Ann in front of the "canoes"

Getting ready for the start

Victory! (almost)

Here's Lofi, delivering bread and Tongan "beer"

If you’re ever offered “Tonga Beer”, follow along with this note, but first some updates.

Since we officially entered the country two days ago, we’ve been having a blast. Tonga is a wonderful place. The people are so nice, the prices and availability of fresh veggies and fruit are reasonable and it’s so nice seeing all our friends again as we’re all gathered here getting ready for the last push of the season-in general to New Zealand-although some will head from here to Australia or north to the Marshall Islands for the cyclone season.

Yesterday started off with our “friend” Lofi bringing us fresh bread in his rowboat and “Tonga Beer”. The bread was self explanatory, but the beer was, well, different. It was a bag of powder. I didn’t want to look totally ignorant, so I paid for it (too much as it later turned out, but oh, well…) and he left us to make breakfast with our fresh loaf of bread. Toast is ever so nice when you haven’t seen any fresh bread for weeks (usually Ann’s been making it, but all our recent passages have been just short enough that it hasn’t been worth the trouble, but then when we get into port, there hasn’t been any). Still puzzled by the powdered “beer” we finished breakfast and went into shore to check things out.

This town is really more of just a village. It’s got a bunch of ex-pat ruin bars and restaurants, but beyond that the island seems really rural. Today we walked out of town to see the championship Tonga rugby game. The “stadium” is pretty basic. Pretty much a high school football field where people line the field and sit up in the trees to cheer their team. And cheer they did! It was really fun to watch and a hard fought game. Since neither of us knows anything about rugby all we can say is that it looked like semi-controlled mayhem, but was fun to watch. Unfortunately, our team lost.

Today Ann participated in another “canoe race”. At least she thought it was going to be a canoe race. One of her friends and prior teammates (Barb from Astarte) convinced her to join her team and they also picked up a friend Vanessa, a Dutch lady from Cornelia to join them. It turned out the “canoes” were broken down dinghies, but the race was hard fought. I’ll have to post pictures to do justice to the image, but in the meantime picture Barb sitting on the bow of a ten foot beater dinghy with Ann on one side and Vanessa on the other paddling for all they had. Amazingly they got second and came very close to winning. I thought that at best they would probably sink, so they bettered my expectation.

Tonight was the “pub crawl”. Everyone showed up in costume (one of the few times where we actually didn’t) and went from bar and restaurant to bar/restaurant. There was even a vehicle with a portable DJ playing music that went through town that everyone followed. When the music started up, it was time to follow to the next bar. We ended the night at Tonga Bob’s. What could be more perfect! Well, turns out Tonga Bob’s is sort of a transvestite bar. We have a picture of me with three of the “waitresses” and the Tonga Bob sign to help show what I’m talking about. Actually, in Polynesia, there is a cultural tradition that in a family that has a lot of sons, one is chosen to become a he/she , which means this boy is designated to help the women and in essence becomes one. It’s complicated, but very accepted part of their culture. Anyway, Tonga Bob’s celebrates this and we had fun there.

OK, so what about that Tongan beer? I caught up with Lofi later in the day and asked him the burning question; “Do I mix this with water and then let it sit for a while?” He said; “no, you mix it, sometimes with a little rum and then drink it. It makes your mouth, lips and tongue go numb and you feel good!” I, now getting part of the picture here, replied; “You mean this is Kava?!” “Yes!!, says he; “Tonga beer, Kava!!” OK, so this should be interesting.

At this point I would like all our readers to know that Kava is legal in Tonga. Ann and I made some last night. I can say, yes, your mouth goes numb-it is an acquired taste-and it was fun. That’s all I’m saying.

Tonga is not always filled with this kind of activity. Our tattoo mana worked its magic and we are here for a very fun week of cruiser fun and activities. And we are loving it. After this week things will quiet down and we will move out of Nieafu and anchor in some of the more remote parts of Tonga.

