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Tonga etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
Tonga etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster

Vava’u Group –Tonga

9/20/04 – 10/31/04
By KT

Week 1 (9/20 – 9/26)
Neiafu (main town)

After our unexpected “rough” passage, it was more than a relief to hook onto a mooring ball.  I was definitely ready to get off the boat.  But first, we needed a quick nap for revival purposes … after that it was off to a “reunion party”.   Everybody was here; all rejoined after taking our separate routes through the Cook Islands.  We all met up at the Mermaid for dinner and drinks (and more drinks).  It was never our intention to get so rowdy (‘er drunk), but I suppose between the passage we’d just finished and being back with everyone, things just took on their own pace.  It was quite the night with music, dancing, lots & lots of laughing, and story telling as we all caught up.  All was going along smoothly until I performed a Humpty Dumpty over a rock wall.  It all happened quite fast, one minute I was talking to Michael (de la Mer) & Doug (Solstice), the next minute I was somersaulting headfirst backwards over a knee level wall (which I had somehow backed into, and in my unsteady state was not able to keep my balance), into the rocks & water below.  Mary (de la Mer), came jumping over the wall into the water after me … apparently she thought the water was deep and was worried I would drown.  We both stood there in waist-level water looking at each other.  The men promptly pulled us back up the wall, where I apologized profusely both for my act of stupidity and for destroying Chris’s good camera (which was in my backpack when I toppled over and now full of sea water).



The next morning I awoke to see what Chris lovingly termed “Neanderthal woman” in the mirror.  I guess the rocks and my face didn’t get along.  I had quite a few scrapes on my cheekbone and eyebrow, but it was the swelling that caused the majority of distortion.  Later (in town) I would discover that I was now famous … everyone had heard about my graceful back-flip.  I (along with everyone) realize that I was quite lucky nothing more serious happened, but, post-event, knowing I came out okay, everyone (including myself) had a good laugh, and I was (actually still am) the subject of quite a few jokes.

We spent the next few days exploring and enjoying a real town; electricity, Internet, markets, fresh veggies, laundry service (my favorite) and restaurants (my second favorite).  We met “Pete the Meat”, who sold a huge variety of frozen-fresh (if that’s not a contradiction) meats.  We went to the outdoor market, where we excitedly purchased funky looking carrots, the world’s tiniest bell peppers, & tasty cucumbers.  We ate out almost every night, eating twice at The Dancing Rooster where we feasted on fresh lobster dishes (including lobster ravioli & red curry lobster).  We finished the week with card-day, playing with de la Mer & Island Sonata at the Mermaid.

Week 2 (9/27 –10/3)

After a week of splurging, exploring, relaxing, & eating (Chris later came up with the term, Tonga-10 for all the weight we gained), we decided we were ready to explore some of the other anchorages.  On Tuesday we moved to Nuapapu South (off of Vaka’eitu Island).  We had thought we would be “getting away” from everyone, but as it turns out Emerald, de la Mer, Island Sonata & Gumbo Ya Ya (just to name a few) were all in this anchorage as well.  In an attempt at some seclusion, we first tried to anchor around the bend from all the other boats.  This was also our first introduction to anchoring in Tonga, which we later confirmed sucks!  After about five tries, where the hook wasn’t even close to setting, we moved around to the main anchorage.  It took us two attempts to get the anchor to set, however when Billabong came to a rest we felt we were too close to Emerald.  After a few minutes we finally decided we would indeed have to move.  Who knows how many more attempts we spent trying to get the anchor to set … enough that Island Sonata came over to make fun of us asking, “Is this the first time you’ve anchored this boat?”.  We finally gave up and moved (again) to where we hoped would be better holding.  Two more attempts later we FINALLY hooked on!  We figured we spent at least 2 hours anchoring!  On the bright side, we now had lots and lots of hot water (since we had run the engine for so long).

The next day we went ashore with de la Mer to do a bit of exploring.  We checked out a resort on Vaka’eitu (which we learned only cost $200/year to lease the land!).  The resort looked cute, and the idea romantic, but after look inside one of the lodges, I was very happy to be here on Billabong.  The following morning Whisper arrived, just in time to join us on Billabong for hot Banana bread.  Afterwards we hooked up with de la Mer for some snorkeling.  We tried a number of different spots, but all we really found was a lot of dead coral, and some interesting sea urchins.  We tried again the next day, and were rewarded with some terrific snorkeling on the outside of the reef … great coral and lots of “Nemos” (our name for any sea anemone fish).  Afterwards we lifted anchor and headed back to Neifu.

Saturday was the “Kiwi Kickoff Party” (a cruiser party to celebrate everyone’s successful arrival to Tonga).  The party organizers also put together a number of “awards” recognizing those less-than-ideal moments of cruising.  We were the proud winners of three such awards:  “The prodigal dinghy of shame award” (for ‘the runaway dinghy that never returned’, also acknowledging the knot [that doesn’t work] now named after Chris – Billa-bowline);  “The Soused Swan Award” (for ‘the most spectacular unsynchronized acrobatic diving exhibition’, aka KT’s humpty-dumpty act);  and “The Papa Passed a Kidney Stone Award”.

We finished off the weekend with Canasta at the Mermaid with Island Sonata & Waking Dream  (who had just arrived in Neiafu Saturday).

