Category: Blog Post

September 2, 2014

The four boys (Exodus and Lady Carolina) negotiated with True Blue V to clean their waterline (not the whole hull) for a big container of candy and a box of chocolate cake mix. They tried to get a tub of ice cream out of it too, but Craig and Leann drive a hard bargain. So, the 4 of them spent 2 hours in the water, not a bad deal for True Blue V! Afterward, they told me they also got cans of 7up, and that Craig said he’d also get them the ice cream next time we’re in town. So, it turns out Craig’s a softie after all.

September 1, 2014

While we were making our way between Nuku island and Kenutu Island (anchorage #30) there was quite a bit of radio traffic regarding a vessel to the south of Tonga needing assistance. From what I gathered, there was an elderly single hander on a vessel called Fidel who had left Niue (an island nation to the east of Tonga) and was now adrift because he had lost steering capability. I guess he was making contact with people in Neiafu via satellite phone, because I never actually heard him on the radio, but there was certainly a lot of traffic among the expat community figuring out how they could help him. There were sort of three centers of radio organization that I could identify: 1) The lady that runs the Tropicana Cafe, 2) Barry from Hunga Haven, and 3) Analulu, a land based station who spoke the same language as the guy on Fidel (I’m thinking it was German, but I don’t quite remember), and she served as interpreter. It seemed like they had identified a fishing motor vessel, called The Godfather, who was potentially in the area, but they were having trouble reaching him by radio, possibly because he was out of range.

As we are motoring along in the southern end of the Vava’u group, we thought maybe there was a possibility that we might be able to reach The Godfather. It was probably a long shot but certainly worth a try. So, I got on the horn and hailed The Godfather on VHF 16, and sure enough he responded. So, for the next 20 minutes or so I served as a relay between the land stations in Vava’u, mostly Analulu, and The Godfather in order to give him all the info he would need to find Fidel and help him. Eventually, either because of our movement east to Kenutu or, more likely, because of The Godfather’s movement south, we lost contact and could no longer serve as an effective relay. We learned later that The Godfather cut their day of fishing short, gave the guy a tow to Neiafu, and was never reimbursed for any fuel.

I didn’t really think much of the incident. It had a mostly happy ending, and I’ve become so comfortable on the radio that serving as a relay for something like this was not really any big deal. But our friend from New Zealand had an interesting cultural take on our small role in it. His observation was that Americans are different than British (and Australians and Kiwis.) From his perspective, he thought that when I first got on the radio, all the traffic was kind of chaotic and my offer of assistance wasn’t immediately jumped on. In his words, though, I persisted. I persisted until someone paid attention and realized the help we could provide as a relay. I didn’t really remember it that way, which in a way might support his observation. He said Americans will do what it takes to get a job done, while a Brit might respect order and hierarchy so much that they wait to be asked to help. I interpreted this as being a positive observation about Americans, that if we see something that needs to get done, we are more likely to just do it and less likely to worry about stepping on someone’s toes. Sure, this is a generalization, but Americans get such a bad wrap in the generaliztion department within the international community, I enjoyed hearing this positive one.

Nuku is a very small island off of Kapa Island south of Port Maurelle. Anchorage #7 is listed in the guidebook as being nearby off of Kapa Island, but we chose the north side of Nuku as our preferred anchor spot. Off of the east tip of Nuku there is a wonderful beach that provided a playground for hours of fun for the kids. Our first evening anchored there, Steve (Lady Carolina) and Brenden circumnavigated the island on foot at low tide. The other boys didn’t have shoes on, so they just hung out at the beach. I was able to dinghy over to Kapa Island for a run, picking up the trail that goes by Port Maurelle. As I was running past Port Maurelle I noticed a boat that I thought looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite make out the name on the side. So, in stalker fashion, I took some photos and then zoomed in on the image, and sure enough, it was the vessel Dafne. They are a kid boat with 3 girls that we met way back in Tahanea in the Tuamotus. I stayed in stalker mode until I got back to Exodus, and then I hailed them on VHF, but got no answer. Sudoeste responded though, and confirmed. So, Nuku turned out to be a great bonfire beach, and in addition to Dafne and Sudoeste, we met two more new kid boats: Moxie and Elena.I went on several solo snorkles along the shallow reefs at Nuku Island, but just a little further away is the island of A’a, and Tim and I took a short dinghy ride over to check it out. The coral was steep to along the island making for much more interesting snorkeling if I challenged myself to go deep enough.

