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Niuatoputapu Photo Log

May 7-14, 2016

This is a small island in the northern most island group of Tonga. Two years ago, we skipped this group as we went directly from Pago Pago to Vava’u. So, we are happy to now have a second chance to visit this more remote area of Tonga. We stayed about a week, and we found the people to be somewhat shy (like elsewhere in Tonga) and the spearfishing to be good (no ciguatera!). We were the first cruising boat of the season for them, and we had the place to ourselves for the entire week.

Logbook – May 7, 2016 (Apia to Niuatoputapu)

Passage Log Highlights

  • 0715 Engines on
  • 0740 Depart
  • 0752 P engine off
  • 1320 P engine on
  • 1337 Both engines off, main (1 reef) + genoa
  • 1529 Same

Daily Notes

  • When raising main – fast up button of elec winch stuck
  • Beautiful starry sky
We surprised a group of sea turtles feeding, and they let us get quite close before frantically swimming down. Notice the trash in the water 🙁
A last look back at Apia

Logbook – May 8, 2016 (Apia to Niuatoputapu)

Passage Log Highlights

  • 0700 Main (1 reef) + genoa
  • 1210 Engines on
  • 1241 Engines off Niuatoputapu

Daily Notes

  • Pass shallowest 17 ft, max current 1 kt
Samoa to Tonga
The island of Niuatoputapu
Anchor location in the lagoon

Logbook – May 9, 2016 (Apia to Niuatoputapu)

Daily Notes

  • Contacted by radio – officials came to the boat – health, quarantine, immigration (customs)
  • T – fixed outboard
  • A/B hull cleaning
  • Evening call from Sia welcoming us
After a month of not being used, the outboard carbureator needed some attention.

Logbook – May 10, 2016 (Apia to Niuatoputapu)

Daily Notes

  • Sia gave us a ride to pay fees
  • T/B spearfish – 1x big blue trevally (we kept) + sm trevally + big coral trout – gave to Sia
Getting ride into town from Sia

Logbook – May 11, 2016 (Apia to Niuatoputapu)

Daily Notes

  • T – helps policeman (Siona) w/ radio antenna info
  • T/B spearfish 2x coral trout + trevally – gave to Siona, he gave us cocos

Logbook – May 12, 2016 (Apia to Niuatoputapu)

Daily Notes

  • Boys to school, Brenden almost wore tiny shirt, “mostly boring” but Brenden “made some friends”
  • T – tried to fix generator
First day of school! The boys got to go to the local high school for a day.
Trying to fix a generator on shore
Dogs were everywhere. I asked Sia if they would chase me if I went running, and she assured me that they wouldn’t. Based on my previous experience, I didn’t believe her.

Logbook – May 13, 2016 (Apia to Niuatoputapu)

Daily Notes

  • D/T – dinghy/walk to customs/bakery
  • T/B spearfish
  • Boys to shore to give Sia fish, almost lost the dinghy
The parking lot wasn’t too crowded
They had a devastating tsunami here in 2009 where many people died, so now they have all these tsunami safety signs and clearly marked evacuation routes to higher ground.
This is the kindergarten, and if you look closely it’s surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
The high school. The sign says “internet cafe” which Alex assured me they do not have.

Logbook – May 14, 2016 (Apia to Niuatoputapu)

Daily Notes

  • Ionane – man at fisheries helped with water – family lives on Mala in Vava’u
  • Traded alcohol (gift for priest) + fish for bananas, papaya, and water

Email Sent to Family and Friends Dated may 14, 2016

Subject: Exodus – Niuatoputapu

I’ve been having trouble connecting to the sailmail stations, but yesterday it seemed to work well, so hopefully it was just an issue with propagation and had nothing to do with our equipment. It’s had to believe we’ve been here almost a week. We arrived here last Sunday after a fast upwind sail from Samoa. Niuatoputapu is one of the northernmost islands in Tonga, and two years ago we bypassed it and went straight from Pago Pago to Vava’u, so we are happy to have a second chance. It’s a small volcanic island with reef and lagoon on one side of the island, the leeward side, so the anchorage has been nice and flat with a gusty trade wind breeze blowing. The spearfishing has been very good, especially since there’s no ciguatera here, so all of the fish, including the groupers and snappers, are edible. So, Tim and Brenden have been coming back with dinghies full of fish and sharing a lot with the people in the village. Alex finished 8th grade, and his reward was to go to a Tongan high school for a day. The boys went to school, and overall said it was pretty boring, but both enjoyed the math class best because that’s something that easily crosses language barriers. They said the kids were nice, Brenden came home telling us about all the friends he made, of course. I don’t have a ninth grade curriculum, since Alex will be starting ninth grade back in CA in the fall, so in the meantime we are just going to work on Alegebra and writing. Brenden is still getting through the speed version of 7th grade, in fact he’s almost done with math and grammar and then we’ll keep working on reading and writing while hitting the high points in science. We will likely leave here and head to Vava’u tomorrow, and our main task there will be hauling Exodus out of the water, so there will be a lot of work to do and none of us is looking forward to that.
Love and miss you all,
-D.

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