Tonga
We are finally leaving for New Zealand today at noon. Its not the perfect weather window, but its good enough to get going. The trip should take us anywhere from 7 to 10 days. We will update our positions reports when we can and as always you can track our progress on the Where's Hokulea page. Next stop Opua...
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 – Nukualofa, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga
After leaving Neiafu , we spent 2 wonderful nights in Vaka’eitu or #16 as it is known by the
charter companies. The charter companies have assigned numbers to 42 of the anchorages in
Vava’u, apparently to make it easier for the companies to find their clients when they get in
trouble or have problems with their boats. I definitely prefer the name Vaka’eitu. We did a
number of short hikes here and did some amazing snorkeling. The coral reefs in Tonga have
been the healthiest that we have seen on this entire trip. We left Vaka’eitu on Wednesday at
5 am (in the dark) so that we could make it to Tongatapu during daylight hours on the following
day.
Leaving a place like Vaka’eitu in the dark is a little sketchy because of all of the reefs and small
islands that you need to avoid. As I mentioned earlier, our electronic charting system was way
off coming into Vava’u so we couldn’t rely on it. On top of that our depth sounder stopped
working. Living without the charting system is one thing, but not having a functioning depth
sounder really stinks. In my opinion it is probably the second most important instrument on a
boat, with a compass being the most important. It is also one of those instruments that, like
many things in life, you don’t truly appreciate how much you rely on it until it is gone.
Fortunately it had hiccupped a few times in French Polynesia, so we had Jackie’s mom bring us
a new one on her visit to Bora Bora. The only problem is that the sending unit for the depth
sounder has to be installed on the bottom of the boat which means that the boat has to be hauled
out of the water. We had planned on installing the new one when we hauled the boat out in New
Zealand. So in the meantime, we have attached the sending unit to a portable pole and wired it
to the monitor which is located on a make shift mount in the cockpit. So now someone has to take
the pole up to the front of the boat and hold it in the water while we are navigating through
reefs or trying to find a spot to anchor. It’s a little cheesy and inconvenient, but it works.
On the way down to Tongatapu, we sailed past the island of Tofua which is near where the
mutiny
on the Bounty took place. In April of 1789 after being set adrift in an open lifeboat,
Captain
Bligh and his 18 loyals landed on Tofua in an attempt to get fresh water and provisions.
They
were fought off by the islanders and one of his loyals was killed. They then set off on a
6,500-km journey to Timor with minimal provisions and water. Today, Tofua is one of the most
active volcanoes in Tonga.
We made great time getting to Tongatapu arriving outside of the pass at roughly 8 am on
Thursday morning. Because of our depth sounder and electronic charting issues, we had
planned
to follow right behind Solstice for the last 12 miles through the pass and to the
anchorage.
However, due to some jockeying with a ship, we ended up arriving at the pass about
30 minutes
ahead of Solstice. Being a little tired and anxious to get the anchor down, we decided not to
wait. We navigated through the pass by Jackie going forward and holding the cheesy depthsounder
pole in the water while I was in the cockpit looking at the monitor. I would yell the depth reading
to her and she would come back to the cockpit. I would immediately go down below to the chart
table and she would yell down the latitude and longitude reading from the GPS. I would plot it on
a paper chart to determine our position in the channel and yell back to her whatever course
corrections needed to be made. She would then adjust the autopilot accordingly and I would
return to the cockpit. We would then spend a few minutes looking for various visual indicators
(islands, reefs, towers, etc.) to confirm that we were in the right spot. We repeated this process
about every 5-7 minutes for the next 2 hours until we were safely anchored in the lee of
Pangaimotu Island. In hindsight, it would have been much easier to wait for Solstice.
Pangaimoto Island is gorgeous. It is a very small island with lots of palm trees, white sand beaches (at low tide), a few small bungalows, and a bar/restaurant called Big Momma’s with a view of a half-exposed shipwreck. Jackie and I spent a day here 13 years ago and fell in love with the place. Their motto back then was “For safety at sea – stay in the bar” and not much has changed since.