Week 3 (10/4 – 10/10)

Monday was another “hang around” day, where we ran some errands around town (internet, market, etc) and did a bit around the boat (miscellaneous projects & cleaning).  Tuesday we moved over to Tapana / Afo Island.  After three frustrating tries at getting our hook to set we moved over to a mooring ball owned by the Ark Gallery (a little house-like art gallery that floats in the middle of the anchorage).  Donna threw an all girls party aboard Ocean Girl (her husband Ralph was back in Canada), while Bob from Stardust hosted the boys.  Neither party got too rowdy … the girls did a lot of eating and chatting while the boys ate spaghetti and played cards & liars dice.

The following morning we said goodbye to Emerald as they headed to the Ha’apai Group.  We headed over to La Paella (little Spanish restaurant across the bay), where Maajhi-Re, Gumbo Ya Ya, Ascension, and the local owner were having a jam session.  We are still amazed at the musical talent that exists.  We are even more amazed that Kurt manages to fit an entire drum set aboard Gumbo Ya Ya!  Afterwards we had de la Mer over for cheese fondue (which didn’t turn out so good, but we ate it anyway).

Thursday we moved over to Port Maurelle, where our anchor set FIRST try (we were ecstatic).  After a quick dip in the anchorage to see the local Nemo fish, we caught a ride in Whisper’s dinghy (Shout) and headed over to Swallow’s cave for sunset drinks.  It felt like a Disneyland ride as we entered the cave … unfortunately the graffiti dampened the Disney atmosphere.

The following afternoon, we enjoyed some terrific snorkeling just outside Swallow’s cave.  There were a variety of coral colors, tons of Nemos (which I could watch and play with for hours), and even a big ‘ol lobster.  Later that evening we ventured over to a beach party / bon fire … more excellent food, great company, and just plain good times!

We enjoyed the snorkeling so much that we went back on Saturday with Whisper & Island Sonata.  Later that evening we all hooked up aboard Whisper and feasted on pizza, chocolate soufflés, and wine.  And interesting combination, but it was all fabulous (and Chris was thrilled to here me say the soufflés were not that hard to make)!

I had signed up for Scuba diving lessons, so on Sunday we headed back to town (Neiafu).  Following our Sunday tradition, we played Canasta at the Mermaid with Bobulona & Waking Dream.  We then enjoyed another terrific lobster meal at The Dancing Rooster.

Week 4 (10/11 – 10/17)

By this time we had more-or-less decided that we would depart to New Zealand from the Vava’u Group.  We had initially thought we would head to the Ha’apai Group, followed by checking out Nuku’alofa before heading to New Zealand.  But after all the moving about over the last few months we were both enjoying the protected anchorages of Vava’u and had no huge desire to move on!  In addition, our friends from the states who were going to fly in to Nuku’alofa and crew with us down to NZ were unable to make it so we no longer had to be in Nuku’alofa.  This decision really allowed us to relax and take our time in both explorations as well as boat preparations.

I enjoyed my scuba lessons over the next three days.  Meanwhile Chris completed various projects aboard Billabong in preparation for our NZ passage.  I’ll admit, he got the short end of the stick on that one! He was a great sport about it though!  Diving was great fun.  The instructor was terrific, and the class included people I already knew.  On our graduation day we went on three open water dives.  It included a lot of firsts for me, including a Lion fish, color changing coral, and a sea anemone that closed up into this bulb-like thing!

Thursday I caught up on my chores (internet, bakery, market, etc) while Chris wrapped up his boat projects.  Friday I treated Chris to a dive outing (the Whisper’s came along too).  There were lots of chutes & tunnels in our first dive, but the second dive won all our votes with the wide variety of fish and live coral (and Chris got to see the cool color changing coral).  On the dives with us was a group from California who were chartering a catamaran.  They were another reminder to us of how lucky we are to be able to be living this life instead of just visiting it.  Vacations are great, and definitely needed, but man is it wonderful to be able to experience these things for longer than two weeks at a time!  We are continuously thankful!!!

We ended the day with drinks & dinner at the Mermaid in celebration of Ralph’s (Ocean Girl) return.  The next two days were quite mellow with card playing (including Chris becoming addicted to the computer card game, Spider), web updates, and reading.

Week 5 (10/18 –10/24)

Monday was another chore day in preparation for another week out-and-about among the anchorages of Vava’u.  We also had a marvelous dinner aboard Ocean Girl (she served an awesome red curry chicken dish, which I now make regularly!).

Tuesday we attempted to move to Mafana Island.  It was a beautiful day with excellent sailing conditions.  We were having a great time, until the critical decision-making point.  At our current speed we would arrive Mafana just as the sun was setting.  IF we couldn’t get the anchor to set we would be in a hard spot because coming back through the channel (through a reef) in low light could be hazardous.  We decided to go for it anyway.  It was a terrific spot, and no one was around.  BUT, of course our anchor wouldn’t set.  It wouldn’t even grab a bite at all (no matter how slow I backed down).  After half a dozen tries we aborted and headed back.  The lighting sucked, but luckily we also had our GPS track from our way in.  We made it safely and headed to Tapana / Afo Island.  This time we didn’t even bother trying to anchor, we headed straight for a mooring ball.

