people refer to their villages by the numbering system set-up by the Mooring Chartering company. Because the names are so complicated to pronounce and because there are almost fifty different anchorages in the Vava’u Group, the Moorings decided to use a numbering system. That was a few years ago, and now the locals have adopted that system. When you ask a local where they live, they might respond with “Number 11”. If you ask what island, they can tell you, but basically the simplified numbering system has taken over. Mark and I decided to visit #6, #7, #11, return to Neiafu which is #1, checkout and then go to #39 before leaving for the Ha’apai Group. If I say this same thing without using the numbering system, it goes like this: We will visit Mala off the island of ‘Utungake, then go to Fangakima Cove on Kapa island. From there we will go to an anchorage near Hinakauea, in front of a small island between Pangaimotu and Tapana. You get the idea. It is strange, but much easier to just use the numbering system. Once we made our decision on where we were going, we went next door to Windcastle to let them know. Unfortunately, they will not be joining us in our anchorage hopping. They are going to stay in Neiafu and work on repairing various boat systems that have broken, so we won’t see them until next week when we return to Neiafu.
We left Neiafu and headed for #6, but made a last minute decision to skip it for now and we headed to #7. This is a well protected anchorage near Swallows Cave that we will explore by dinghy tomorrow. There are also two villages that can be visited by following a walking track and the snorkeling is good. It is not as good as #6, but it doesn’t have the two knot current to fight. We hope to still visit Mala Island on our way back to Neiafu next week. We arrived here around 4 pm, but we had a real struggle trying to get anchored. There are three mooring balls here, but all were taken, so we tried to position ourselves between the moored boats. We just kept dragging, no matter what we tried. We know two of the boats here, Blue Marlin and Jade. Finally, Arni from Jade came over in this dinghy and helped us find a spot between coral heads. His approach worked and we were finally tucked in for the night. We will do our exploring tomorrow.
Arni stayed for a while to visit, while his wife Cam and her sister Vivian, and Runae and Idunne from Blue Marlin took the girls from the two boats to shore to visit a village. Cam and Arni have six-year old Nancy and seven-year old Molly. Runae and Idunne have seven-year old twins, Hedda and Marita. They are expecting another boat to arrive tomorrow with two more girls, one three and one seven. This place could get very interesting!
We are expecting some heavy winds in the next day or so and rain is predicted. But hopefully there will be periods when land exploration will still be possible. We do plan to leave here early on Friday morning and go to anchorage #11. This is near Tapana Island where there is a great restaurant run by a Spanish couple. Each night at Le Paella they prepare a paella as the main dish in a four-course meal. John and Janice from Splashes will meet us there for dinner on Friday evening. I can’t wait!
by Judy Handley | Oct 10, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Vava'u |
Day 357, Year 1: Back in Neiafu Harbor
Date: Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Weather: Partly Sunny, Partly Cloudy Day
Location: Port of Refuge, Neiafu, Vava’u Group, Tonga
Early this morning, we motored ashore and hiked to an abandoned resort. The path up was still well kept, and we really enjoyed exploring an area that was not long ago inhabited. We met Mike and Deirdre from Cheshire Cat and Nick and Gertrude from Tartufo on our way up, but once at the top, we had the abandoned resort to ourselves. It was great fun exploring.
Soon after we returned to Windbird, we pulled up anchor and headed back to Neiafu. We hoped to rendezvous with Windcastle, send a few picture folders to the website, drop off our garbage, and then head back out to the out islands. We successfully made contact with Windcastle and also got to see Jamie and Lucie from Savoir Vivre. We haven’t seen them since the Marquesas and it was great to connect once again. Tomorrow morning we will send the photo folders and drop off the garbage.
Our plan is to head back out to the out islands tomorrow, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.
by Judy Handley | Oct 9, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Vava'u |
Day 356, Year 1: Water Day–Snorkeling and Boat Bottom Cleaning
Date: Monday, October 9, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Blue Sky, Sunny Day
Location: Vaka’eitu Island, Vava’u Group, Tonga
Our day began as usual by listening to the two different radio nets. We first listen to the Coconut Net at 7:30 am and then to The Rag at 8:00. The Coconut Net is run by those of us out here cruising. Different people volunteer to be net controller and then those of us that are underway check in with a position report. Once you have checked in as underway, you must continue to check in daily until you arrive in a new port. If a boat checks in and then is not heard from, measures are taken to find that boat. There is also one person who has taken on the overwhelming task of giving a daily weather report. Jeff on Kauila has been our weatherman for many months, but he will not be doing weather for the passage to New Zealand. That is where The Rag comes in. This net is controlled by the same guy everyday. He is in Fiji and has been there since 2002. Another person here in Tonga helps by reading the Grib files everyday. These guys give the weather report for the western Pacific and down to New Zealand. It is a great service and we are now listening more intently as we prepare for the 1,000 mile passage to NZ.
