Sailing on SOL: July 2018

Yet another amazing anchorage vista

We left Pangai and set off exploring, heading south to the most amazing beach on the island of Uoleva – white sand stretching for miles, sand so soft that you sank up to your ankles and water so clear that in 10metres the sea floor appeared to be just a few inches down. There are quite a few resorts here on beautiful Uoleva offering accommodation ranging from traditional Tongan Fales (thatched huts) to “glamping tents”. We spent an evening at the bar of The Beach House and here we met up with the crew from “Family Circus” a Lagoon 470 who had been in Whangarei in the yard with us. We stayed a couple of days here, walking the length of the beach and across the other side of the island, swimming and trying to paddleboard.

Along with “Family Circus” we returned to Pangai to clear out before journeying north to Vava’u. You must clear in and out with customs before moving between each island group, a task that seems a rather unnecessary formality to us but I guess they have their reasons.

Luckily not too serious

Arriving at the jetty and stepping out of the yamahama I lost my footing on the exceptionally slippery concrete and rather indelicately landed on my bum hurting my pride!! Paperwork stamped and we were on our way again, this time however, even though we knew it was treacherously slippery, Jamie ended up crashing down on his back, whacking his head on the bottom concrete step. Blood poured everywhere, he lost consciousness for a short time, I screeched for Chris (Family Circus) to come help, and two young army men working on a nearby building came, we loaded Jamie onto the tray of a ute and took him to the hospital where he was seen immediately, vital signs checked, antibiotics prescribed, head dressed and in less than 2 hours we were making our way gingerly back to SOL thankful the damage was not severe.

Proudly he stepped out from under the tree

and showed off his NZ Warriors shirt

Anchored that night outside the harbour and spent a relaxing few days there, just walking, swimming, kayaking – just taking it easy really, making sure Jamie wasn’t going to suffer any after-effects – and he was fine. On one walk along the beach we found a man sitting under a tree, resting, his wife out in the hot sun with the net, fishing. This appears to be the norm here – the women doing the bulk of the work while the menfolk supervise!!

Upping anchor at dawn on Wednesday 30^th May we had a super sail with the wind behind us and the screecher up travelling the 75 nautical miles north with ease and were anchored in the bay at Vaka’eitu Island before 4pm. Also in the bay were some boats who were with the World ARC which made it fun as we got together for sundowner drinks Thursday evening on the beach. David and Hika, the Tongan couple who live here in Vaka’eitu hold traditional Tongan feasts each Saturday night during the whale season and this Saturday was to be the first for this year – so with spit-roast suckling pig on offer we just had to stay for a few more nights.

Take two little pigs, poke a stick through each of them, light the fire and hand turn for a couple of hours - best crackle ever

Hika with some of the dishes she prepared for us

Well, the feast was amazing – simply amazing and started with a Kava ceremony – ok if drinking muddy looking water is appealing!! Perfectly cooked pig, crackle to die for, an extensive array of dishes to accompany the pork ranging from taro, sweet potato, crab salad, octopus, teriyaki chicken, potato salad, lu pulu (taro leaves stuffed with corned beef) and much more.

Covered in coconut oil, she danced and audience stuck banknotes to her as payment

David played the guitar, Hika and the girls sang, and the girls gave a display of traditional Tongan dance – it was an exceptional evening, thoroughly enjoyed by us and a dozen yachts who were on the World ARC Rally.

The three youngest of David and Hika's 11 children also danced

Just watching us go by

Tonga is closed on Sunday, with everyone attending church services. No work is allowed, no stores are open. Leaving Mike on SOL with his leg up, we three went on a short ferry ride to nearby Pangiamotu where we had a swim, lunch and walked around the island. A lovely relaxing day.

Street food - sipi (lamb) or

moa (chicken) with taro

Monday Jamie and I walked to town, organised phone sim cards, bought beautiful bread, and bumped into Cat, Brodie and Travis (SY Citation) who had also sailed across from Australia and had left New Zealand just a few days before us, for Tonga. We have organised to remain in touch with them, and a few other boats, on a radio sched each evening.

So, Tuesday morning, 15^th May, we set off in our hired car around this island of Nuku’Alofa. We saw the fishing pigs at Talafolou – these pigs roam the seashore supplementing their diet with shellfish, seaweed, sea cucumbers and anything else they scavenge and apparently they taste better than any others on the whole of Tonga.

Fishing pigs

Next it was the Anahulu Caves, we paid our $15TOP (equivalent to about $10) and were directed to “just follow the path then turn right and go in!!” We used our phone torches to make our way past stalactites and stalagmites through the network of limestone caves to the only freshwater underground pools on Tongatapu where we jumped in and enjoyed a swim in water that astonishingly was not freezing cold. There is no way we would have been allowed to do this in either Australia or New Zealand without guides, rules and regimentation.

Further down the road we came to the blowholes at Mapu’aVaea. The roughly 5km stretch of road along the western coastline has nearly a hundred spectacular blowholes due to the waves crashing onto the rocks and being forced up through natural channels like geysers some up to 30 metres in height.

From there it was back to the Royal Palace (Tonga is a kingdom and therefore has a King) and along the road for a great dinner at The Billfish – the guys all managed to devour the biggest hamburgers ever seen.

Dinner at the Billfish - Not just your average hamburger!!

