Tonga to SavuSavu, Fiji

We departed with Carillon after Red Sky decided to head south. They have been fun to have been with for so long. Good to meet up with Carillon after having met them in Chagos in 2006.

We had a good window with SE winds 15-20 knots, with the usual cross swells.  We are starting to sail our passages now. The 3 days so far has been fast, with the wind coming in 25 to 30 knots once in Fiji waters and the Koro Sea. The waves were short and sharp for a while, being around 4 m. We surfed down one at 9.7 knots!! So happy to be going with them!! We could not work out why our batteries needed charging three times in 24 hours. The climate control on the fridge had been bumped by something rolling around in there and was on freeze!!!!!! That has happened before and we need to keep an eye on this.

It appears that winds are generally stronger in the Koro Sea, especially when it funnels between the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, or along the southern coast of  Viti Levu.

Its cool now with the need for woolies and jackets on deck. Even got the thermals out!!

We adopted Carillon's favourite down wind sail plan...headsail only! Excellent for running deep with speed and good stability.

Generally a bit of rolling on the passage has been tiring and it was wonderful to get into calm Savu Savu. Otherwise an easy passage. We entered the Koro Sea via Lakemba Passage, which is wide and easy, especially at night when we came through.

Bob McDavitt (NZ guru) has indicated that El Nino is now starting, so enhanced trade winds can be expected. I guess we will have wind (and seas!) between here and Bundaberg.

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A Taste of Tonga

Certainly the biggest lie in history occurred when the Polynesians told Cook that there was no safe anchorage in Tonga. It kept the western world at bay for a while longer at least!!

With our Pacific crossing we keep asking…’does it get better than this?’…and our answer is YES!!!

The chart shows Neiafu harbour if you follow the NW headland around.

Vava’u, Tonga has it all. Not only an amazing harbor in Neiafu that would have to be the best hurricane hole in the Pacific, with no direct opening to the open ocean, but also, to our delight, the first calm anchorage we have had for some time. What bliss!! Many islands that provide an amazing array of sheltered anchorages and water ways; white sandy beaches and with limestone karst topography, many caves to explore. It is our number one suggestion for chartering in the Pacific, closely followed by Tahiti.

Of course, much excitement stemmed from the fact that we have crossed the International Date Line and are now on the same day as Australia!!!! We will cross the 180 meridian on the way into SavaSavu, Fiji.

Neiafu is well versed with having cruisers and is set up accordingly with a cruiser’s net and much entertainment. As the anchorage is deep, there are many moorings you can pick up for around $9.00/night. 

The town is so so with few provisions but with great cafes, restaurants and familiar banks like ANZ and Westpac.. The Aquarium Café is the greatest yachtie hang out with good food, alcohol and coffee, rubbish disposal, dinghy dock and internet. What more could we ask for??? Mike also offers to fax our notification of arrival to Fiji which is appreciated.

 Lyn from Carillon kindly showed us the local shops and their wares.

Being keen to try local entertainment we went to a Pig Racing Event (run by a Kiwi) and the Baby Grand Theatre which showed a Flea Circus (performed by a Brit); each bizarre but an experience which perhaps reflected the humour of each??????????????

For some reason, Steve and Lyn were given a pig to look after for a while???????????

On Sunday morning we found our glad rags and went off to Church; to listen to the amazing harmonies of the choir and the congregation (even though it was not in English). It was as expected; absolutely brilliant and Peter, of course, especially was blown away by it.

A walk up Mt Talau for the stunning views was worth it and the surprise of the story was amusing. Basically someone came to steal the top of the hill and a local girl mooned the thieves, scaring them and hence they dropped the top of the hill to form an island nearby!!!!!!!!!! Mooning, it seems, has been around for a while!!

Lyn and Steve, having spent 3 months here by the time we arrived, suggested some anchorages for us and Red Sky. Nuku Island is a dream anchorage with an extended sand bar come reef, joining it with the large Island of Kapa. We walked and waded around the island just after low tide and shared a fire on the small sand spit with other cruisers that came into the anchorage later in the day.

From Nuku Island, we dinghied the two miles over to Mariner’s Cave. We would never have found this on our own as it is hidden underwater. It requires you to dive down and swim under a ledge and up into the cave. I decided not to undertake this adventure and looked after the dinghies instead. Leanne from Red Sky was a little unsure of this but with John’s support and coaxing (never give up must be his motto!!) she finally made it!! Lea nearly bailed on her last attempt but John grabbed her and pulled her through. By all accounts, Peter said it was stunning and an awesome experience.

On the way back we diverted to Swallow’s Cave which is enormous with such clarity in the water that you can easily see the bottom in around 20m!  We also found this is where the bait fish hide out!! Although it has graffiti inside, some of it dates back to early whaling times.

