Preparations for passage to Vanuatu

We arrived back in Neiafu, Vava’u early Wednesday morning. The passage took us only 14 hours. We had 15 knots on the beam the first 8-9 hours, but unfortunately that lovely wind disappeared and we had to motor the rest of the way. The best things on return here were: $3 fish burgers at the market, real NZ ice cream scoops at one particular supermarket and a good undisturbed night’s sleep. That doesn’t actually say that much about Neiafu. 

Back to Ha'apai. We had fun biking around Lifuka and the adjoining island. Our only exercise on the boat is swimming/snorkeling and a bit of walking around on the islands, so it was nice to 'proper' exercise and it was a good way to see several villages and we were rewarded with a lovely beach at the end. It would be great if we had room to store bikes on Sophia, but we don't (too many sails...). To be honest, it's actually very little we could have used bikes here in Tonga. 

We’re now spending the next few days getting ready for the passage to Vanuatu. Our new membrane for the water maker was waiting for us here, so that has to be installed. It’s really easy to get parts sent to Tonga from the US. Both the items we have bought (BBQ mount and this membrane) have arrived in Neiafu 10-12 days after being ordered online with West Marine (using fedex). As the parcels are for a yacht in transit, we haven’t had to pay duties, just some local fees (25 and 42 pa’anga (subtract about 25% to get NZ$)).

Other jobs are: oil filter change, fix a slightly leaking chain plate and tighten a loose stanchion.  Phil is also trying to combine our three auto pilot rams into two hopefully fully functioning one (I reserved the rights a long time ago to say I told you so when they break. I’m pro wind wane, Phil isn’t, I’m sure this won’t be the last time we have problems ). Plus the usual laundry and just general passage prep such as tiding up the boat and making some food and baking beforehand for the first few days at sea.

Swimming with whales

We love Ha’apai. Period. Vava’u is nice too, but different, both got their good points and bad. Ha’apai is nicer, wilder and less busy, but the only downside is the anchorages aren’t as protected as in Vava’u. We have spent quite a few rolly nights where sleep is often interrupted. A big plus to Ha’apai are all the whales. They are everywhere. One night in bed at an anchorage we heard the tell-tale breathing splash and when looking out the front hatch had whales right next to the boat, which was pretty cool.

The absolute highlight so far is swimming with them! At our last anchorage, a tiny island by a big reef/lagoon called Hakau Lahi we spotted a couple just as we were coming in to anchor. The anchor was hardly set before I was in the water swimming towards them and Phil wasn’t far behind. It was a mother and a calf with a male around as well (apparently not the dad, but the next suitor). The visibility wasn’t the best, and I stayed a good 30 meters away a while looking at them above the water. Slowly the mother and calf dove down and approached me underwater. Talk about adrenalin kick when they became visible underwater just in front of me! It’s one of the coolest experiences I have ever had, right up there with New York marathon and micro plane flying. They hung around the anchorage a while and I jumped back in and approached them again, this time the male was checking me out.

We have been snorkelling lots, fishing, beach combing, making bon fires and just hanging out with Sala. We didn’t find any lobsters at Uonukuhihifo but it was a great place anyway. At Haafeva we snorkelled on a super cool wreck, an old Korean fishing vessel, ideal for snorkelling, the top of the bow was above water, and the deepest part of it was probably only 5-6 meters. Near the wreck Phil and I spotted two lobsters, but we weren’t wearing gloves and Sala were too far away to call. Helen did go back a little later and caught one, pretty yummy eating.

Our time here in Ha’apai is almost over, we gotta go back up to Vava’u later this week to pick up our new water maker membrane and get ready for the passage to Vanuatu. We are going to rent bikes tomorrow and cycle around Lifuka, the island where the main town (Pangai) is.

I’ll try and upload photos to facebook, but I’m not sure it will be successful, if not it’ll have to wait till Neiafu.

Cruising Ha'apai and spotting whales

Just a quick little post as we're about to download weather, so I might as well do a post at the same time.