By Ann-

The customs official. Quite the rugby fan

Our mooring protection

Vava'u

Settled into our mooring

Some days are all about playing games. And I love playing games! Today was one of those days. The goal of today’s game was to get all four Tongan officials to sign off on our arrival. You can’t rush this though. They say that patience is a way of life in Tonga and if you don’t have patience-they will teach it to you! We are being careful to be especially patient.

The only way to get all of the necessary sign offs was to release the cherished mooring ball that we snagged last night and head back to the dock where the officials could board the boat and play the game. We “released” it, but attached a fender with our name written all over it since all the moorings are taken and there is now a waiting list. But remember, we are on Tongan time so we were at their mercy.

When we got to the wharf there was no available space so we grabbed an available nearby mooring ball to wait. But why wait on the boat when we can go put our faces in front of the officials so we jumped in the dinghy and headed ashore. It was a good move because we were able to get the necessary customs forms filled out and ready to go. But seeing three other boats tied to the wharf awaiting their turn we figured we had time for lunch.

Upon our return from lunch we could see that a large yacht was preparing to depart. We rushed to the dinghy and quickly back to Charisma, let loose the mooring ball and noticed that another boat was already headed that way. Fortunately sailors are really nice people and when we asked if they could possibly move as far down the dock as possible so we could fit they were happy to oblige. So now both of us we tied to the wharf, bow to bow, waiting for the games to begin.

It wasn’t long before the first of the four officials, Customs, came to the dock. Please note that the wharf is really for large ships and so that first step down to Charisma is a big one. As big as our five rung swim ladder! But the ladder was perfect and the official came aboard (all 280 pounds of him!). Then we waited again. Next we welcomed Quarantine office followed by the Health Official. (All of these officials collect fees to help support the Tongan government.) And finally…drum roll…the Immigration Official boarded Charisma! This gentleman was quite chatty and we have officially been invited to a Kava Party (more on that after the event) and we will be attending the championship rugby match Saturday afternoon as his guest. It’s amazing how friendly these people are.

But, best of all – Four in a row! We win and can return to our mooring ball. The fender that we attached to it as we pulled away with our name written all over it did the trick and fended off any poachers! So we are officially checked into Tonga and not a moment too soon as a dozen more boats came in today looking both for a mooring and to check in. Many are spending the night over on the “other side” of the bay on tenuous anchor holds, in line for a mooring and still not checked in since they don’t have all four of the requisite official stamps. Tattoo mana strikes again!

So we are pleasantly moored in a huge bay with about 60 boats either on mooring balls or anchored and all far enough away to afford all of us some privacy. And due to the protected nature of this bay the water is like glass, the voices of choirs practicing on shore drift over the water (as do the dogs barking and the rosters crowing) and we look forward to whales cruising through as well. I think we are going to enjoy Tonga! God save the King!

Getting our Tongan courtesy flag ready

Arrived at dusk

Yup, we’re here. Where is here? Neiafu, Vava’u in the Republic of Tonga to be more exact. It’s the Northern Island group. In total there are 171 islands around here. Amazing. We’re really looking forward to getting out and exploring.

But, in the mean time, we’re pooped and it’s time for sleep, so this post is going to be short.

We had a spectacular sail today. Nothing but blue sky and blue water. Light wind, but we did at least 4 knots most of the night and day. I was planning for five knots, so we were late, but who’s complaining. We got here in the nick of time. 20 minutes after our mooring was set it was dark. Thank goodness for good friends on Orcinius. They got here earlier today and with a little more time than we had, they checked out available moorings. Good thing they did since all the available moorings (almost) are taken. So, good friends that they are, they arranged a mooring for us and when we got here with no time to spare, they came out in their dinghy and guided us to a nice, comfy spot. How great is that?! We had them on board (we twisted Lisa’s arm with a “Charisma”-one of her few weaknesses) and enjoyed catching up on our respective voyages.

