We anchored off the west tip of the island of Nomuka, which is where the family from s/v Wildlife lives, but it turns out they weren’t home, because they had gone to Tongatapu to drop off some friends. Iguana caught a nice sized dorado (Mahi Mahi) on the passage, so we grilled up an excellent dinner that night on Exodus. Camille and I took a walk to the village to see if they had any supplies, and it was a large srawling village, one of the largest we had seen in Tonga outside of the main ports (Neiafu and Pangai). The people were very shy and not too friendly, and we asked several people where the store was before we actually found it. Turns out it was closed. It was nice to get off the boat and stretch our legs, none the less.
The “anchorage” was even more rolly than O’ua. We were there two nights and it was just tolerable, but the next morning the winds had clocked slightly more to the North, and then it got really lively. I was having to secure things as if we were underway, and I was having trouble doing simple things like make coffee, because the swell hitting us on the beam was intense. I was trying to wait until Tim got up, but in the end I ended up waking him with a plea that we move anchorages now.
So, we moved south across the channel and anchored off the smaller island of Nomukaiki (meaning little Nomuka) and it was a much better location. There was more windchop on the water, but at least there were no huge swells that hit Exodus’s natural frequency. In addition to the reduced rolliness, there was also a nice long beach which I took advantage of for a run, even if the sand was soft and the run was slow and sluggish. Unlike Nomuka, which as the large village, Nomukaiki is mostly uninhabited. I say “mostly” uninhabited, because there is a bit of a camp of some sort as well as pigs, and one pig in particular is not too shy. Tim, Jack, and Camille went ashore to collect coconut water, and I guess Tim and Jack left Camille alone to process some coconuts while they went to explore. At some point they heard a faint, “help” and they returned to find Camille in the water and a pig swimming after her. Yes, pigs can apparently swim. We had been told by a local guy that the pigs can be aggressive and sometimes even charge, so Camille wasn’t taking any chances. Well, I knew Tim was a cat whisperer, but it turns out he’s also a pig whisperer. He named the pig Hamlet and petted it like a dog, and it reacted like a dog, snorting and laying down. Then it followed him around, and when they got in the dinghy to come back to the boats it swam after them for a little while. I don’t think the dogs get pet around here very often, let alone the pigs, so I think that pig will remember Tim forever.
It turns out we were going much slower through the Ha’apai group on our way to Nuku’alofa than we thought we would. At this point, some of our friends who had left Neiafu after us were already in Nuku’alofa about to depart for New Zealand. We realized that the end of the South Pacific cruising season was just about upon us, but we are milking every last bit out of it that we could.
Gresham Family Exodus 