We lazily lounged around the following day, enjoy the much missed sunshine.  Whisper also arrived, and we rowed over with them to scope out the Ark Gallery (we hadn’t actually visited it on our first stay in this anchorage).  She hand paints a variety of landscapes, portraits, and boat scenes.  They are all really well done, but quite pricey.  We enjoyed talking to the owner and her husband – both cruisers who arrived in Tonga ten years ago.

Thursday we found some good snorkeling at the island across the way from the anchorage.  At least it was all good until I got a jelly fish sting across my mouth & cheek!  OUCH!!! For dinner we joined Whisper on an outing to La Paella.  We brought along two bottles of California wine, which we all drooled over (Whisper couldn't believe that we still had CA wine, and that we were willing to SHARE it!!!).  Dinner was great, and the music was lively (the owners put on a show).  We all got to join in as Percussion-type instruments (shakers, bongos, etc) were passed around.  Those who know me will be happy to learn that tone-def, beat-deprived me did not partake in the music-making festivities!!!

History was made on Friday, when Chris discovered FOUR gray/white hairs … on MY head!  I was convinced he was lying, but sure enough, he plucked them, and they were really white, not just sun bleached!!!  I was most surprised to find I wasn’t at all upset, actually just entertained!

Island Sonata showed up and we got together for some more Canasta playing.

Saturday we taxied into Nieafu to use the internet and buy a few fresh veggies at the market.  We spent the rest of the day reading, followed by a quite dinner & movie.

Sunday we hopped aboard Island Sonata, with Whisper, for a pancake breakfast.  Island Sonata then took us all over (via their boat) to Mariner’s Cave.  Along the way we picked up Waking Dream and Freebird.  It was a fun sail on the catamaran.  The girls enjoyed sitting up front on the trampoline (until we all got drenched).  Entering Mariner's Cave required a short under water dive, where you popped up inside a very dark cave.  The underwater portion was short, but it’s an interesting mind game convincing yourself that you’ll be able to surface sometime soon!

Week 6 (10/25 – 10/31)

We were now giving serious thought to when we should actually leave for New Zealand.  We started watching the weather more closely, and wrapping up all our preparation projects.  Before moving back to Neiafu we had Waking Dream, de La Mer, and Ocean Girl over for a “good-bye” dinner.  de la Mer would be leaving their boat in Tonga under the supervision of the Ark Gallery owners, who would then deliver their boat back to Southern California next season. They plan to first visit Fiji & New Zealand (via air), so we hope to catch up with them before they return to the states.  Waking Dream decided to stay in Tonga for the hurricane season.  They both had a number of potential business ideas.  Hopefully we’ll catch up with them next season.

We moved back to Neiafu on Thursday.  Thursday and Friday were spent with last minute details, including checking out, provisioning, passage meal cooking, and weather watching.  We managed to fit in a bit of fun, enjoying huge burgers at Bounty Burger, and celebrating Halloween at Anna’s Café.

After one last visit to the internet, we moved to Port Maurelle.  We were ready to go … or at least we hoped so.  This is the one passage that everyone talks about and stresses over.  Supposedly everyone gets their ass whooped on this one.  We figured it would take us 10 days if things went well, and up to 15 if things went bad.  Personally, I was tired of watching the weather and trying to pick the perfect window (good thing Chris has more patience then me).  I was tired of worrying, tired of preparing, and ready to just BE THERE!  I was very, very excited that we were about to be in New Zealand.  We were about to finish up our first year of cruising.  What had once seemed so far away, both in miles and time was now just days away!

According to the weather gurus, Sunday the weather window would be closing … it was go now or stay for another two weeks.  With Whisper in front of us, and Ocean Girl behind us we left Tonga behind.  New Zealand, here we come!

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Passage to Vava'u

Trip to Vava’u

Tacking the last day
It started out to be one of the best trips we’ve had. There was good wind and we were making great progress down the rhumbline. We had had a great sail during the day when the wind began to drop and move behind us. In order to keep our course I put up the spinnaker and we were flying at about 6.5 to 7 knots. Usually we think about taking the spinnaker down at night but the breeze seemed to be dying so we left it up. After dark, at 7:50 to be exact, we heard a loud wave (like a low rumbling noise), kind of like the breaking waves that come out of the night, except there were no seas. All of the sudden we slammed into a whale. Water came over the rail and KT got rather wet. The boat slowed to about 1.5 knots as our spinnaker collapsed and the boat felt like it was going bow down. I immediately got on the radio and told Emerald that we had hit a whale and were checking for damage. We both ran around frantically, checking the steering, which didn’t feel right. I checked under the floorboards and had to raise the dinghy to check in the watertight compartment but there was no water. Finally we got enough boat speed and the steering felt fine, as we both breathed a huge sigh of relief. I was planning on checking under water in the morning but the weather had different plans.

