Gresham Family Exodus

October 3, 2014

In the afternoon of our first day at Ha’ano, s/v Iguana rolled in. Tim and Jack talked and I’m sure Tim told him all about his fish tale. Later, after Jack was finished diving on his anchor, he dinghied over to Exodus with a fish book, and he pointed to a photo of a red snapper and asked Tim if that was the fish he had shot. Sadly, Tim nodded his head, regretting that one that got away… but then Jack reaches down into his dinghy and pulls out a huge fish and asks Tim if he recognizes this one’s face. No way! It was the fish that Tim had shot in the face. Jack found it lying on the sea floor partially under a coral head. I guess the sharks didn’t notice it first. Anyway it was a nice big fish, enough for two meals, and of course we had Jack and Camille over for dinner as a finder’s fee.

And if Tim and Jack weren’t already spear fishing soul mates after diving together in Nei’afu, they certainly were now. We were so fortunate that Iguana showed up when they did, because we ended up buddy boating all the way down the Ha’apai group (and even on to New Zealand) and Tim and Jack would spear fish every day for hours, and their experiences were epic. Someday, Tim will have to write about them. From my perspective, Tim’s partnership with Jack really upped his spearfishing game and we dined quite nicely.

Our first stop in Ha’apai was the island of Ha’ano, the northern most island in the eastern island group. The sun was still pretty low in the sky when we arrived, and turning into the anchorage it was right in our eyes, so we dropped anchor a little far out, had some breakfast and a rest and then when the sun was higher we moved in a little closer among the coral heads. The island very much reminded me of any heavily palmed motu in the Tuamotus, and we had good protection from wind and swell, which was a nice break after two nights in the rolly southern anchorages in Vava’u and then the overnight sail.

The anchorage was beautiful. It was littered with coral and decorated with a single mushroom-shaped rock. Tim and I enjoyed paddle boarding and we also explored some of the beaches and found the way up to the main trail that runs the length of the island. This trail became my running track for the few days we were there, and while I never ran to the village, I did often encounter children playing along the path and they always looked at me like I was a little insane. Oh, and the cows. I shudder at the thought.

While paddle boarding along, from behind me Tims says, “there’s a big fish chasing you.” First, I think, “Yeah, right, whatever,” and then I think, “Oh no, maybe it’s a shark.” Then Tim clarifies that it was a huge TUNA, near shore, chasing me, in shallow water. So, of course, as soon as we were back at the boat, Tim was suited up and in the water with his spear gun. When he came back, he had a tale of a huge fish he shot in the face but got away (read the next post to find out what became of that fish).

October 2-3, 2014

We departed Anchorage #36 in Vava’u at almost 7pm and had a slow, light wind, upwind overnight sail. We had a pretty steady 13-15 kts of wind forward of the beam, but we were reefed down pretty heavily so we didn’t arrive too early. Even still, we had to keep trying to slow down towards the end and then stand off the island until sunrise. Through the course of the passage, we could easily tell we were treading into less travelled waters because we had gotten so used to our AIS display being littered with other vessels and when we arrived in Ha’apai, there were none.

October 2-30, 2014

We departed Vava’u in the evening and had a slow overnight sail down to Ha’apai, arriving at the island of Ha’ano. The next day we took Exodus on a day trip out to the west to the island of Ofolanga for some snorkeling and spear fishing. We stayed at Ha’ano for a couple more peaceful days and then moved for one night down to the island of Lifuka and the capital city of Pangai to officially clear into the island group.

Quickly moving on, the next stop was the island of Uoleva where we enjoyed the beautiful white sand beach and running into old friends. We stayed at Uoleva overall for about a week and then moved down to anchor off the very small island Uonukuihito, which is part of a chain of small, long, skinny islands connected by sandspits. Here there were just too many flies, so we didn’t stay long.

We made the hop over to the top of the western islands and the island of Ha’afeva, but the wind was blowing hard from the south making this anchorage not too comfortable. So, after a drive by at Ha’afeva, we moved down to the nearby Matuku and had some fun with the village kids for a few days. When the wind shifted back to a more easterly direction, we moved to Ha’afeva where we visited the village, did some running, and had a couple of lazy rainy days.