Doug from Windcastle checked into The Rag this morning and reported that he was 44 miles from Neiafu. Later this afternoon, he called us on Channel 16 to let us know that he was entering the pass into Neiafu. We can usually hear boats within a 20 mile radius on 16 and nothing here in Vava’u is any further than that. We are thinking of going back to Neiafu tomorrow night to see Sylvia and Doug, drop off some garbage, use the high-speed internet service there, and then coming back out to a different anchorage. If we do that, we will do some exploring on land here in the morning before leaving. It takes about three hours total to get back to Neiafu, so we have the time to do some exploring before returning.
We started our day today by snorkeling on the inside of the reef that is between two islands. We have read that the nicer coral is on the outside of the reef, but it is much more difficult to get there. We didn’t see fantastic coral, but we did see lots of beautiful blue sea stars, some mustard yellow biscuit stars, and an array of interesting fish. When we returned to the boat, we kept our dive skins on and went to work cleaning the bottom of Windbird. The cooler water, along with the wind, requires some sort of protection to stay in the water for extended periods. Our dive skins seem to be perfect and they kept us nice and warm as we worked to clean the waterline and bottom of the boat. Mark was under the boat for quite sometime today and he did finally get a little chilly. We didn’t finish the cleaning job, but we sure got a good start on it.
While we were cleaning the bottom, Quantum Leap left this anchorage. I think I have mentioned that the anchorages here are numbered, so they shouted out the number of their next destination as they left. Zephryn and Iron Bark also left today, and a boat named Cheshire Cat with Mike and Deirdre came in. Just as we were finishing up our cleaning job, we saw that George and Uta on Miami were leaving. We met George and Uta in Bora Bora and then again in American Samoa and we wanted to go over and say hello before they left. We had heard that they are having serious problems with their rigging. They have stress cracks where the rigging is attached to the chain plates at deck level. When we went over, Mark and George brainstormed some short-term safety measures that they can use on their way to New Zealand. If the rigging goes, your mast comes down, and that is certainly not something you want to happen on the way to New Zealand. It was great to see them again. They headed down to the Ha’apai Group this afternoon, and we will probably see them there next week as we head further south.
I ended the day by doing a laundry while Mark fixed dinner. He made a great chili that hit the spot in this cooler climate. The cooler temperatures also make for much more comfortable sleeping, and it’s almost time for that!
by Judy Handley | Oct 8, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Vava'u |
Day 355, Year 1: A Visit to Mariner’s Cave
Date: Sunday, October 8, 2006
Weather: Partly Cloudy Day
Location: Vaka’eitu Island, Vava’u Group, Tonga
The weather continues to be partly cloudy, but there are parts of each day when the skies clear and sun shine brightly. It remains cooler than in the Samoas, but it is certainly warm enough and we are enjoying “not so sultry” Tonga. Last night the full moon was spectacular here in the anchorage, but tonight it is hidden by clouds. At least we got to see the light dancing on the water last night.
This morning we got up and listened to the radio net. We heard Windcastle checking in and saying that they were leaving Niuatoputapu and would arrive in Neiafu tomorrow morning. We’ll be anxious to see them. Before the radio net was over, Kathleen from Quantum Leap came over to invite us for a day aboard Quantum Leap. They planned to pick up anchor and take a bunch of us with them around the island to Mariner’s Cave. This underwater cave has a wonderful love story associated with it and anyone sailing to Tonga has read about it. The cave has been known to Tongans for centuries, but it is named after William Mariner, the first European to have knowledge of it. You have to dive down about six feet and then swim underwater for about twelve feet to get into the cave. Once in there the surf coming in and out changes the pressure so much that when the surf goes out the water level goes down creating lower pressure in the cave. This results in a fog being formed. And then as soon as surf comes in again, the pressure increases again and the fog clears. Quite an interesting phenomenon.
