Warm Rain Ship's Log

Pangaimotu Island

We're anchored at Pangaimotu Island across the channel from the main port of Nuku'alofa, at the south end of the Tongan island groups. There are 30-40 boats anchored here, all waiting for a weather window to leave for New Zealand. Ashore here is Big Mama's Yacht Club run by, you guessed it, Big Mama and her husband, Earl. They serve good food and cold beer at reasonable prices. They also provide several services for yachties - laundry service, fuel and provisioning help and a ferry ride across the bay to town several times a day,. Once across the bay, the town of Nuku'alofa is a 20-30 minute walk from the wharf but they have a good variety of food plus a beautiful fresh fruit/veggie market, so we'll be able to easily get the fresh supplies that we need for the crossing. In the meantime we continue to get the boat ready for the crossing in between social gatherings with the gang.

Nuku'alofa

We left Tapana yesterday (Saturday) at 6 am and dropped anchor in Nuku'alofa at 11 am this morning (Sunday). We motored for 29 hours straight because we had little or no wind the entire trip. It's good to be anchored and have the engine off. We'll clean up the boat, take a little nap and have dinner ashore with friends at Big Mama's Yacht Club. This is the last stop before a 1200 mile trip to New Zealand so trip preparations and weather routing are on all the cruisers minds. We will all be happy to have that trip behind us.

Tapana

We've been moored in a beautiful bay off the island of Tapana since Tuesday. We spent Wednesday and Thursday under the boat, cleaning the bottom and changing zincs. There's a cool floating art gallery in the bay called "The Ark Gallery" (pictured below) where Pacific Northwest artist Sheri sells her paintings of local Tongan life. She and her husband, Larry, rent out the moorings as well. This is a great place and we'll definitely return to Tapana when we come back to Tonga next season. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will head for Nuku'alofa, the southern-most island in the Tongan island group. It's 180 miles south of here so it should take us about 1 1/2 days to get there. We'll wait there for a weather window for our 1200-mile jump to New Zealand.

Kart Safari - Last Fling in Neiafu

Friday we got a group of 6 together to take a tour of the island on 2-seater dune buggies, operated by Kart Safari. We went with friends Jan & Dave from s/v Baraka and Marsha & Jack from s/v Tracen J. We followed our Tongan guide, “T”, on paved roads and dirt trails that led to both the east and north shores of the island. We made four stops along the way at stunning overlooks of the rugged coastline and one inland stop where “T” climbed a coconut tree and whacked down drinking coconuts for us with his machete.

Since the buggies were open air we wore kerchiefs over our nose and mouth on the dusty paths and got a little dirty with splatters of mud here and there. We got to see several villages during our ride and in each one the kids would run out to wave at us as we drove by. At the first beach that we stopped at there were several vacant buildings and “T” told us that a resort was built there and that a cyclone hit two days prior to the resort opening and destroyed it – so sad!

Click here to see the photo album of our Kart Safari Road Trip.

Rain Catcher Perfected

Here’s a picture of our rain catcher. We took Tom’s basic model and improved it with ideas from Guy and Isabelle on Pros Per Aim. It now works like a ‘hot damn’ as our friends in Canada say. We’ve had a lot of rain during our time here in Tonga, so the rain catcher has gotten lots of use and we’ve filled our water tanks with fresh rainwater several times.

Road Hogs

The people in Neiafu don’t need lawn mowers – they have pigs! Most families own pigs and most of the pigs run wild. That means that you’ll see them foraging around in their front yards for food – so there’s no lawn mowing required. We’re not sure how they know what fields and lawns are their territory, but they seem to stay in the general area of their homes without having to be fenced in. They do, however, often cross from one side of the street to the other and can be quite a hazard to motorists, Want some bacon with those eggs?

Escape from Hunga

We had 6 days of strong winds while hunkered down in Hunga. On Tuesday the wind eased enough that we made our escape from the lagoon and headed back to the town of Neiafu. We spent our time in Hunga sequestered aboard the boat working on little projects. Glen and Sally left our second day there and we watched five movies during our 5 nights alone there – something unprecedented for us.

We’re now back in Neiafu where we’re enjoying wi-fi, catching up with friends and having dinner ashore. We’ll probably stay in Neiafu for another week or so then get ready to head to the Ha’apai Group of Tongan islands (60 miles south).

Hunkered Down in Hunga

Yesterday (Wednesday) we left Vaka'Eitu and motored to one of the western-most islands in the Vava'u Group - the island of Hunga. The anchorage is a huge lagoon. Just outside waves are crashing on the shoreline but once inside the lagoon you're sitting in a mill pond. There's a resort here called Ika Lahi Lodge (pictured below) and we were able to pick up one of their moorings. Friends Glen and Sally arrived on s/v The Dorothy Marie a couple hours after we got settled and we spent the afternoon snorkeling the reef and walking the beach then spent the evening playing Mexican Train dominoes. We woke to rain and thunderstorms this morning. The weather report is calling for rain and 25 knot winds for the next four days so we've decided to wait out the weather here in this beautiful, protected lagoon. Hopefully we'll have some sun breaks so that we can do more exploring by kayak and dinghy - fingers crossed!

Riding Out a Gale at Anchor

Last Friday (9/26) we left Neiafu to go explore some of the anchorages. We spent the first two nights at Port Morelle, a bay that we had visited before. On Sunday we moved to the bay on the island of Vaka'Eitu. We spent the day snorkeling on a nearby reef then had appys with friends on s/v Charisma. It started raining and we saw lightning in the distance while on Charisma, so we scrambled to get back to our boat. By the time we were back on board the sky opened up and the wind began to rise. Within an hour the wind was blowing 35-38 knots and it was raining sideways. We were out in the rain trying to secure stuff on deck and the rain stung like tiny needles as it hit us. By this time it was pitch dark and the anchorage was full of boats. Everyone worked together to make sure that their boat was secure and not dragging anchor. We stood anchor watch for the next 5 hours. The storm blew itself out around 11 pm and we all breathed a sigh of relief. It was very nerve wracking to be in close proximity to reefs and other boats during a gale. All of the boats did fine and we woke to bright sunny skies and calm seas on Monday. When we pulled up anchor the gale force winds had had wrapped our anchor chain around at least one coral head but were able to get it free after some clever maneuvering. We realized that this was the first gale that we had ever experienced while at anchor. We don't want to repeat that experience any time soon! Today we are hunkered down in Hunga Lagoon on a very secure mooring in the calm before yet another storm. The next 3 days will be rain and > 25 knot winds but we hope nothing like the Gale at anchor.

Here's a picture of the beautiful anchorage here at Vaka'Eitu before the gale struck.