We cleared into Ha'apai in Pangai (they want you to clear in and out of the different island groups in Tonga), and checked out the little town there, but headed out again the same day. Our first anchorage was Uoleva, just south of Lifuka. It's a nice beach with lots of coral wrapping around the anchorage. We knew the wind was going to change from the usual SE (trade wind) to more N and up to 25 knots of it, however, there arent' as many all weather anchorages down here. The second day and night got pretty windy and choppy, but it was lovely deep sand, so anchor was safe, we were just a bit uncomfortable. Phil and I were invited over to Denique (yet another Christchurch boat!!) for morning coffee, and we set out in our dinghy, but didn't get far before a wave caught underneath and flipped us over backwards! We swam us and the dinghy back to Soph and Phil started the process of ridding the outboard of saltwater with WD40. Needless to say, we stayed on Sophia the rest of the day!

Before the wind came up, a local guy took us and Sala spearfishing/snorkeling on the reef. He shot several small reef fish (according to him, Tongans like and cook small fish, whereas Palangi (white people) like big fish, which Tongans only eat raw. We got one of the fish and ate it, but it was unfair to the little fish, because we also had the last of the tuna we caught and nothing beats tuna ), and we enjoyed the snorkel, saw a sleeping leopard shark (we think), but the coolest part, was hearing the whale song underwater. Very similar to Dory's whale speak in Finding Nemo, and what I have also been trying to 'speak' to lure in the whales, but until Ha'apai, unsuccessful.

We have seen whales every single day here in Ha'apai, even from the anchorage. Humpback whales are very acrobatic and sometimes throw themselves totally (or partially) out of the water, so splashes is what you look out for when trying to spot them! It's very very cool cruising with whales.

Today we have moved to another anchorage a bit further south again, called Uonukuhihifo (quite a mouthful to try and say), which apparently is the place to try and catch crayfish/lobster, we shall see, will let you kno whow it goes in the next post.

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Sail to Ha'apai and catching fish!!

It took us 19 hours to sail down to Ha’apai from Vava’u, and it’s only about 70 miles (even less because we left from one of the more southern anchorages), but it was pretty much right on the nose the whole way. That didn’t matter, because it was still a lovely sail, about 5-10 knots southerly, moon and sunshine and not much sea. As we neared our destination we have to give in and motor the last couple of hours, otherwise we wouldn’t have made it in day light. Sala left at the same time, but they motored almost the whole way, so beat us by 4 hours.

We’re going to be sailing around here in Ha’apai with Sala (Dan and Helen, Kiwi and Scott, both our age), as they decided to join us and it will be fun to try buddy boating. Also, their SSB doesn’t work, so they can get weather from us via our sat phone. There are not as many boats down here as in Vava’u, and also not cruisers’ net in the morning.

Back to our sail down here: we finally caught fish!!! We have been trolling almost all the time when we go anywhere, but so far with no luck. But yesterday, the tuna were practically fighting to be the first one on our hook! Phil initially got a small (30 cm) yellow fin (we think) tuna, and after photographing, killing and filleting it (took at least 15 minutes), threw out another hook and instantly (as soon as the lure hit the water), had another one! We could see a whole lot of them circling around the back of Sophia and we got some good videos of it too, while Phil teased them with the lure. We threw a couple back out (one we caught wasn’t yellow like the other, we’re not sure what that was), but all up kept three tunas. Some was turned into ceviche (raw fish marinaded in lemon, flash backs to Chile) and Poisson Cru (raw fish marinaded in coconut cream (which I made from scratch, putting canned coconut cream to shame), Sala got some for their dinner and we still got some left. 

Last subject is pretty gross, so this is your warning in case you’re eating or even just if you’re squirmish.  It’s all part of our cruising experience, so here it goes.

I knew we have to watch for food scraps in our garbage, so we clean everything before throwing it away and throw food stuff overboard. However, in Neiafu  I didn’t want to throw food (veggie peelings etc) overboard, so kept it in a small bin for when we left the harbour. However, on our 5th and last day in Neiafu we woke up with maggots crawling all over the floor!! Arghhh, extremely gross and disgusting. We hunted them all down and looked everywhere else (luckily they didn’t seem to be able to or want to go up onto the squabs, phew) and did a lot of cleaning. Of course they traced back the food scrap bin. From now on ALL food related stuff goes directly overboard!!!