Wednesday, while Mike was back at the hospital for another knee check, we dropped the laundry (pick it up in a few hours – wash dry for $5TOP/kg) and commenced the restocking – we are so incredibly lucky living in the western world – we can walk into a shop and purchase whatever we want and we realise very quickly that we are not “at home” when we enter the grocery store and look around at the shelves which seem to be stocked with a haphazard mixture of goods – milk near washing powder, canned goods with powdered goods, Sellotape with the flyspray, and brooms, washing baskets, and underwear all lumped together. Meat is difficult to obtain and you need to search through large chest freezers to find bacon (from America), frozen sausages (local), lamb neck chops (NZ), and various other unidentifiable frozen cuts. There are not many fresh vegetables seen in these stores but along the roadside are many stalls selling potatoes, taro, watermelon, very small tomatoes, onions and the ubiquitous lu – a green leafy plant that looks kind of like overgrown spinach and you boil and boil (apparently if it’s not cooked long enough it can have an anaesthetic effect on your mouth and tongue). We have yet to try lu but bought a huge bag of taro.

Kelefesia Island

Beach on Kelefesia

Thursday the 17^th May we cleared out of Nuku’Alofa (here in Tonga you need to clear in and out of each island group) and in flat calm we partially hoisted the mainsail so I could repair the small hole made when we were “hove to” off Eua and were unaware our sail was rubbing on the one of the shrouds (that hold the mast up) all night and had worn a couple of little holes. Emergency repairs done and now with a 10-15knot breeze we hoisted the sails and by 4.30pm we were anchored in Kelefesia.

Diving on the anchor (to check it is set properly) is a breeze here, the water is clear and warm. We hadn’t dived our anchor before but with so much coral we needed to ensure both the anchor and the chain were in the sand not the coral.

We spent two days in Kelefesia and on the morning of the second day were given a tour of the island by Esse, who told us he held the lease and showed us his small enterprise – he reared many pigs, there were fish hanging drying in the sun, octopus strung up to dry before being placed in the smokehouse and a large fishbin full of cooked crayfish sat on a bench in one building. All these he said would be taken in the next day or so to the market in Nuku’Alofa. When we went back to SOL he came for a look at her, we thanked him for showing us his island home and gave him a straw hat and a litre of outboard oil.

Deserted Nomuka Yacht Club bar

Next beautiful anchorage was Nomuka Iki, just a short hop north. On our way we stopped to drift fish just off Mango Island where we caught our first Tongan fish. These looked a little like snapper so with three in the bag and another on we were about to leave when a man in his boat approached us to say “Go away, you no fish here” so with 4 fish for dinner we left (obviously Mango Island means Man comes says Go).

Arriving at Nomuka Iki we headed ashore for a walk. An Eco Whale Watching Tourist resort is in the process of being established along with Marine Discovery Centre, Clam Farm and Sandalwood Plantation here on Nomuka Iki and it is the home of the Royal Nomuka Yacht Club. There was no one around and the whole place looked rather deserted save for the chickens wandering, the start of pathways and some overgrown gardens. Under a tree just up from the beach were stored three rather powerful outboard motors. It all appeared a little strange to us.

A feature here that we have not seen before are what are termed rolling breakers and blind rollers. As you sail along, in the distance you see white water, what appears to be a reef, although no reef is marked on the chart, it is merely an area of shallower water where the huge surf breaks.

We approached Ha’afeva, spotting one of the first yachts we have been close to since leaving Nuku’Alofa, another catamaran and dropped anchor. The other cat was a Schionning Waterline – same designer, different model to SOL and quite a bit bigger.

We spent the next two nights here in what we will call “2 Schionning Bay” with tremendous snorkelling all around the old wharf and to the southern end of the bay. We went ashore and walked through the island to the village, one of the most well-tended and tidy villages we have seen thus far. There were cattle tethered under trees, goats and pigs wandering and of course, the many dogs. Although on approaching the village there were piles of rubbish dumped in the marshland once through the main gates the houses were tidy, well fenced with lawns mowed. We walked down the single street and to the beach on the other side. Walking around the island back to the wharf was a bit of a challenge as the sand is so soft you sink into it many inches deep with each footstep – a good workout for the calf muscles!! We met with Enzo(Dave), Shelley, Chris, and young Tiane and Ari for a drink and a look over each other’s boats – we stayed chatting for a couple of hours. Dave was a master mariner in a previous life, Shelley a diving instructor, and they were getting the boat organised for friends in Nomuka before it began chartering during the whale watching season.

Beautiful "Two Schionning" Bay, Ha'afeva

Tuesday saw us entering Pangai Harbour. Pangai is the administrative centre of the Ha’apai Group. We anchored in the very sheltered harbour and went ashore looking for the customs office (to clear in), being 4pm it was closed so it was off to the Mariners Café for a quick drink. The Mariners was named not for seagoing folk but after a young lad named William Mariner who in 1805 went to sea on the Port of Prince across the Atlantic, through the Pacific and finally to the Ha’apai Group of Tonga. They were welcomed by the Tongans initially but in just a short time the tables turned and the ship was set upon by the locals. Young Mariner, dressed in uniform, was captured and taken ashore to the chief who thought he was the captain’s son and spared his life. He lived with them for the next 4 years before returning to England where he wrote a book “An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands” considered to be a masterpiece of pacific literature. Current owner, Magda does an incredible job, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner and all with a smile. We ate here the next two nights, enjoying marinated pork, sweet chilli fish and home-made pasta along with a local beer or two.