We had been following the weather pretty closely since leaving Vava’u because a low pressure system was expected to impact all of Tonga over the upcoming weekend. Before leaving Vaka’eitu, I downloaded the weather over the ham radio and the forecast for Tongatapu was for 40 knots out of the southeast on Saturday and Sunday. The anchorage at Pangaimotu is very protected from the southeast, so we were very happy to be here in advance of the system. Shortly after we get the anchor set, we hear a revised weather report over the radio that calls for west and northwest winds after the passage of the system. This report caused a bit of panic throughout the 15 or so boats that were anchored at Pangaimotu as it very exposed to any winds out of the west. Over the next few hours, five boats pulled anchor and set sail for New Zealand. Reluctantly, we decided to pull anchor and head into a very small and shallow harbor where we could med-moor to a rock jetty and have some protection from the forecasted westerlies. Jackie was extremely reluctant because we had moored to that same rock jetty 13 years ago and at that time it housed a large colony of rats. Fortunately it appears that the rats have been evicted, but that didn’t stop Jackie from constructing rat guards for our lines out of aluminum pie pans and duct tape. As luck would have it the forecast changed again the next day and eliminated the predicted westerlies, but the harbor has been so comfortable and convenient that we have stayed here for an entire week.
The upcoming passage to New Zealand has the potential to be our most challenging passage to date. This is why we are spending so much time here, waiting and watching for a good weather window. One of the challenges is that it’s a 7 to 10 day trip and you can only get reliable weather forecasts out about 3 days. It is tough, because we are really anxious to get to New Zealand and at times it is really hard to resist that urge to just leave. However, the 5 boats that left here in a hurry due to the forecasted westerlies, are getting their butts kicked hard right now. They have had a number of knockdowns, torn sails, broken rigging, things being swept overboard by large waves and other equipment breakages. So on the other hand it is real easy to sit here in paradise and wait for the perfect weather window. But we know there is no perfect weather window and cyclone season is here. As of today, it looks like we have an OK window opening up on Saturday (November 5) so we are gearing up for that departure date and we will let you know in the next couple of days if it is definitely a go.
Monday, October 24, 2011 – Neiafu, Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga
It’s a little after midnight and we just got home from watching the Rugby World Cup Finals. Hail the mighty All-Blacks. Tomorrow morning about 0900 we are heading to an outer anchorage in the Vava’u group and will likely be heading to Tongatapu on Wednesday morning. There is a bit of weather coming in and we need to be anchored up in Tongatapu by Friday afternoon. It doesn’t appear that there will be a weather window to start our New Zealand passage for at least another week, so we will try to touchbase when we get settled in Tongatapu.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 – Neiafu, Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga
We got into Tonga around 0830 on Tuesday, October 11th. No ….we didn’t sail really slow, we
actually crossed the international dateline and we lost a day. It was a good trip from Niue,
although our last night in Niue was really rough in the mooring area. So much so that the cargo
ship actually left and spent the night offshore. We left Niue around 1100 so that we could
arrive in Tonga during daylight hours and thank goodness we did. Our navigational software
was way off and had we relied solely upon it, we would have ended up running aground on one of
the smaller islands here in Vava’u.
Vava’u is in the northern portion of Tonga and consists of about 50 islands that vary from
thickly wooded volcanic islands to low lying coral formations. Most of these islands are
protected from the prevailing seas by a large fringing reef. This makes Vava’u a sailor’s
paradise with hundreds of beautiful anchorages, flat seas, and crystal clear water. In addition
the Tongans are very friendly and they speak English as a second language. Tonga is truly a
kingdom and is the only South Pacific country that has never been colonized by a European
power. Another fun fact about Tonga is that geologically speaking it is the fastest moving land
mass in the world at 10 cm per year.
We are anchored in Neiafu, which is one of the most protected harbors in the entire South
Pacific. After all of the rolly and sketchy anchorages we have had recently, this is a very
welcome change. The downside is that we will only be able to stay here another 4-5 days before
we need to start heading south and looking for a weather window to get to New Zealand. A lot
of our time here has been spent getting the boat ready for the upcoming trip, but we have had
a chance to catch up and visit with a lot of our sailing friends that we have met along the way.
Just about everyone comes through Tonga, either on their way to New Zealand, Fiji or
Australia. Some people even stay here in Neiafu for cyclone season.
Bill and I took a day off to go diving and I have to say that the first dive we did is probably
my favorite of this entire trip. It was at a spot called Hunga Magic which is off the western
side of the island of Hunga. The coral at this spot was unbelievable ( both soft and hard
varieties) and we saw almost every kind of fish imaginable, including 8 lionfish. We saw
lobsters and a very large slipper lobster. We went through a number of caves including a
vertical chute that drops you into a cave with a sandy bottom that you exit through a curtain
of sea fans.
Our friend Randy from Redondo Beach arrived here on Thursday. He is going to be crewing
with Bill on Solstice for the trip to New Zealand. We are really happy to see him and it has
been great getting caught up on all the latest happenings in Redondo.
Well for now that’s all the latest happenings here in Tonga, but we will update you in a few
days when we figure out when to head south…