After catching our breath and relaxing a little, we saw lightening on the horizon as the wind got lighter and shifted more to the northwest (usually a bad sign). Something triggered in my head ... “lightning.. spinnaker .. bad idea!!” About ten minutes after we took it down, the genoa back winded, and I swore at the autopilot thinking it had lost its course again. Well the wind kept rising, 15, 20, 25 knots right on the nose. It rained a little bit but we seemed to avoid direct lightening, even though the thunderhead cloud passed right over the boat.  The next 36 hours were spent battling against winds coming from the exact place we wanted to go. They say gentlemen don’t go to weather, so all you out there that actually had doubts can now be 100% sure.. I’m no gentleman!! The seas got rather big as we pounded into them. Green water was running down the windward side of the boat like we’ve never seen. There were waves constantly breaking over the bow. De La Mer had a couple of emergencies, one when his water generator line got wrapped around his rudder when he tacked. He actually had to get in the water in the rough seas and unwrap it!! We tacked behind then and stood off as he went over, I can’t imagine what a rescue must be like in a storm. The second was when he looked up on deck and realized that his anchor was not on deck; he was towing it and 45 feet of chain behind him under the boat. Later he joked that parachute anchors are overrated, just throw your anchor overboard. I kept giving him crap about trying to anchor in 1000 feet of water with only 40 feet of scope.

Night came and everyone else turned on their motors and motored straight into it at about 2 knots. I figured that even though we were tacking through about 135-140o (instead of the normal 110o) we were moving five plus knots so we were getting there almost as fast but we were more comfortable, and we were sailing. The only problem was there was a line of boats motoring straight and we were tacking across the same line.. ALL nightlong. I let KT sleep and kept in touch with the other 4 boats, sometimes needing to flash deck light etc to figure out who was who. They thought I was nuts.  KT woke up and heard me telling some of the other boats that we would be in around noon. KT came on deck with the saddest face I have ever seen, “I thought we’d be there already”. We sailed a little longer, now it was fantastic sailing because while we still had 20+ knots, we were in the lee of the island so the seas were relatively calm. I finally gave in and motored the last 5 miles into Vava’u. It was nice to see a town with electricity for the first time in five weeks, plus you get a free “refrigerated ice cold tap” beer at the local bar on you first day. More about that later!!

Niuatoputapu - Tonga

09/07/04 - 09/18/04

By Chris

The day after our arrival we got checked into Tonga; a white van shows up on the wharf, honks and you have to pick up the four officials and bring them to your boat. We coordinated the pickup with De La Mer, so we had the pleasure of Michael on board for our entire entrance inspection. He kept cracking jokes, like “Aren’t you going to show them the hidden compartment?  What do you mean you don’t have pets on board?” Luckily the officials had a good sense of humor and the Doctor actually started making jokes about Michael. We heard things go smoother if you give them food and drink so KT made muffins and cookies, which disappeared in five minutes. I guess while they were waiting for some other officials, KT was talking to one of the head guys who had grabbed our photo album. After we had told them that we didn’t have any children, and that we weren’t married, he asked if the picture of KT pregnant was really KT. As she hemmed and hawed, and tried to explain everything, we started talking about the whole surrogate thing. After reading about the Tongan culture which shuns a lot of things like holding hands in public (between opposite sexes) and requires clothing that covers knees and shoulders, we thought they must think we were completely crazy. Luckily the doctor was interested in talking about it and explained to the others who smiled. Phew!! The doctor also explained that they had a bad case of elephantitis a couple of years ago, but it “seemed” to be gone now. They had pills for cruisers but they were out of them, because they had so many visiting yachts. Well this really got us thinking because of an article my dad sent us during his “information gathering” sessions prior to our departure. It showed a picture of a person with huge deformed legs, Yikes!!



After check in we joined a group on their way into the village so we could pay our fees. As we passed  through the various villages we realized how “poor” the people were. They had no running water or electricity. Most of the houses consisted of one room with no furniture were they would eat and sleep on the floor (the only difference was which mat they put on the floor). There was a second house for cooking and finally an outhouse for the obvious. We separated into a couple of groups based on the ability to walk and talk at the same time. KT stopped along the way and met Anita and her twin sister, who was the local mat maker. They also stopped at the weaving center and got some more ideas of what kind of mats they could get. Corbie was having a set made for her entire floor of the boat, KT just planned to have one made. We got a good tour of the three villages, after following a long dry dirt road on the leeward side of the island. We saw the administration center which also held the treasury and the post office in a single room. They divided it up by counter space, the treasury looked like an old western bank counter (except it was only three feet wide) with an old safe in the back. The post office was on the other side, along with the administration “counter”. The same woman worked all three, but you had to go to the right place to get the service you wanted. The $$ smelled very mildewy and felt slightly wet to the touch. We continued the tour trying to find the local “store”. It was a small building with a desk at the entrance, where you placed your order. We asked if we could look around and see what was available; not much, provisioning would have to wait. We had to stop at the hospital to pay our health fees and were given a tour by the doctor. There was one “operating room” which we all walked through without sterile precautions. They have done one caesarian operation during a typhoon when they couldn’t get the woman off the island. The crown prince who owns his own airline bankrupted the Tongan airline, so the island is VERY cutoff without airline service. There are stories of people needing to leave the island on the supply ships months before they need to be somewhere just so they are sure they can get there. One of the visiting yachts took a boy with a broken leg to Neiafu to get good medical attention. The doctor also told us there is a 60% incidence of type II Diabetes, due to the change of diets thanks to “modernization”.

