Departing Tonga

I let go of the mooring at 0915hrs, motored out of the moorings area and put up sdail. It was lovley sailing in flat sea down to the ocean, but now 8 hours later its not so lovley.The sun is shining but the wind is cool so I put on a long sleeved shirt. The wind is stronger than forecast but is supposed to ease over night which will be nice, as I now have 2 reefs in the main and tiny biy of headsail out, and we are still making a bumpy 6 knots in 2m seas. However as we almost going downwind, the boat is dry. Gusts have been up to 29 knots and its mainly around 23. We are 36nnm from Vavau, which has now disappeared behind me. We have just eased past the first obstacle, an uninhabited island called Late, roughly circular and cone shaped like Rangitoto in Auckland or perhaps Mt Fujiyama. There are cliffs all round and no lagoon so that might explain why its uninhabited. From here its about 200nm to my next waypoint, Nuku Songa reef at the southern end of the Lau group of Fijian ISlands that lie in a north-south direction like a barbed wire fence seperating Tongan waters from Fijian. There are a few holes in its array of reefs shoals islets and islands and a couple of recognised passages, but for me I think its safer just to go round the bottom, because inevitably I end up approaching these places at night when I need sleep and I am tired.

As usual on my first day back at sea I feel anxious and slghtly nauseated and have no appetite. Writing makes me feel worse so I will stop now. Hopefully tomorrow the wind will ease and make the sailing more enjoyable

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No Photos this time

To be honest I am still getting over the whales!

We've had  rain and wind and cloudy skies yesterday and today. I have done some chores on the boat - such as restitiching a seam on the dodger which was coming undone - and had long breakfasts and lunches chatting to other yachties, and last night went to the presentation about the traditional ocean voyaging Polynesian canoes, which was less informative than I had hoped it would be, but they did show a lovley video of the canoes out on the ocean, and lots of close ups of polynesian faces with tears in their eyes,hakas and emotinal reunions on distant shores.

Ive also met up with Mel and Andy, an Australian couple now living right here in Niafu. Mel is a doctor who I met in the Northern Territory three years ago, and she has opened a little medical practice just along the road. Their plan is to lease a small island and bild a little resort there, and already they have found an available one and been given most of the approvals. There is of course lots of red tape to get through.

This afternoon I have cleared customs, paid my Port Charges of $2.50 (!) and stocked up on comfort foods for the journey to Lautoka on the far side of  Viti Levu the main island of Fiji. Toniught I am going to a Circus - this is what its advertised as, but it sounds like fun.  I'm leaving in the morning. It should take five days but I will need to be on my toes as unlike most of the other legs of my South Pacific Tour, there are numerous little islands, reefs, regions marked "Volcanic activity reported" , shoals and other obstacles in my way.

Assuming all goes well, I'll have a few days to get the boat out of the water at Vuda Point Marina, and then head back to NZ to see  my first granddaughter, who is due any day now.

Next few Posts will be from the Boat at Sea.

Something Unbelievable

Neiafu Harbour: Sapphire is way down the other end

Two traditional Ocean going Polynesian Canoes. I'm going to a talk about them tomorrow night.

I went for a walk and came across these guys building a little house, and had a nice chat to them

These kids were from the place next door. the house was for their grandma

I just wanted to capture the sky

AND NOW, the IMPORTANT BIT:

Today I experienced something that no matter how much longer I live, I would be surprised if it could be exceeded in terms of wonderment and breathtaking, awe inspiring ....words fail me. I cannot describe it and you will never know what it felt like until you too get to Vava'u and go swimming and snorkelling in the ocean with Humpback whales. There were eight of us who sped out on a twin engined aluminium dive boat threading its way through the myriad passges between utterly gorgeous little bush clad islets with bright white sandy beaches, through a narrow passage in a reef and into a vast reef fringed arm of the ocean, every eye scanning the horison for a tell tale "Blow" We came across a group of three - a mother, a calf and a "companion" whale thought to be a large male, 50 or more feet long, and taking it in turns in groups of four we slipped off the back into the clear ocean and scanning ahead and down into the depths eventually encountered these wondrous creatures as they surfaced for ten or fiften minutes, and disappeared in the deep then reappeared time and again, so we all were eventually exhausted after about three hours with this dynamic trio. We could have touched them they were so close at times, and their massive bulk and the frisky curiosity of the calf were mesmerising and beautiful. I am just not going to try and decribe the feeling - its impossible. You must do this. You absolutely must.



I took these with my cheap little underwater camera : Janet sent me the Charger when I was in Niue : Thanks janet



This is the Calf.

 

Neiafu : Ashore

We are so well protect6ed from the ocean here that if there is no breeze, the boat sits perfectly still - and it was almost eerie last night allying down to sleep with not a thing moving. But I slept well, and in the morning after my breakfast of the remainder of last nights rice and stew, and a good tidy up of the boat, the Officials arrived - at one mkoment tghere were four bulky Tongan men squeezed inot the cabin, and really there wasnt any room to move. Formaliities completed, I walked the couple of hundred meters into the main shopping area, dropped my rubbish into a bin and got some cash from an ATM to pay my Customs Levies, 123 pa'anga (the local currency ) in total.