So at 10 am, cruisers from Jade of Hong Kong, Blue Marlin of Norway, Iron Bark II of Australia, Zephyrn from New Zealand, Windbird (that’s us) from the northeast US, all boarded Quantum Leap from Mobile, Alabama, USA. There were six children with us, all under the age of 10. Quantum Leap is a big catamaran and it held all 20 of us with no problem. We had a great motor and then sail around to the cave. The only way you know the cave it there is the darker water near the surface. On the first trip in, Mark manned one of the dinghies and Kathleen the other. When they returned with the successful cave explorers, it was time for Mark and I and Tom and Bette Lee to go. I decided to man the dinghy and only go in if Mark, Tom, and Bette Lee had a successful go at it. They went in and then Mark was the first one out. He had actually had trouble holding his breath long enough to get all the way in and Bette Lee said she had a mild panic attack about coming back out, so I decided that I could skip this one. The waves were surging against the rocks and I really didn’t want to take any chances with my leg. At least, I’ll use that as my excuse. The only child to go in was Dominic, the grandson of Sandi and Joan on Zephryn. There were other adults who did not go as well, so I don’t feel like a complete ninny.
On our way home we started looking for whales. The Humpbacks from Antarctica come here to Tonga for breeding and calving between July and November of each year. It didn’t take us long to spot our first Humpback and the afternoon went uphill from there. We were able to watch the mothers and their calves as they frolicked in the water. It was quite a sight to behold and I’m not sure if the adults or kids aboard Quantum Leap enjoyed it more.
We returned to the anchorage and all of us went to our respective boats. It was a beautiful day. Tom and Bette Lee of Quantum Leap are very gracious hosts and I know all of us aboard appreciated the opportunity to enjoy the exploration with other cruisers. Since I really didn’t get to snorkel in the coral gardens today, that’s the main event for tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Oct 7, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Vava'u |
Day 354, Year 1: Anchored Off Vaka’eitu Island, Vava’u Group, Tonga
Date: Saturday, October 7, 2006
Weather: Partly Cloudy Day
Location: Vaka’eitu Island, Vava’u Group, Tonga
We received an email from our daughter Heather and her husband Jed saying that they were spending the weekend at Jed’s family farm in Boothbay, Maine. Heather said they would be enjoying the brisk fall days with high temperatures in the mid-fifties and would be apple picking, walking in the woods, reading, and knitting. All I could think is that she and Jed are living in a completely different world from us. Is it really possible to enjoy high daytime temps in the mid-fifties?!! I’m sitting here in the cockpit tonight in a long sleeve shirt and am still cold with an air temperature of 75 degrees F. Tomorrow I could go coconut picking and walking across the island to a secluded beach-not quite the same as walking in the woods and picking apples, but almost-but instead, I think I’ll go snorkeling. We came to this anchorage after reading about the fantastic snorkeling possibilities, so I hope the books are right.
It is a small cruiser’s world out here. We got into the anchorage and immediately saw that Quantum Leap and Jade are here. We anchored next to Jade and Arnie came over and talked for quite a while once we arrived. It is hours later now, and just a few minutes ago we heard the shrieking laughter of young children as Nancy and Molly and their two friends from another boat returned to Jade. Arnie told us that the girls were “out” for the day with friends, but now we know they are back with the friends. The children out here lead such a fantastic life and it is so much fun to watch them.
We heard from Doug and Sylvie on Windcastle and they are hoping to leave Niuatoputapu tomorrow and arrive here on Monday. I mentioned in an earlier log that they chose not to fight the winds and stopped off in the northern Tongan islands. Another boat headed this way had engine problems and also had to stop in New Potatoes (the name cruisers use when they can’t pronounce Niuatoputapu), but we think that the engine problem has been resolved and that Matt aboard Elsewhere will also arrive on Monday.
THE only topic of conversation these days is the weather between here and New Zealand. We have definitely decided that we are not going to Fiji. We are going to enjoy Tonga and work our way south to the capitol at Nuka’lofa in the Tongatapu Group. From there, we will wait for that weather window to take to New Zealand. It takes tremendous study of current weather patterns to be able to even begin to predict the weather for the passage. Every cruiser we know is making this a full time job these days. We will be paying for a weather consultant, Bob McDavitt, but even with years of experience his predictions are not always right. You have the best advice you have and combine that with your own information, and then go for it. For now, however, I’m only going to worry about the weather tomorrow. Will it be nice enough to snorkel?