August 28-30, 2014

Anchorage #16 is a small bay on the Island of Vaka’eitu. The anchorage is surrounded by coral with just a narrow deeper spot to get through. It was plenty deep, but it’s still nerve racking to watch the depth sounder click to lower and lower numbers as you move along. The anchorage itself isn’t very pretty, but it was well protected from the strong SSE winds that we experienced while there. The island was definitely inhabited, but we never saw the people, so we weren’t sure if it was just a fishing outpost or something. There were corrugated tin structures, a few animals including a pig and a dog, and trash, lots and lots of trash. Like a disgustingly huge amount of trash strewn all over the settlement. Tim, Craig, and maybe Steve (don’t really remember) went ashore with food scraps to feed the pig, and they ended up also petting the dog for a while. They said the dog is clearly NOT a pet and had clearly not ever been pet before, because it shied away from their hands at first, but then just couldn’t get enough of the petting. Poor puppy.  The cruising guide shows a short trail to the other side of the island to a secluded beach. I hunted around and eventually found the trail (38 paces left when facing the house from the beach), but unfortunately, I never made it over to the other side to check out the beach.

The real highlight of being here, the whole reason we were at this anchorage in the first place, was to snorkel at the coral gardens. There is solid reef between the islands of Vaka’eitu and Nuapapu, and on the outside of that reef was the so-called coral gardens. We took the dinghies and anchored them off the small beach on the tip of Vaka’Eitu Island, and since the tide would be dropping, we anchored the dinghies out quite far. Then, we swam as quickly as we could over the reef to the outside, timing it just right in between the smallest of the wave set that was crashing onto the reef. I was very glad to be decked out in a full wet suit, thick booties under my fins, and gloves.

Once out there, wow, was it amazing. Here’s an email I sent out to friends about it: “Yesterday, we once again topped our snorkeling experiences with at what is known as the coral gardens along a reef that extends between two islands. We were anchored in a sheltered cove on the inside of the reef, so we had to swim across it with waves coming over to get out to the good stuff, but once we did, wow was it worth it. The color of the coral was unlike anything I’ve seen before, and it was cloudy, so the sun wasn’t even out that bright. I wore a weight belt with almost the right amount of weight in it, so I was able to dive down deeper than I ever have before. My reward was being able to hear the whales singing, since you couldn’t hear them near the surface.”

August 28, 2014

Neiafu is basically a big mooring field. There are places to anchor, but they are further away from the dinghy docks, and the moorings are only $15 Pa’anga (Tongan currency) per night, so we usually just pick up a ball. One of the times when we were leaving our mooring ball, I had a serious lapse in judgement. Normally when departing, after dropping the mooring ball you intentionally drift back a bit in order to clear the ball before moving forward. This time I just plowed forward and all of sudden I hear a “thunk!” and the port engine cuts out and the electrical let’s out the continuous beep you normally hear when you’ve switched power to the engine starter but haven’t started it yet. Tim and I both realized right away what I had done. I was mortified. We moved away from the mooring field and out into the channel under one engine, and then Tim inspected everything to make sure there was no structural damage to the engine or the housing. Out here, you have to keep your wits about you continually. A small lapse in judgement can end up being catastrophic. Luckily, this time it wasn’t.

Originally posted on August 26, 2014, by cruisingrunner

Yesterday was a busy day. I made a total of 4 trips into town (about a half mile round trip) for various reasons plus a 3-mile run, plus a hike up to the top of Mt. Palau. My crew was lukewarm at best about hiking with me, in fact Alex even used schoolwork as a reason NOT to go. After just a little bit of cajoling, though, Brenden agreed to go with me, and we ended up having some great one on one time, even if the highlight for him was the soft serve ice cream cone I bought him once we were back in town. The hike was not strenuous and mostly it was filled with Brenden’s endless questions about anything and everything and lots of photo taking of piggies. We just never get tired of the piggies.

On our way back into town we found ourselves in the midst of the after-school kid crowd. Kids were everywhere as they made their way walking home from school. They were all laughing, pushing each other, and even giving each other piggie back rides. There was constant chattering, and one small kid was even singing. Brenden was mostly silent, only talking to say hi to the kids as they passed us or we passed them. And then he made the astute and somewhat solemn observation that the kids here are acting just like the kids at home. He said, “It’s been sooo long.” He was visibly melancholy, and I knew he was missing his friends and his life back at home. He shook it off quickly, especially since he got that ice cream cone I previously mentioned. He also had a great evening with other kids here in the harbor and even made some new friends as well. But that twinge of homesickness was real when he had it, even if fleeting.

I had a bit of nostalgia for my past life myself last night, although it manifested itself in a more positive way than Brenden’s. The weather has been pretty cool here the last few days, so while getting ready to head out to dinner with a few friends, I actually had to pull out a duffle bag that’s been stowed for I don’t know how long in order to find a light jacket. It was my gray Lucy jacket that I bought myself for my 40th birthday. I wore jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and that Lucy jacket out to dinner, and it felt just like I was heading out to dinner back at home. I’m pretty sure I haven’t worn jeans since I was in California last October. It’s been too hot, for one thing, but also jeans don’t make good boat clothes because they take so long to dry if they get wet. It was a great evening, although the cuisine here in Tonga isn’t quite the caliber we could always find in Southern California.