Meeting the Natives

During our stay, we really enjoyed getting to know the people and the kids of the island. On our first trip back to the village we ran into the children returning from school. We felt like we were being mobbed as kids came running up holding our hands (boys holding boys and girls holding girls), asking all sorts of questions like “What’s you name, how old are you, where’s your wife/husband, where’s my lollie?” One boy got in trouble for putting his hand on KT’s shoulder; we’re still trying to figure that one out. The kids loved the cameras and kept saying “Photo ME!!” They would all pose with these tough expressions on their faces, even though they were constantly smiling until they hammed it up for the camera. They all wanted to see the resulting picture (on the back of the digital), and thanked us like we had given them the biggest gift. They were all singing and the boys were showing off by climbing trees like monkeys to get coconuts. They’d ask if we wanted a coconut and before you knew it they were up the tree and back down before you could blink. I guess they get a lot of their drinking liquids from coconuts. It was such a great experience to see such happy kids enjoying themselves as a group. From that point on everywhere we went kids would come up and say “hi KT” “hi Christ”, I guess they have a problem with an s ending. We saw them at school and they ran to the windows to say hi. We did a hike with Vema (one of the teachers), Meli, and a bunch of kids. We had a lot of fun  laughing and joking with them. Rick (from Emerald) was a big hit because he had muscular arms with veins and they kept poking at them. We skidded down a steep hill on our butts/feet, as they laughed hysterically at the two palangi (white people). They all went flying down the hill through the trees and some hit them pretty hard but jumped right up again laughing. We also joined them at a local fresh water-swimming hole to cool down before we continued back to the boats. Along the way we found a fallen palm tree that the kids rode like a horse. I grabbed it and made it shake even more as the kids went flying off. I have never seen kids laugh so much.

Meli invited us to join her for church, where we enjoyed some of the most amazing loud singing we have ever heard. When we sat down there were seven adults sitting around, when they started singing both KT and I looked at each other wondering when the choir had shown up. We turned around and it was still just the seven adults belting it out at the top of their lungs. Meli lives in a house with 10 brothers and sisters and her parents. She has a sister and brother that are somewhere around five years old, both with blond hair and cute as can be. They both took a liking to us but didn’t say much and sat there a smiled in a shy kind of way. We went to Meli’s house for a feast that they had arranged for us. It turns out Gumbo Yaya was supposed to join us but they were double booked. The whole setup was rather confusing for us. It was uncomfortable for us at the beginning because they set out all this food, and appeared to be waiting for more people. Meli explained that her parents were upset that there weren’t more people there; they wanted to know where all the other cruisers were. They had cooked a huge feast with an entire small pig and all the trimmings, easily enough for ten people. I was the messenger who was sent to see if we should wait for Gumbo Yaya or just eat. KT and I both tried to get them to eat with us but the entire family sat there and watched us. They had no forks or spoons; you just ate with your fingers. If you have ever tried to eat warm papaya, corned beef with vegetables and other soft mushy foods with your hands you’ll realize quickly that it is not “first date” food. The father, who was also the minister that day, handed me a knife, said, “enjoy” and pointed at the pig. I looked down and thought that this was obviously a big deal for them and I didn’t want to screw up; it was the entire pig, skin, head and all. I asked him how and he explained that I should start with the legs. He kept telling me I should have more but we couldn’t eat anything else. So we sat there eating with the entire family staring at us and laughing at EVERYTHING we said. Finally Gumbo showed up but neither of them ate any pig so I think the parents were upset that they had killed one of their precious pigs but no one really enjoyed it. Oh Well. The two little kids walked us out to the dinghy and we headed back to the boats. We saw them a couple of days later and I kept chasing the little girl around. She kept saying “heah” and running. We did that for a while and then I stopped to talk to someone. Then all the other boys would try to catch her and present her to me ... I had to explain that it wasn’t ok to treat her roughly; I hope everything returned to normal after we left.

Later we gave them some things like plastic cups, some plates, fishing stuff and some paper, crayons and colored pencils. They invited us in to say goodbye and presented us with a HUGE tapa cloth. We thanked them for their food and hospitality and they said we were welcome anytime. The cute little kids followed us out. They helped us get the dinghy through the thick mud, as I was pulling I grunted. The little boy followed suit, grunting the entire time. As we exited the long pass, both of the little kids actually spoke to us. The boy said “bye KT” and the girl said “Bye Chris”. It took everything we had not to throw the kids in the dingy and take off with them.

Experiences with Whales

When you read our cruising book about Tonga the author talks about hitting a sleeping whale returning through the pass at night in his dinghy. After seeing the two whales during our entrance I knew this was bound to be a Whale of a good time (that joke is for my dad). The other cruisers started talking about their dinghy trips out to snorkel with them. I asked Scott from Apsara to explain what you had to do to see them. We were standing on the motu during the Tongan feast while he was explaining how much patience it took for a quick glance at a whale. He was pointing and showing me where to go when he re-explained the patience, just as a whale broached EXACTLY where he was pointing. I kept thinking, “This looks easy”.