With two calm days forecast, we made the 9 mile trek through a small reef pass over to the eastern most islands, anchoring in the lee of Kenutu Island. Wonderful paddling opportunities, crystal clear water .........

and a small camp that someone has constructed out of twigs affords a view out to the open ocean.

Peter decided to check the prop and clean a little hairy cover that had grown on the front of the rudder. As he was swimming along the waterline, he happened across a long sea snake doing the same….I was on deck and was alerted to something not quite right by Peter’s yelps (with snorkel still in mouth!). I looked over the side expecting to see him being chased by a large shark. Peter launched himself out of the water and into the dinghy with the same grace as a sea lion (they do this so easily!). Peter simply does not ‘do’ snakes!!!

Snorkeling at anchorage #40 (Moorings guide goes by numbers as do all the villages) unveiled some beautiful coral we had not seen in the Pacific and many small fish. It seems that the big fish are caught outside the islands in open waters. Could the area be fished out????  

However, THE best coral so far was at the Coral Gardens, located on the reef behind the bay Lape Island is part of. Now that was something to behold with the greatest variety of coral we have EVER seen, in species and colour. The garden is approximately 200m long and about 50 80m or so wide. Awesome.

Lape Island visit was primarily for the Tongan feast that the locals put on as a fund raiser. It was a great night, even though it drizzled for some of the time. The local village sang for us before the feast in beautiful harmony. We ended up staying there for 3 nights as we had poor weather for a few days…a little over 20 knots with heavy overcast skies and some rain. It’s the first rain we have had since Bora Bora. 

On our way back into the harbor, we had a short visit to Port Maurelle which is a very sheltered bay with a wonderful sandy beach. The water is so clear and a stunning colour. We could see the grains of sand at 8m, not to mention the coral head underneath us along with the fishes!

We have seen many humpback whales around the anchorages, all with the young calves leaping out of the water with gay abandon. There have been lots of whale stories on the net from other yachties…..one 43 foot cat had a calf between their hulls for most of the night on passage to Niue. They could hear the spurt but could not work out what it was…until they looked around the boat and saw its tail between their hulls. Rightly so, they were concerned where mum might be……by dawn the calf had gone and hopefully found mum! In Niue, a whale breached on the bow of an Australian yacht, damaging their bow roller, cleats and their code zero. They were out at dinner and came back to a nasty surprise. Other boats in the anchorage heard the crash.  Lucky for them, the anchor was released and caught a bombie so the yacht did not drift away or onto the rocks. The whale broke the mooring line and probably got quite a shock!!  Look before you leap??????

On weather, the long range expectation is that this year is a neutral year going into El Nino next year, which translates into more cyclones for the SW Pacific, but a drier East Coast Australia. The SPCZ has been further north this year, around 5 to 10 degrees south, which has been good for us so far as we have had fewer squalls to deal with. (We have been hanging around 17-20 degrees south.) It has also been the lightest trades anyone has seen for some time, which we can certainly attest to. Hopefully our mild weather will continue for our passages to Queensland. Hence we have used our engine more than what one would expect. 

All seems to be well with our engine….Peter has drilled out another hole in the coupling to hold the shaft (the keyway is so worn) and strangely enough, the engine runs beautifully at 2500 RPM and uses less than 2L/hour. We will be up for a re-build in Bundaberg though. Peter has sourced a split coupling that will fit our shaft, so we will not need a new shaft.

In Tonga, it’s customary to be bought up as a girl if there are no girls in the family and you are the youngest boy!! So like SE Asia there are many lady boys here, albeit not as glam as the one’s in Phuket!!

Although we are very sad not to have spent more time in Tonga, such is life.  We are ready to move on. We still have around 2000nm to Bundaberg.

From here, we have a short 3 day sail (with half to ¾ moon) to SavuSavu in Fiji (in the north), departing Saturday, Aug 25th where we will clear in and visit the LED manufacturer, then make our way towards Nadi and surrounds. We are in company with Carillon and of course, Red Sky. Our forecast…..22 knots of SE winds on an easterly course. Nice!!

Tonga: The end of the Middle

Our short stay at Niue was a good call as we not only missed the strong W/NW winds from Tonga, but found the jewel in the Pacific!! Niue is a single rock, some 12 miles long that has been uplifted. No beaches, just lots of chasms and amazing rock pools, with 70m visibility!

We were on a mooring in 20m of water and we could see the coral and bits of sand as clear as if it was 2m! The sea bed, being untouched, is wall to wall coral with deep chasms. You lift the dinghy out from alongside the concrete pier with an electric winch, the same as the Etchells are lifted in and out of the water.