That’s it for now. It’s bedtime to catch up on sleep and then we have to check into the country tomorrow morning. That means putting up our “Q” flag (Q stands for quarantine, which is throwback to earlier times, but it’s the yellow flag you put up when you’re checking in. It’s a solid yellow flag to let customs and immigration know we’re just entering the country. Then we’ll tie our dinghy to the mooring (so someone doesn’t take it) and we’ll motor over to the wharf where we have to formally tie up to do the whole customs/immigration dance. Sometimes (and it seems that this is the case here) you have to walk around to three or four different offices to get all your “stamps” and fees paid for entering the country.

OK, now sleep.

PS – Mom – we toasted to you with a birthday drink after settling in. I guess tomorrow we will get to toast you again – pretending we are on the other side of the International Date Line – this is working well for us! We hope you enjoyed both of your birth days!

Position: 18 degrees, 26 minutes south; 172 degrees, 38 minutes west

Today was a stunningly beautiful day. All blue with patches of whitecaps. It was hard to take your eyes off the scenery.

We had good conditions. The wind and waves eased a bit and we took out a reef going down to just one, and let the jib all the way out-while still on the pole. We’re basically going straight downwind directly toward the Vava’u Group, Tonga. Tonga. All I ever knew of Tonga was what I saw in National Geographic! Pinch me, we’re going to be there tomorrow. The islands of Tonga are described as some of the most beautiful anywhere in the world. Hmm, after where we’ve been this should be interesting to see. I was just skimming one of the guidebooks that John from Orcinius downloaded and kindly gave a copy to us-and it claims there are something like 90 islands here with only a handful being populated. Sounds like we’re in for some interesting exploring.

We’re basically staying in this area for a month or so until late October when the weather too make the passage to New Zealand opens up. Most boat insurance policies state you have to be out of the cyclone zone in the South Pacific by early November and ours is no different. New Zealand is one of the places out of the cyclone belt and we’ll look to go there from November through April or so and then when the cyclone season is over we can move up North and visit Fiji and maybe Micronesia. We plan to fly home for the holidays in the meantime and then back to NZ to do some land touring before hauling out Charisma for bottom paint and other miscellaneous boatwork.

It’s now evening of our second day and the wind has dropped to 10 knots. The waves are down to about a meter. We’re just making 4 ½ to 5 knots. We have about 70 miles to go, so hope the conditions hold. If they do, we should be in the town of Neafu where you clear into the country, by mid-afternoon.

A final thought: we cross the international dateline somewhere along the way, so we either lose or gain a day, I’m not sure which-and our time zone goes from -11 hours zulu to +13 hours zulu. So-we’ll be thoroughly confused by the time we get in so I’ll just say Happy Birthday Mom (whose birthday is on the 19th). I’ll call when we get in to wish you happy birthday in person, but I’m not sure which day that will be LOL. (Looks like we arrive Tonga on the 19th – Happy Birthday, and then the next day in the United States it is the 19th – Happy Birthday again! But we don’t think you gain an extra year in age!)

Position: 18 degrees, 49 minutes south; 170 degrees, 31 minutes west

Wing and wing heading for Tonga

We left Niue today at 1445. The wind was forecast to be a bit high, but it goes to nothing on Tuesday and it’s a two day trip (250 miles) to Tonga, so today it was. It’s actually turned out so far to be pretty standard. 20 knots wind and 3 meter seas. It should ease tonight into tomorrow down to around 16 knots and 2 meters. Right now we’re DDW flying the jib on the pole, furled about 20% and main on the other side with two reefs. We’re doing about 6-7 knots and rolling a lot in the somewhat confused sea. There’s a clear dominant swell right behind us, but there are also several other wave trains from the left and the right, probably due to the island, although it’s now about 40 miles behind us.

Daylight has turned to darkness, but what was 70% cloud cover today has turned to 100% clear tonight. The Milky Way is shinning directly above us from south to north, cleaving the sky into equal east and west hemispheres. It’s a beautiful night.