Next stop was O’ua, where we stayed only 2 nights due to a rolly anchorage before moving on to Nomuka, which unfortunately also had a rolly anchorage, so we landed in a more sheltered spot on nearby nomukaiki for several days. Our last stop in Ha’apai was the best spot of all: Kelefesia. It’s a small anchorage with only marginal protection, but we were glad we made the effort to go there. We said good-bye to Ha’apai early in the morning on Thursday, 30 October bound for the Tongatapu and the capital city of all of Tonga, Nuku’alofa.

Ha’apai is the center island group between Vava’u to the north and Tongatapu to the south. And compared to both, tourism is virtually nonexistent. There are approximately 60 islands, 18 of them being inhabited with about a total of 30 villages. While Vava’u can be considered a cluster of islands, bunched together to provide many sheltered anchorages for the cruiser to choose from, Ha’apai is more like two parallel strings of smaller islands spread out with far less protection. The two parallel island chains are the western group extending from Ofolanga down to Kelefesia, and the eastern group, from Ha’ano to Limu. Without tourism, Ha’apai seemed much poorer and more isolated than what we had been accustomed to in Vava’u.

Overall, we found our navionics charts to be OK for the entire Ha’apai group, however there are so many reefs you definitely have to do all your moving around in the daytime with good light.

For maritime history fans, Ha’apai was visited by the icons such as Captain Cook, Captain Tasman, and Captain Bligh. It was, in fact, where the mutiny on the HMS bounty actually occurred.

September 30 – October 2, 2014

According to the guidebook, “These day anchorages should be attempted only in settled weather and during hours of good visibility.” In both cases we had settled weather and we stayed overnight, and in both cases, they proved wonderful anchorages at low tide and then rocky/rolly at high tide.

We mostly went to them for Tim to spearfish and to be a little further south for the jump to the Ha’apai group. To be honest, I don’t actually remember much, and I didn’t write a lot in the logbook. They are both very tiny islands surrounded by coral. Lua’ui (#34) is only about 1 or 2 miles south of ‘Euakafa, and I recall there was some nice snorkeling, and that it was here that I saw my first lionfish. Fonua’one’one (#36) is a bit further south and the reef around the island was a bit more extensive. Spending a couple days at these islands was a nice way to decompress after the last hectic days in Neiafu before heading to Ha’apai.

September 29, 2014

Clearing in and out of various countries can be mind numbingly tedious and time consuming or it can be quick and easy. Tonga tended towards the tedious side for us, and that was exacerbated by the fact that you have to clear in and out when transiting between island groups, and it’s difficult to get the full scoop on exactly what you have to do in order to clear out.

So, here’s what I did: 1) Went to the immigration office and they filled out a form and gave it to us to give to immigration in Ha’apai. 2) Went to port authority to pay our port fees, which is based on the gross tonnage of your vessel. It was right about here that I realized that our registration has the incorrect gross tonnage on it, and the error is not in our favor. So, we paid more, whatever. 3) Then I went to customs and here’s where it got a little confusing. Some countries allow you to get fuel duty free upon clearing out, and Tonga is one of these countries. And I had *heard* that if you intend to do your final clearing out of Tonga from Ha’apai they will let you get your duty-free fuel when you leave Vava’u, because there are no fuel dock facilities in Ha’apai. So, when I went to customs to ask, the guy seemed a bit shifty and told me to come back when the supervisor is there. I came back later that afternoon, and the same guy told me, no problem, you can do it. So, we ordered our fuel to be delivered by truck the next morning. The next morning, we went to the fuel dock, and I walked over to customs in order to get our form for duty free fuel and our final outbound clearance for Ha’apai. Of course, there’s a different guy there, and he says that you’re not allowed duty free fuel until you are leaving Tonga. Of course, I responded that I had been told that we could, and he wanted to know by whom, and at the point I didn’t feel like hanging the other guy out to dry, so I just said I don’t remember. He said, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do.” I’m not sure if he was wanting/expecting me to bribe him or what but I just stood there silent with an obvious disappointed and dejected look on my face, and he could only take this for about 30 seconds and then he said, “OK, just this time. But please don’t tell any other yachties, because we are not supposed to do this.” I have no idea what the real deal was with the duty-free fuel, but we got our forms, got our fuel, and got the heck out of there as soon as we could.

Of course, we didn’t leave Vava’u straight away. We had some southern small islands to visit, and we wanted to wait for the right wind for the overnight passage to Ha’apai.