Cave diving, tight lagoon entrance, rough night and more racing

Another week has passed in paradise and we’re still loving it (why wouldn’t you…). This last week has been spent being social (Port Maurelle, a lovely anchorage, only downside is it’s usually pretty crowded, with the upside it being easy to socialise with friends), exploring Mariner’s Cave and checking out the lagoon by Hunga.

Mariner’s Cave is similar to Swallows Cave, though the cool bit is that the only entrance is under water through a big hole which lets in enough light to lit up the cave. It’s also not as big as Swallows, but still pretty decent! To get in you have to snorkel through the hole which is about 1-2 meter deep (depending on tide) and maybe 3 meters long, so not hard, but very exciting. The pressure of the waves/swell makes the cave fog up and clear, then fog up again, pretty cool. Visibility was great, but unlike Swallows Cave, there were no big schools of fish, just a few odd ones. We have really been looking forward to going there, but as you can’t anchor outside, we needed to go with another boat, so we could take turns motoring around outside in the boat, while others go in and then swap. Sala (the little fast 29 footer) and us we lucky to go with a 50 footer Carillon (google them to find the website, sorry, forgot their boat card on Sophia, they have cruised many years in Asia and have written all about it on their website, and they gave us some good advice).  I have uploaded a few more photos to facebook, so check out Mariner's cave there.

Hunga lagoon is a big lagoon almost fully enclosed, with three entrances, only one big enough to sail through and that gap is only 35 meters wide. Phil’s parents were here many years ago and they sailed though and showed us a video of them doing it, so it was pretty cool that we have now done it too (and also got it on video, but that and many other videos have to wait till better internet). Inside the lagoon it was obviously very sheltered, but the anchorages a bit deep, so not our favourite place. The snorkelling outside the entrance was really good though, super clear water, cool rock and coral formations and a black tipped reef shark that kept us company.

One night we woke up being rained on (through the open hatch), so we scrambled out to hook up the hoses to the rain catcher on the bimini. A few minutes later the wind kicked up out of nowhere. We had anchored at 15 meters, but the direction changed and we were now pointing right into the beach (10-15 meters away!) and had only 3-4 meters under us and the wind gusting up to 27 knots, a bit scary. We took in a bit of chain to sit slightly deeper and ran the engine for three hours while keeping a close eye on our position, being ready to motor out of trouble. It had caught everyone unaware and hadn’t been forecasted anywhere (it was a through that was supposed to have gone much further south), but it only lasted 4-5 hours then it eased off a bit. Nights like that is when it’s not all fun and tropical and I was actually even envious of people living peacefully in houses on land that doesn’t move. My envy only lasted those few hours though… I’m also sure it won’t be our last time the weather plays tricks on us and gives us surprises and uncomfort, but it’s all part of the cruising life.

We haven’t had any luck catching fish yet, but we have been given some tuna and marlin (a 150 kg monster that was caught by a fishing charter from a resort in Hunga) and they kindly gave us a a wee chunk of it, which was massive, so we were able to give Sala some too.  We’ll keep trying dragging our lures, and hopefully some day we’ll get lucky.

We raced again last night and came second behind Tuxedo Junction, a Wright 11 from NZ. They raced first time last week and had a bad start but came really close to us, so we were expecting tight racing this time and got it.

We’re going to head down to Hapa’ai next week, and maybe leave to Vanuatu from there, if we can check out (some people haven’t been able to get hold of/find the official(s?) down there. The second hand water maker we got not long before leaving is making us good water, but the ppm (I think) readings are a bit on the high side and can take up to an hour before it’s even OK, so we have ordered a new membrane from West Marine (US, much cheaper than from NZ) and will either wait for it here, or come back and get it. We tried to order it last week, but internet was playing up and we actually didn’t think our order had gone through, but it had, we just found out. 