We’re headed to the Vava’u Group of islands in the Republic of Tonga. Neither Ann nor I have a clue about what to expect. We have a bunch of electronic guides that we need to read and a Lonely Planet guide, but having read none of the above, we no idea what we’ll find there. All I know right now is how to get to the place where we check into the country. I set a “route” in the GPS, so I know the total miles are 250, and I know once we get “inside” the islands there are a few navigation aids. Few is the keyword here. There are two buoys that mark a narrow pass, two ranges that we pick up to thread the pass-the first being “red over red” and the second, marking a right turn is “white over white”. We then have a single green buoy (you leave green to starboard in this part of the world, exactly the opposite of in the US) that marks the final pass into the anchorage. That’s it on paper anyway, real life we have discovered can be quite different which is why we only enter these areas in the light of day.

OK, time for me to get some sleep. Ann’s got the first watch. 2200 to 0200, then I’m up till sunrise, more or less.

Maybe we’ll catch a fish tomorrow.

Today is an easy day. We’re just sitting on our mooring. Well, sort of. The supply ship came in this morning at 0600. Orcinius, The Rose and we were on the “first three” moorings and the three of us were asked to move off to make room for the ship. It’s about 500 feet long and carries containers so it’s pretty sizable. It was fun having a morning coffee and watching him set an anchor and a stern line to the wharf (a good two hundred meters or more) in order stabilize to offload containers.

We were pretty close and were asked to move to help make room for him to maneuver, so we slipped our moorings and moved about 1/4 mile down the line to the last three moorings and reset. Just as well as the supply ship was very noisy. All the loading and unloading of containers makes quite a racket.

Tomorrow we’re thinking of leaving for Tonga, weather permitting. It’s been “spitting” all day today and if tomorrow looks the same, we’ll probably stay another day for better weather. The only problem (and it’s a judgement call) is that once the “good” weather kicks in, the wind drops. The “judgement:” part is that leaving on Sunday will have substantial wind and big seas-approaching 4 meters-but Monday through Wed then has lower seas and lighter winds. 2.5 meters and 12 knots respectively. We’ll see.

That’s it for today from Nuie.

View from Charisma's cockpit

Several people have asked whether the story about the whale encounter at the mooring at Nuie in true. While I haven’t been able to read the whole story, here’s what we have heard from where it happened.

A whale was cruising through the mooring field and become entangled in one of the moorings (#3, right next to ours). This happened a month or so ago in mid-August. There is actually a part of the bow that was torn from the boat nailed to the wall up in the Nuie Yacht Club.

Seems like the whale just panicked a bit and lashed out to get unstuck. Not surprising but when a creature that big panics, there’s a certain amount of havoc.

There is a juvenille whale in this area and that’s likely the culprit, in fact he may have been the same one that cruised by about 30 yards outside our mooring this evening. A 30 foot, 10 ton teenager testing his capabilities. Hmmm, sounds like me about 30 years ago!

Easy, quiet day after the craziness of yesterday. We checked out for Tonga with customs and immigration since they are closed through the weekend and we are likely to leave on Sunday. Had a really fun night on Orcinius with Sockdolager and The Rose. Pot luck followed by pictures that everyone brought. The evening was highlighted with some beautiful singing and guitar by Karen from Sockdolager. Also a whale swam through just outside the moorings at sunset. Overall, a nice respite from yesterday.

Earlier in the day, I brought the completely chafed through bow-line from “Sunrise” that we fixed yesterday at (ironically) sunset over to them so they would have a souvenir. They were very appreciative as they realized that their boat would not have made it through the night on the other half-chaffed through mooring line. Turns out they are from the Bay Area and as I was leaving they said to “watch Latitude 38-you will be in it”. I guess they are going to send a story. Will be interesting to read their version of the crazy weather day

Ann at The Arches

A wild ride at our mooring (photo courtesy of Sockdologer)

John and Pat from The Rose had their snorkel gear. A little later the waves were breaking over the wharf

Pat diving the wharf. You can just see John two waves out

Due to the threat of adverse weather today, Bob chose to stay aboard Charisma while Lisa and John from Orcinius and John and Pat from the Rose and I went ashore. Getting back to our boats required a much bigger effort than we ever dreamed!

