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.
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| 061012 Day 359 Tonga, Vava'u–Swallows' Cave and Kapa Island Anchor 7 |