Snorkeling, coconuts and Sophia racing

The title of this post pretty much sums up our lives at the moment. We are loving and enjoying the cruising life and we already feel we have adjusted well into it. We have slowed down a little bit and are now ‘only’ changing anchorage every 2-3 days with a few day anchorages mixed in as well. We’re still super keen on snorkelling and are in the water every single day, except in Neiafu where the water isn’t as inviting, although not bad at all.

We try only going into Neiafu once a week for groceries, internet etc and try and time it with the Friday afternoon yacht race. It’s very easy to spend money while in town, even if you’re cheapies like Phil and I. Back to the yacht race. Last Friday was our first and it was a great day for it, sunny and a 15-20 knots breeze. I think it was my first race in only shorts and t-shirts ever! Arrochar, another Lyttelton boat had arrived in Vava’u the same week and we cajoled them to join us as crew. Phil was happy he got to use his no 1 head sail (some semi-fancy race sail). Spinnakers etc weren’t  allowed and there’s no handicap, first across the line wins. There were about 10 yachst in the race, most much bigger than Sophia, except Sala, a 29 feet half tonner, owned by a young NZ couple. Because Sala was below 30 feet she was allowed a leg less than the rest. Thanks to Phil (but of course) we got a great start and were first to the top mark, quite surprised ourselves. We kept our lead and were only beaten by Sala because they had to do a shorter course, but they also did really well. It was pretty funny beating all these big 40-50 foot fancy yachts.

We have just done another race yesterday and despite much less wind (10 knots), amazingly we were again the fastest boat. All credit goes to Phil though, he always puts us right on the start line right on time and is coaxing the maximum speed out of Sophia the whole way along, continously trimming sails (which of course are in excellent shape and almost new). It's also a great way to meet new people afterwards and have some fun.

Snorkeling just gets better and better as we have moved to different anchorages where snorkelling is supposedly good. We look forward to going down to Hapa’ai and checking out the snorkelling there as it’s apparently even better. We have now seen a moray eel and a shark (Phil’s first, it was funny, he moved behind me and grabbed my arm, whereas I tried to swim closer to get a better photo, without success though. It was just a small white tipped reef shark, maybe only ½ meter big). Also lots of clown fish and their anemones, my favourites.

One of our highlights so far has been Swallows Cave. We joined forces with another NZ boat (Wind Song, a couple from Wanaka) and did the long dinghy trip together. We had sailed past it a few times as it’s on the way into Neiafu harbour and were really looking forward to going. It’s a massive cave with an entrance as wide as maybe two dinghies, letting in a good amount of light. Unfortunately there’s a lot of graffiti in there, but it’s still a cool cave. The coolest part was under-water though! Huge huge schools of fish!

Last subject for now is coconuts. Yummy. I love the coconut water, Phil is still getting used to it, but at least he has learned how to get into them (Arrochar showed us, they had been taught by locals). The white flesh is also really tasty and I’m now contemplating how to use it in a cake ideally also with chocolate. If anyone has a recipe, please do let me know. Again, check out the Vava'u album on facebook for pictures to match our adventures. Here are some pretty tropical flowers.

First week in Vava'u

We have now spent over a week in Vava’u and we’re still having a great time. Tonga is made up of 171 islands and four different groups. In the south is Tongatapu (with the capital Nukualofa), then Ha’apai, then Vava’u and in the very north the Niuas.  Most people are quite surprised to hear we came directly from Gisborne to Neiafu (Vava’u), as most leave from Opua and go to Nukualofa, which is the shortest distance, but our route made most sense to our situation.

The first three nights we spent in Neiafu as we had to get more fruit and veggies, do laundry, fix the leaking toilet pump and pick up our west marine (US) package with our BBQ mounts. A public holiday extended our stay with another day as everything was closed. Getting our parcel was very easy, except for the fact that I (Astrid) got chatting with a local girl while waiting in the office and one thing led to another and they thought I was with her and the peace corps or something, so 2 hours later I ended up paying duty on three drums with food and gods know what else before they realised all I was after was a small package to a yacht in transit! They all thought it was hilarious and were of course sorry about the mistake and gave me back my money. I had fun too and made a good friend whom we plan to visit in her village.