My first impression was that Neiafu is a bit like a BackPackers town - numerous cafes with coffee and Pizza and Internet, cheap accommodation, T shirts, relaxed friendly and helpful, not at all upmarket, and fellow travelers at every stop. I kept running into people I had met in Suwarrow and Niue, but it was interesting to compare notes on the trip here from Niue. The larger boats all had to slow down if there was wind, so they would arrive in the mornings, some had very little wind, others had reasonable seas and wind al the way - which is as expected I guess weather being what it is but the boat that left the same time as I did agreed there was a bit more "weather" to contend with than we had been expecting. They confirmed my suspicion that my wind instruments have become inaccurate, having seen gusts close to 30 knots whereas mine only ever saw 23 and I was sure the wind was stronger than that in the gusts, and never believed in the lulls it was 16. I suppose I just add that to the list of things to do on the boat sometime in Fiji.

I went to a cafe called Aquarium, one of several overlooking the large blind ending arm of the harbour with dozens of moored cruisers. WiFi is free if you buy a coffee, and several yachties were there with their laptops doing their email and what-not. It amazed me in Niue as well, how many people are on the net and for hours at a time every day it seems; I cant imagine what they are finding to do there all that time day after day, but one couple I saw in Niue and here too, seem never to do anything else or even talk to each other, but just sit there with their I-Pads or whatever they are, doing facebook or something. I could have brought my Toughbook and done something similar but I have found WiFi in these places can be rather slow, and I dont want to risk dropping it into the tide getting it to and from the boat so I use an Internet Cafe where available - its not free but it can be quick. I had fresh fruit and coffee and then a second breakfast of vegetable patties with sweet chuili sauce, and fresh coconut juice with pineapple.. It was very nice sitting there looking at the yachts and relaxing after all that sailing.

My main interest in Vava'u is whale watching so I have booked to go in the morning. I also found a place to hire a mooring from and moved the boat onto it later in the day, then pumped up the dinghy, reattached the Outboard to it and went back to town for a random walk round the back streets. I found a shop selling NZ Hokey Pokey Icecream so wandered off with a double cone and I could hardly have been happier. Later still I had NZ beer with my chicken kebabs dinner and in the dark when I got back to Sapphire, the sound of unaccompanied singing from a church choir drifted across the water. It had been one of those lovely days when you feel so relaxed and at peace with everything you wonder why everyone isnt doing what I'm doing!

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Arrival

Tonight I am tied up at the main commercial wharf area in Neiafu, the main town on Vava'u. I arrived well before dark but too late for Customs and all that so I was advised to tie up here and wait till morning. The trip from Niue was really hard work! Big wind and seas to 3 metres so lots of hanging on and waiting for miles to tick over. The sea was really quite amazing but it was more amazing to see Sapphire plough on through it all. The wind and waves started in the south and gradually swung round to SE and later East, so as it went round little adjustments were made to the Hydrovane to keep us on track. Last night I was a bit slow in making the adjustments and we came to Vava'u a bit south of where I wanted to be so we had to sort of sail a bit more northerly for a while to get back on track, then over the top of the island and down the western side to a long passage between mamy islands to get to Neiafu. Once again I was greeted on arrival by a whale!

One astonishing thing happened on the journey : the Hydrovane Bolts came loose again! I was amazed! - I head a strange creaking noise, one I hadn't heard before and I think its a good rule to always investigate new sounds - and there it was - the lower bracket sliding sideways and back again about 1cm as the boat moved this way and that...well I knew excatly what to do so in 20 minutes had them all tightened again, along with a couple of good soakings as I lay awkwardly on the cockpit floor with my hand reaching back through the inspection port to the bolts in the transom....I am not sure what to think but will just have to keep checking them and tightening them.

So now all is quiet as my dinner heats up and my "Q" Flag flutters in a light breeze. I'm tired so shall sleep well tonight.

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Slogging it out

In seas and weather like this, the best place to be is in my bunk. SO thats where I'm going again after sending this brief message. Its sunny and very windy with 3m swells. I have a tiny headsail out and two reefs in the main and we making round 6 knots over a very bumpy sea with white water everywhere. The wind and sea are from south so we arent going downwind which would make eveything so much nicer, but , 22 hours after leaving Niue we are half way there. I just want to be in Vava'u before dark tomorrow - on present indications we'll just squeak in. I will post again once we are there, late tomorrow.

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Next Stop: Vava'u

A view of the southern end of Niue

I forgot to put this one up before: Its Tom Neales shack on Suwarrow

One of the hundreds of empty houses on Niue

We climbed down this ladder into a cave yesterday to snorkel in the cave.

The cave Pool was wondeful

Looking out from the cave

Very clear water : those little blue fish are almost iridescent in real life

 Lots of  little fish in Makapu Point Cave

The weather has settled and instead of waiting till tomorrow I am leaving later today, Friday. Ive taken the motorbike back, paid my yacht club dues, checked out with customs and after this will get some more UHT milk and few other groceries along with a loaf of fresh bread. That should be enough to get me to Vava'u in 2 days when it will be Monday there, on the other side of the International; dateline. Ive had a really lovely time in Niue but I am excited about getting back out into the ocean again.