The people are NZ citizens and only a small number of people now live on the island..maybe 2,000. We received the warmest welcome from everyone there.

We visited a village on their show day and tasted some of the local food. Peter had a large tub of  trifle for breakfast! The women were in their Sunday best!

On our way around the island there were many caves ....Peter's boofy hand doing a "Thing"  impersonation...

Neiafu, Vava'u Tonga was a mere 230 miles to the west. We motored for 6 hours until a good SE wind came in. Heading was west!!! Seas were under a meter and only mildly confused as we passed south of the Capricorn Seamount, which is huge!

We arrived with Red Sky at dawn, after plodding along waiting for first light. A pod of whales had been in the harbour as we entered. Lyn and Steve from Carillon (cruising friends from SE Asia) came out to meet us in their dinghy. It was fantastic to see familiar faces. Neiafu is a hurricane hole with a small narrow channel. The water is clear and calm!!!!!!!! What a relief not to be moving!!

Virgos Child and Amnesia are still here, waiting for a window to Fiji, as are many of the yachts who left Bora Bora 10 days before us.

So now we have crossed the date line and we are on the same day as home!!! Our passages as no longer more than 500 miles until the last jump home from New Caledonia, which is around 750nm.

There are many anchorages to explore here and we will probably leave at the end of the month to Fiji as we need to be in New Cal by early October. Fiji has had poor weather all season, so we hope it improves!! It also had lots of Indian food..YUM!

Jobs for Peter whilst we are here: glass the mount back in for the autopilot, put another bolt in the coupling to hold the shaft and we need a sail repair as the tack on the main chaffed through!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All in all, the last 1200 miles was a get out of jail free card......no squalls with winds under 20 knots in an area that is potentially vicious. We made it by a day as the wind and rain are coming in as we write!! We need a boat wash! Timing is everything!!

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Moving West through the Dangerous Middle

After motoring along in flat seas we decided, with Red Sky to pull into Palmerston Atoll. An absolutely stunning atoll surrounded by white sandy beaches and palm trees.

There are moorings available, but they are in disrepair as they only get a ship once every 6 months and cannot get the necessary gear to up keep the moorings.

The local officials come out to check us in and to have a chat.

It cost $80 to clear in for two days, but the same price if we wanted to stay a month!! They then took us ashore. We are not permitted to take our own dinghy into the atoll. They keep it pristine!

We spent a nervous night with light westerly winds which had us on a lee shore against a coral reef. The wind finally swung to the south early evening which was a little better. Very rolly! We were advised to put our anchor down as well..except the sea floor was nothing but layers of coral; very beautiful but we were worried we would not be able to retrieve our anchor.

Palmerston has an interesting history with a Lancashireman, William Masters, who settled here in 1862 with 3 wives. Direct descendants live there today, with the total population being 70 people. Such a wonderful experience to have met them. We only stayed two days as the wind was favourable to head west.

We were invited ashore for lunch

 and a tour around the village. There was the remains of a yacht there that ended up on the reef last year. It re-enforced our idea of a short stay!!

Two glorious days and nights of full moon and sailing with the wind on our beam and calm seas, doing between 6 and 8 knots constantly. My how the miles tick by!!!! The forecast for Tonga was a little bleak, with a trough moving over Vava'u when we would be making a night entry. The wind had died and we had a frustrating day, so we decided to pull into Niue, the smallest nation in the world. It is independent from NZ but supported by their government.

Unfortunately, with the wind in the NE and the trough expected here as well, we can only stay a few days as this is another anchorage exposed to the north and west! We arrived at 0400 yesterday morning, so we are quite tired. So far it looks wonderful. The people are just so nice. It has an airstrip,so tourists can come here, unlike Palmerston which is only accessible by boat.

The engine continues to be problematic. The shaft fell out again!!! It has been worn by the previous owner running the engine whilst out of alignment. We now have diesel getting into the oil somehow..injectors?? The secondary alternator burnt out. Something else we had fixed in Mexico that has failed!!! Frequent oil changes will handle the former.

Tonga is a mere 230 miles away, then Fiji another 400 or so. We will have time to get some things fixed in Fiji. Roll on Australia!!!

Whilst we were motoring to Palmerston we had an amazing encounter with some humpback whales. They had come to check us out and a baby, half the size of Stolen Kiss leapt completely out of the water only 4m away! you think we didn't get a surprise!! The adults came up to the stern to take a look at us then they were breaching next to us as well. We got out of there!!! We also had a female and her young calf come up to us in the anchorage in Palmerston.

We are sailing with Red Sky, and with wind over 15 knots, we sail well together. Leanne and John are good company.
We have two days to explore Niue but are also ready to depart if the anchorage becomes untenable.

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