Well I guess it was for us. We took off with Emerald and De La Mer into a VERY flat calm sea. I explained what Scott had told me, about how you should shut off your engine when 100 yards away from the whale and paddle to get closer, that’s a lot of paddling. We chased a bunch of them but never got close enough to get in the water with them to see that  much. We were way out when I saw what looked like whale blow right besides the island about 2 miles away. I peeled off towards them while KT thought I was seeing things (so did I for a second). Finally we saw them and headed west to cut them off. We stopped the dinghy, KT started filming (while trying to put on her gear at the same time, when I realized that the reef came out and got closer to us (25 feet) and that they were coming right at us (you could easily see the bottom in 25-35 feet of water). KT jumped in commented on a big fish and then immediately started laughing ... “get in, get in .. drop the camera and get in .. drop the &*^*ing camera and get in the water”. It was amazing, you could clearly see six Humpback whales swimming right for us. Three of them swam right under us, while three tried to squeeze between the reef and us. One of them had to turn around and I stared in awe as this majestic creature weighing 40 tons turned with such grace. I even dove down to try and touch one as he swam under me but in the haste I had forgotten my fins. I got within 10 feet of the tail flukes, so close I  could feel the power of the water it was moving. Behind that set were four more and immediately ten whales surrounded us. Then the lead ones turned around and came back under us again. I can’t even begin to describe the feeling; it was as if we were in our own private fish bowl with 10 whales. It wasn’t until later that we realized exactly how close we were to such HUGE and powerful creatures, I think we used a bunch of our black box in luck that day. We continued to follow them and called over Emerald and De La Mer, who both got to see some of the pod. Rick actually got some good video of the same pod in deeper water. We followed some more around and had some other close experiences. KT got most of the action, she would lie on top of the dinghy pontoon all geared up and sometimes wouldn’t even let the  dinghy stop before she was in the water. The closer she got, the better. I think I had more fun watching her than the whales (after the initial experience). At the end, all I wanted to do was share the experience with EVERYONE. Get you all on a plane to share this once in a lifetime treat. I didn’t really realize how lucky we were until we got a chance to share it with others that had been there for a while. Tiffany on Clare was so great, she over heard me explaining to Rod on the satellite phone that I was dieing to share my experience with other people. She came over and said, “I heard ... go on share it with me”. KT and I were walking on water the rest of the week. We also tried to get others out there including the free diving Swedes, I guess Axle got within 2 meters of the tail flukes and just followed the whale as it swam. It was not as good of a day but everyone got to be in the water and see at least a couple up close.

As we left Niuatoputapu we had De La Mer to our starboard while I was down below setting up our route on the computer. KT was on deck watching for Whales (to avoid) when De La Mer called and asked if we saw the whale between us. Before he finished the sentence I was up the companion way and shut off the autopilot. The whale surfaced about 40 feet way and was heading straight for us. I immediately turned the wheel away from him as he dove and went right under us. KT was looking further out and had actually been thinking about the strange color in the water, but thought it was a reef or something else. Billy from Clare also had a similar experience; he almost tried to anchor his dinghy on a whale, thinking it was a reef until it finally moved!

Our next experience was not so pleasant. We had had a great sail during the day when the wind began to drop and move behind us. In order to keep our course I put up the spinnaker and we were flying at about 6.5 to 7 knots. Usually we think about taking the spinnaker down at night but the breeze seemed to be dying so we left it up. After dark, at 7:50 to be exact, we heard a loud wave (like a low rumbling noise), kind of like the breaking waves that come out of the night, except there were no seas. All of the sudden we slammed into a whale. Water came over the rail and KT got rather wet. The boat slowed to about 1.5 knots as our spinnaker collapsed and the boat felt like it was going bow down. I immediately got on the radio and told Emerald that we had hit a whale and were checking for damage. We both ran around frantically, checking the steering, which didn’t feel right. I checked under the floorboards and had to raise the dinghy to check in the watertight compartment but there was no water. Finally we got enough boat speed and the steering felt fine, as we both breathed a huge sigh of relief. I was planning on checking under water in the morning but the weather had different plans.

Meeting New Cruisers

Even though we have traveled so far we are still meeting new boats, which have traveled the same routes but with slightly different timing. I was expecting to meet more Kiwis and Aussies here (who come up for to the western pacific for the season) but we’re still meeting people from the States and Europe. I had met Scott on Apsara briefly in Bora Bora as he came over to ask if we wanted any of the things (a cruising guide and some Tupperware) that he didn’t have room for on his brand new Swan 65. I laughed and said if you don’t have room how do you expect me to have room on my little boat (of course I took it). We spent a little while shooting the breeze about all sorts of things including his trip from the factory in Europe and the fact that he had a crew of eight (I think) to do the Atlantic crossing, including a French Chef to do the cooking. Yikes, please don’t let KT find out about that ... I guess there is another world out there. Well Scott was one of the people who helped us through the pass so we delivered cookies to them the next day and met his wife Nancy. I spent most of my time walking around town with them, and had a great time. Turns out he was a Venture Capitalist in the health care business, while Nancy was in a pruning position for a CEO. Hey, I’m interested in what people do (or did) now that I am looking for new career ideas. We shared a dinner on their boat with Clare (a boat from Chicago with Billy and Tiffany on board). Scott and Nancy gave us a tour of their AMAZING boat in which they played a large part of the design criteria. I love looking at great ideas on boats and this one had lots of them. We settled into the cockpit for drinks while we waited for Clare to arrive. We first met Billy and Tiffany in Suwarrow but didn’t really get to know them that well. Billy is a very bright X-options exchange trader with a very southern accent (from Florida I guess), which is rare in the cruising fleet. He always makes fun of himself, “you’all think I’m stupid”. They both have tons of energy and are really funny to hang out with. Well they both got on board and were rather quiet. Finally Billy asks “You’all talk about the whales yet?” Scott said no that they were waiting for them, as all four of them exploded in to high energy stories about their experiences that day. Tiffany was laughing because she said Billy spent an hour telling her about his 5 minutes with the whales and then asked her to tell him her version of the same story. They just couldn’t get enough. We still had some special California wine on board which everyone awed over and we all savored. Nancy made some great enchiladas that KT was drooling over ever since Dragonfly told us they went out for Mexican food when they got to American Samoa. We had a great night; I don’t think we stopped laughing the entire time. Another night Apsara had a cocktail party with almost everyone from the anchorage on board. The food was amazing, including smoked salmon with caviar on toast. Who said cruising is just like camping?