Homsickness. We all get it from time to time. Well, except Tim. I’m not sure he ever misses home, with the exception of high pressure hot water showers.

-D.

August 23-25, 2014

Anchorage #2 is just up the channel from Neiafu, but it was a nice getaway from the “hustle and bustle of the big city.”  We actually had a bit of a tough time finding a place to drop the anchor amongst the mooring balls and with the steep bottom, but eventually we settled in.  Our first morning there I was greeted by a pod of whales while I was drinking my coffee.  I have no idea why they were so far in the harbor, but I enjoyed the show, nonetheless.  I was glad when they started making their way back to the harbor entrance while it was still early, so maybe they could get away before the whale watching tour operators started for business.

We found out that the station to fill up propane is very nearby, and we were able to tie the dinghy up to a dock in front of a rental house that was currently vacant.  So, filling propane was quite easy.  Although, to be accurate, it was butane, not propane.  Since we arrived in the pacific it’s been butane rather than propane, the main difference being that the butane is at a lower pressure, and it seems like the oven doesn’t get quite as hot, but that’s a subjective observation.  I’ve never measured it.

The highlight of this anchor spot (well, other than the whales) was taking the dinghy up the causeway between the main island of ‘Uta Vava’u and Pangaimotu at low tide.  We were able to walk over the road out to the other side and explore along the reef.  We met a man named Paul who has built a house in the causeway, and we got a rambunctious welcome from his four dogs.  He let us park our dinghy near his house, and the boys enjoyed playing with the dogs.  The next day when Lady Carolina joined us, we made another shore excursion and walked to the small village of Toula and climbed down to Veimumuni Cave with a freshwater pool in it.  The water looked quite stagnant, but there were people swimming in it.  We all passed but enjoyed another day of exploring the reef at low tide.

Also near anchorage #2 in the middle of the harbor is the wreck of the copra ship Clan MacWilliam, which caught fire and sank in 1927.  It lies in about 30m of water, and Tim didn’t dive on it this time, but stay tuned, because he will.  Without tanks.

August 22, 2014

If you enter the Vava’u island group from the north, most likely you will enter around the southwest end of the main island of ‘Uta Vava’u.  Somewhat of a channel is formed between that island and the smaller islands of Hunga, Nuapapu, and Kapa, which lay to the south.  In the middle of that channel are some very small, uninhabited islands, more like large rocks really.  Once while staying at Port Maurelle, we took a day dinghy trip out to the one called Tu’ungasika for some of the best snorkeling we had seen so far in Tonga.  It was a long dinghy ride, but conditions were calm, so it was comfortable.  We went to the north side of the island first where there was great snorkeling, although a lot of what there was to see was deep.  I had been working on holding my breath longer and diving down, so I was enjoying practicing and seeing a lot of bigger fish.  I think this may have been the first day I wore a weight belt.  There were also rocks to climb up, so of course the boys had fun climbing up and jumping off.  Later, we dinghied around to the east side of the island to explore some caves.  I was basically the dinghy babysitter, since there was nowhere to anchor, while Tim and the boys poked around in every hole and crevice they could find. It was good boy fun, and they really enjoyed themselves.  Overall, it was one of our most enjoyable family snorkel days so far.

Way back during our early days in Mexico, we had some issues with the starboard engine, or more specifically, with the interface between the engine and the sail drive.  Well, the issue went back even earlier than that.  I think the very first time we noticed strange behavior was when we had just taken possession of Exodus and were travelling between San Diego and Marina del Rey via Catalina Island.  At the time, we were under motor, and I noticed our speed had dropped considerably.  Then Tim noticed that the trail behind us showed that the starboard engine wasn’t giving as much thrust as the port, and we shut it down.  When we started it again, it seemed to be fine.  After that, every once in a while, it wouldn’t engage when it should, especially in reverse.  By the time we made it to Puerto Escondio, it rarely, if ever worked, and Tim was able to fix it with some help from a guy on shore.

Now we were in Tonga, and we started noticing similar behavior with the port engine.  Tim and Steve spent the better part of a full day working on it.  At one point they realized they didn’t have a tool they needed, so they went to shore, but no luck.  So, they decided to go over to a mega-yacht and ask for help. They ended up talking to the head engineer, and he invited them on board, and he was indeed able to help them.  But the funny part was that he made them sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).  We are familiar with these from work, when you are working with another company and have to sign that you won’t give away any of their secrets (oversimplification, but you get the idea).  So, I guess they saw lots of cool stuff on this mega-yacht, but they couldn’t tell us about any of it.

A couple days later we met Theo and Wanda on s/v Et Voila, a Lagoon 450 (think Exodus, but HUGE), and we heard they were having the same problem.  Since Tim had just gone through the process, he was able to help Theo with his and get it done in just a couple hours.  It was a great thing to realize that after a year and a half we’ve finally crossed the threshold of giving back to the cruising community.