But at the risk of forgetting to tell you about another amazing Niue adventure let me tell you about our return later.

So Bob dropped me ashore and I joined the others as we headed to an EarthCache on Niue. I know, we are hooked. But EarthCaches don’t have treasures like the GeoCaches, just something interesting to see and report back about. We ventured out to a spot on the Northwestern coast of Niue called Talava Arches. We trekked down a nicely laid out path (complete with specific “rest-areas” that the Johns took to heart and rested) to a spot that dropped down into a cavern that looked out to the ocean. Three arches graced the area and stalactites and stalagmites decorated the caverns. It’s truly amazing what the combined forces of wind, waves and salt water can do. Off to the right of the caverns was a sunken caldera that was filled with vegetation and surrounded by coral rocks. You had to be very careful traversing the area because one slip and you could slice up your leg on this coral. As always, stunning, wild and wonderful.

We also stopped by a “bore” on the interior of the island that was a water source. Because the island is made up of volcanic uplifted coral the rain water runs right through it and collects deep under the surface. The bores bring the water to the surface for use. Our trip took us deep into the rain forest and back out to the highland fields. We actually found a corn crop planted in the middle of no-where. We discussed how interesting it would be to try to introduce sustainable farming to this land. Taro and papayas appear to be their only crops. This impacts the island greatly because everything must be brought in by boat or plane. As an example, eggs brought in by plane are $12.50 per dozen. The plane comes every Friday. Eggs brought in by boat are $8.50 per dozen and arrive about once a month. A box of 120 gallon size garbage bags is $90!!! How do they survive here? But I digress. As we ended our day of trekking and a little shopping (yes, I paid $12.50 for eggs but they are needed in ginger cookies!) we arrived back at the wharf prepared to get in our dinghies and get back to our boats. When we checked with Bob to see if he desperately needed anything (we were really done shopping but just in case…) he asked that Orcinius give me a ride back. No problem, we thought.

The weather conditions at the wharf were not great when we left but the winds had shifted to the west and the swell was up to about 5 feet up against the wharf. “No problem”, says John, “let’s launch the dinghy”. Well we gave it a good try but almost dumped John out of the dinghy as a wave came barreling into the wharf as we lowered him. “Up, up, up!”, he hollered! No, we will not launch the dinghy right now.

Meanwhile John and Pat from The Rose have decided that without an engine on their dinghy and with a dog that needs them on their boat they will don their snorkels and fins and swim out to their boat. Are they nuts???? I guess not, because they made it look easy. Pat even offered to swim to our boats and bring us our snorkeling gear. She said it was easier than chasing the whale yesterday. John, Lisa and I passed on her offer assuming that by high tide (about 5:30) the waves would subside a bit. So we wandered off to the yacht club to waste time. The yacht club was filled with cruisers hoping for the waves to subside so they also could get back to their boats. We counted four other dinghies on shore still.

As 5:15 approached we returned to the wharf only to find that the situation had deteriorated. Yuk! Bob, come save us! So we called Bob to see if he thought he could swoop in and rescue us. This is how it happened. First Bob collected life jackets off of The Rose so that Lisa and I would feel safer. Then he aimed for the wharf and looked like the knight in shining dinghy some to our rescue! It took two attempts to throw the life jackets ashore and then the fun began. Here were my instructions. “When I come by thestairs throw yourself in the dinghy. Aim for the bottom, do not be concerned about landing in a sitting position.”