While in Neiafu we went to a local bar where the lady boys (can’t remember their proper name, but boys raised as girls if the first 4 kids are boys or something like that) do a weekly show. It was attended by both cruisers and locals and was good fun. The ‘girls’ would do individual routines and come flirt with the men in the audience and receive bills stuck under their dress straps. Steve from Rapsody (Lyttelton boat) took us and had been before, so he and Phil were hiding behind a table in the very back, haha.

When all our errands were done we couldn’t wait to get out of town to really get into the cruising life and snorkelling. We have been changing anchorage almost daily and we snorkel every single day.  There are tons of good anchorages and they are maximum half an hour apart of so, so cruising is very easy. It makes sense that it’s a sailing mecca and a popular charter destination.  However, it’s not crowded, usually there are only a few boats in each anchorage and it’s not hard to find one to yourself. The other cruisers are mostly Kiwis, Americans, British and French.

The weather had been nice and settled since we got here. It’s pleasantly warm, but not too warm and sometimes even cold enough for long sleeve and pants. The water is about 23-24 degrees, so a wet suit is required for snorkelling.  The water is beautiful and clear, we can usually see our anchor at 10 meters depth. There are some coral, but compared to the Red Sea and other places, it’s not that spectacular. Where there’s coral, there are lots of small tropical fish, but nothing big. I was lucky enough to see a big turtle plotting along the bottom when checking our anchor, but Phil missed it. It almost makes up for me missing the orca on our passage, but not quite!

We won’t blog as often now, because we don’t need to download the weather every few days as we just get the weather forecast over the vhf, so it’s only when we’re in town we have internet. I have uploaded more photos to facebook, so check it out if you'd like to see images to our stories.

NZ to Tonga passage, day 10 and 11 (arrival)

We’re in Tonga!!! Yipee, it’s fantastic, beautiful, warm, tropical, exotic and amazing. OK, the last two words are only Astrid's, Phil doesn't agree with me on those. As a Dane, a pacific island is just about one the most exotic things I can think of.

We arrived Tuesday 2^nd July about 1.30pm, so the passage took us just under  11 days. On our 9^th night out, we could see the mountainous island Eua just south-east of Tongatapu (where Nukualoafa, the capital is).  We then sailed up alongside the whole of Tonga on the eastern side and north of Ha’apai group we turned west and then we sailed north directly into the Vava’u group.  We had anticipated we would have to find a quiet anchor that night, but thanks to the lovely 10-15 knots trade wind, it turned out we could make it to Neiafu (the ‘capital’ of Vava’u, where you have to clear customs) early afternoon.

Overall we're very happy with the passage and especially the weather. Sure, it was a bit bummer waiting three weeks in Gisborne, but it meant that we had good weather on passage. Minus the first few days it was a bit on the light side, but rather that than 45 knots on the nose. We had no major breakages, just a few issues. Our oldest spare auto pilot ram finally had it, the whisker pole used as a bow spit for the code zero needs strengthening and our toilet pump is leaking, annoying, but not crucial.

Clearing in was easy, even with four different people having to ‘clear’ us: customs, quarantine, immigration and port control. The only hick up was that we couldn’t find our clearance paper from Gisborne. This would have incurred a big fine, so we got quite nervous while looking everywhere and the Tongans sitting drinking tea in the cockpit. Finally Phil found it behind the drawers where it had fallen down and was hidden! Good lesson to keep good track of your clearance papers!

Neiafu is the Tonga’s sailing mecca, it’s here most cruisers go, plus there’s lots of charter boats. Still, it only takes 10 minutes to walk through the main street in town  and you have seen it all. It’s an extremely sheltered harbour, but quite deep (+25 meters), so like everyone else we have opted to pick up a mooring. Right away we spotted another Christchurch boat, Rapsody with Stephen on board, pretty funny. They helped us drink our celebratory bottle of bubbles.  However, the best thing was the extremely quiet boat at night time and a FULL uninterrupted night’s sleep :-)

For photos of the trip (mostly sun sets and rises!) see our facebook page: NZ to Tonga passage