We met a family on a HUGE catamaran, Dulcinea. They are a family of five who has already sailed across the Atlantic and back through the canal to the South Pacific (someone actually wrote a kids school book about their trip across the Atlantic that I got for Kari). They were trying to find a spot and I yelled out to let them know that we were not sitting to our anchor (the wind had died so our anchor was in a different position then straight off the bow).  They thanked me and as Michael and I were coming back from a coconut hunt, she waved us over and invited us on board. This boat was HUGE; it was so big the salon looked like a great room in a normal house. They immediately offered us cold beers while a couple of the Swedes from Equity also arrived (no doubt to chase the two daughters). I had heard about the Swedes from Emerald who said we would get along great. We did. There are four brothers in their 20’s sailing from Sweden to New Zealand with their Dad. Mom stayed at home, but they call her on the Sat Phone almost everyday. These guys are crazy and a lot of fun … when entering a pass, I guess they figure that they only need one person to steer the boat and one to watch for coral so the other three typically get towed through the pass with their snorkeling gear on. Although, they did have to get out of the pass in Suwarrow because the sharks were so aggressive! They are amazing free divers, Corbie said she saw them at about 90 feet once (while she had on full dive gear). As we got to know them it was amazing to see how well they worked together. They actually redirected compliments to other brothers and each one took turns being Captain. They always had meetings to decide what they would do together. I talked to Peder, the father, one night about how great of an experience he must be having, how unique to share such an adventure with his sons at that age. After the feast we gave Ola (the oldest) a ride back to their boat, and he dropped his sunglasses in the water as he was leaning over to tie up the dinghy (just as the sun was setting). I saw them and dove in the water to get them. He was forever grateful and invited us onboard for a shower and drinks. Well that turned into an impromptu party that lasted until one AM. KT got up the courage to ask a couple of the brothers how they dealt with THINGS, ”you know, there’s four of you brothers all in your 20’s on a boat with your dad, what do you do if you meet a girl and want to bring her home..” It was funny to watch them duck the answer, and after what seemed like hours KT gave up.


Landscape/Hikes


The Anchorage Lagoon, and the Volcano

The islands provided an amazing landscape, a beautiful lagoon with lush trees and a small mountain ridge down the center of the island. We got a great panoramic view from the top, the three villages on the leeward side (with 1100 people and 12 churches), lush coconut trees on the windward side and the volcano to the north. The island name means “Very Sacred Coconut” and the island is covered with them. We also hiked down the other side where most of the families have a small piece of land, “the bush”, where they get their food from, and around the south west side to a motu with a “resort”.

The Outer Side of the Island

We hiked the volcano after an “interesting” boat ride across the channel; I don’t think we could count the number of Coast Guard regulations that were violated during our trip. The boat was small and the seas were big, and the boat smelled like fuel, which made for some sour stomachs.  Once you leave the beach you hike up what seems like 1000’s steps just to get to the village of Tafini, which has about 150 people. We were exhausted already but this was like base camp, we still had most of the 2000-foot peak to climb. The volcano was so high there were actually different weather systems at different altitudes. The locals grow their fruits lower, and then the Taro and Kava at higher elevations. Luckily it got cooler as we went up and one point we entered what seemed like a rain forest because it was mostly in the clouds. We were treated to some amazing views and incredible foliage changes along the way. We also saw 1000’s of fruit bats (which the locals eat), as we neared the top. It was very vampirish as he banged the tree and the huge bats flew around the volcano. The climb was very difficult, sometimes your arm could reach out straight and touch the hill in front of you, and we enjoyed our rest at the top VERY much.