Because I have seen this man in action I had total faith and although I was scared to tears (literally) I was willing to go first. Also because Lisa and I were both trying to work up the nerve and scaring each other. So Bob starts coming in on a swell and maneuvers the dinghy toward the wharf, swoops in, I leap and voila! I am safe in the bottom of the dinghy! Yahoo!!!! Bob delivers me to Orcinius which is the closest boat and goes back for Lisa. It works the same; maneuver, swoop, jump, success! Lisa has also landed in the dinghy and is now at the bow whooping for joy! Bob drops Lisa at Orcinius and goes back for John. Lisa and I watch with bated breath as Bob heads for the wharf, and pulls away without John. Darn. He sets up on the next set of waves and swoops in again and John makes the leap! Yeah! Three for three! Lisa and I celebrate with a shot of tequila!!!

As Bob drops John at Orcinius I jump in, John jumps out. We make it back to Charisma and the swell lifts us up and almost onto the boat! Phew!!

Then the call comes from Sockdolager, “Charisma, the boat just up wind from you has chafed through one of its two mooring lines and they are ashore. Just wanted to let you know.” What now? Not enough excitement yet? John and Bob end up grabbing a new mooring line from Orcinius and replacing the chafed line on this boat. Good thing because his back up line was also chafed half way through! I do not know how John hung on on the bow while the boat hobby horsed into the water burying the bowsprit. Meanwhile Bob was in the dinghy hanging on for dear life as he threaded the new line through the eye-splice on the mooring cable to be reattached to the mooring. Very treacherous. Luckily the rescue was completed just as light was fading and John was returned to Orcinius and Bob returned to Charisma safely! Even the sushi that I picked up for Bob (instead of ice cream – yes, they are both sold at the same place) had made it safely back to Charisma. The rest of my groceries are in the refrigerator at the yacht club until tomorrow when we can safely retrieve them!

So now we are relaxing and letting the adrenaline subside and waiting for the wind to shift directions and the swell to lessen.

(From Bob: How sketchy was this whole maneuver? Those who know me will know by this answer. I wore a life jacket when I got into the dinghy).

Oh yeah! What a cool and fun day.

First we dove again this morning. I went to 80 feet this time and we had a blast. So fun to look up through 80 feet of clear blue water and see Ann on the surface towing the dive flag waving at us. We decided that she was our guardian angel. And she took her job seriously, watching out for all of us. We have some good pictures too. I’m hooked on diving. Lisa loaned me her PADI textbook and I read all the parts that had stuff I didn’t know. Having done some “resort diving”, I’ve had some training and shallow dives, but 80 feet was really fun. We got to look into some crevices and see some crab like things that you don’t see at the surface. Also, we had the sea snakes come join us. They are actually a type of eel, but they look just like a snake. They are very inquisitive too and it’s kind of hard to NOT have them swimming around you. Like sharks, you kind of get used to them.

So that was the morning. We took a break for lunch and some miscellaneous projects and then at 1500 the whale sightseeing boat picked us up (we met at Orcinius and the boat picked us up from there saving us the trip into the wharf and having to haul the dinghies out of the water) and off we went. I think we went about 5 miles down around the point and there we found a whale. He was very shy-the boat skipper said that it looked like a recently weaned adolescent and that sometimes they are curious and sometimes cautious. Ours was cautious. We followed him for a while-he would dive and not come up for 15 minutes, so there was a lot of “looking around” time, but finally the skipper had a feeling for where he’d be and we slid over the side-as Ann put it; “…in the middle of the Pacific Ocean”. Wow, the water was blue! While we were tooling around, I dove down into the blue depths. You could easily get lost in the blue because there’s nothing else. Anyway, it took some strong swimming to catch up with mister whale, but we finally got close enough to see him in his environment. Majestic! He didn’t stick around so it was just a short experience, but what an experience. The most amazing part was the whale song. You would hear it as you were swimming-so you knew you were on the right track. You could even “range” on it by turning your head. There was definitely a directional component to it. But the most amazing part was as we got close the sound went from something you “heard” to something you “felt”. The song became a part of you-it enveloped your entire body and seemed to resonate inside you. Amazing and spiritual. Not something any of us will soon forget.

So, after spending many hours in and under water today, I think we’re going to sleep very, very well tonight and maybe we’ll have whale dreams! I hope so. They are beautiful and majestic animals.