Island Politics

One thing about traveling to remote islands is the cruisers can have a great impact on the locals. A lot has been written about the “Tongan Way”, which is to give freely and expect nothing in return. When some of the earlier cruisers were there, they were treated to HUGE Tongan feasts that were free. As time went on and the locals visited the boats and saw the differences between our lives and theirs, they started focusing more on the cruisers as a way to make $$. One of the cruisers suggested they have a local craft fair where they could change $$ for their crafts (which were incredibly cheap). Meli, the woman who arranged it, said that this was the only fair way to do it, and that all cruisers should go to her to ask for crafts instead of individual islanders.  The “theory” being that at the craft fair the money was somehow shared amongst all the woman (and their families), but if cruisers purchased crafts from individuals then only that person/family benefited. (KT bought crafts from both the fair and individuals, figuring she was covering all the basis).  Well, then one individual pulled KT away to receive a phone call (yeah VERY strange to hear a phone ring in a shack that looks like a kids roughly thrown together fort) from another woman who was at the fair who said HER village was having one, and she “forgot” to mention it in front of everyone else at the other one. Somehow they discovered fundraisers and next thing you know everyone was having them. First Seia had a Tongan feast to benefit the island, although it turns out it only seemed to benefit a few people and maybe just their vacation funds (it was $15 payanga each .. about $7.50). It seemed reasonable for a fundraiser but expensive if it wasn’t to benefit the whole island. Then they had dancing fundraisers, and then the Hospital had another Tongan feast to raise money for a new generator (the price was $20 because “the previous one was $15 and we’ll have more seafood and dancing”). Then that night there was ANOTHER fundraiser for the water district of the middle village (I’m not sure anyone even went). There also seemed to be some competition between Meli and Seia, Meli tried to cover the same Volcano hike as Seia’s husband but was ill prepared (no water or machete to cut coconuts) and the cruiser who went with her got VERY dehydrated and sick. Then she told us that we should tell the other cruisers that we should go with Her instead of Seia, which just didn’t seem right. The whole time this was happening De La Mer had befriended Latte, one of the main officials on the island, who really didn’t like what was happening, “It’s not the Tongan Way”.

The final straw was when one of the locals wanted a ride to Neiafu. Seia told Clare that the man’s son was in the hospital and that he really needed to get there to help him. Well it turns out his son used to be in the hospital, but was better and that the dad just missed his family and wanted to visit. Latte would not give Clare permission to take the man, and Seia came out to Apsara, crying and begging Clare to take him. It was crazy, if they had just been upfront and asked, I don’t think it would have been a problem. We also had a hard time with Meli, because one day she just showed up on the boat while we were working. We had talked to her the day before and said that we were busy but maybe we would see her in town and we might invite her back. Rick was in town and said that Meli told him she had plans on Billabong for the day so he gave her a ride out to the boat. She just sat there while we worked. Then we made a special trip back into town just to drop her off, but ended up giving her a ride back out to another boat… ugggh. It all felt very strange .. and sad.

Humpback Whales of Tonga Video

One of our most favorite moments ... snorkeling with more than ten huge humpback whales in Tonga.

Passage to Niuatoputapu Tonga

5 days - 700 Nautical Miles (with a gnarly pass entrance)

Route from Suwarrow to Niuatoputapu Tonga

The passage to Niuatoputapu was a rather uneventful wet and fast ride. We were concerned about a wind shift to the south, so we headed south of the rhumbline just in case. This caused the seas to slap the side of the hull and we occasionally took a couple of big splashes into the cockpit. It was a little too rough for fishing, ok maybe the fishing would have been fine but we were more concerned about the landing and cleaning of the fish. We traveled close to De la Mer and got some great shots of them under sail, the hull disappearing out of site while they were only a couple of waves away. We started to pull away and thought we had lost VHF contact when all of the sudden we got a call out of the blue. It was a New Zealand accent asking for the sailing vessel in our position to identify them selves. Both KT and I looked at each other, “where did this boat come from, how did we miss it?” I checked our position on the cockpit repeater and responded that we were indeed the vessel in question. He said that we were in restricted waters. I guess I sounded a little surprised (Michael said panicked) so he started laughing; it was him the whole time!! What we didn’t hear was that he was claiming to be from the NZ vessel Freedom. He was planning on telling us he was a submarine and that we must head five miles south (more into the wind and seas) before continuing our course to Niuatoputapu. He kept laughing for hours. Luckily he didn’t play the complete joke because we wouldn’t have made it before dark. We didn’t think we would make it (because we would have to average above 7 knots for 12 hours) so we tried to slow down. We saw land about 35 miles out, turns out it was the large volcano across the pass from our target. The wind kept building to 25+ so we put up more sail and flew. We were steadily above 7.5 knots, occasionally held it above 8 knots and peaked at 9.8 knots.

The pass entrance and Niuatoputapu anchorage

The pass entrance is rather small and pretty well marked, but the seas were breaking very close to both sides of the pass and the light was fading. We talked to Emerald who was inside and they organized a dinghy party to help us through. We dropped our sails, and started heading towards the entrance; we were beam to the 8 to 10 foot seas and rolling pretty good. The pass is narrow enough that you can’t really turn around once you start. We were lined up and going for it when two whales surfaced between the pass and us (little did we know that this would be the beginning of our adventures with whales). They got out of the way and thanks to the dinghies we made it in fine and got settled, only to have to help De La Mer who was an hour behind us, trying to enter in the dark.

We had six dinghies with lights trying to help but in the confusion, our VHF batteries went dead and there was really no one person in control.  We were supposed to be in the back of the range, so I had to guess what to do. Finally out of the dark Mary asked, “Are we going the right way?” I guess they didn’t have much confidence listening to everyone try to figure out what to do. Next time we’ll have one person in control and talking to the boat while the others coordinate on another channel.