Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 4:34 PM

Vavau group of islands, Tonga.

October 14th – Your day. It’s the only place I know it’s +13 hours
difference from UTC which means it is the same time as Niue just a day
later. We will not actually cross the international date line until our
next passage to Fiji.
Two days ago we Arrived at the port of entry, Neiafu, around sunset and
after their work hours so we didn’t go ashore that night and spent most
of the next day checking in and paying small fees to Customs,
Immigration, and Health. We also explored the town, found out where
things are from town’s people & other cruisers and had our first beer
free at the Mermaid Bar & Cafe that evening.

Neiafu’s open air Market

The next day we shopped for fresh stuff at the local market and sailed
for an hour south to an anchorage surrounded by green tropical islands
and beautiful warn clear blue water & white sand beaches called
“Anchorage 8.” So what is “Anchorage 8?” Mooring has a cruising guide
for its charters and each good anchorage is designated by a number so
that when asked where you are you just say “I’m at 16″ and every body
knows or can look up where that is. It also eliminates the
mispronunciation of the local Tongan words for many of these places.

Town and harbor of Neiafu in the distance

Brimman went spear fishing with SPEEDBIRD one of 6 other boats at #8.
Norway is well represented here as Three of the boats, one being our
caving friends LA FAMILIA, are or have crew from there. We had about 15
cruisers from all the boats meet on a nearby island’s beach for a
cruiser’s pot luck dinner and full moon celebration this evening, even
if it was not a full moon until Monday. We barbecued fish, enjoyed each
others food and company, and stayed on the beach under the stars,
watching the fire and telling stories until almost midnight.

Cruisers pot luck under the stars on this beach

October 15th – We and SPEEDBIRD went diving and spear fishing at
Swallows Cave today. After motoring there we explored the Cave by Dingy.
I then snorkeled into it allowing my eyes to get adjusted to the dark so
as to be able see and dive into the two underwater caves. While
SPEEDBIRD did a scuba dive for about an hour we snorkeled the coral
cliffs looking at the multicolored Parrot and other fish. Brimman tried
to get some fresh fish for dinner but the good sized ones were too wary
and scooted away as he got near.

Looking out of and into Swallow’s Cave

October 16th to 19th – Brimman & I had a nice long half mile swim out to
an island and back today from a quiet anchorage. Walked around the
islands ling sand beach lined with palm trees and talked to some
Australians living here permanently. Rewarded ourselves with beer and
peanuts in the cockpit after. We are the only boat here and enjoying the
solitude.
The mornings are very entertaining with all the schools of small fish
and the larger fish feeding on them. The large schools of small fish
don’t have much going for them but numbers as the larger fish are
feeding from below and the are birds feed from above.
We went back to the town of Nieafu for supplies. Green lettuce,
tomatoes, Cucumber, and our new protein source eggs. After discovering
the bakery owned by, Victoria, an ex-peace corps volunteer the crew has
been going wild eating the warm fresh baked cinnamon, granola, and brown
bread. We’ve eaten 6 loaves with lots of butter and jam in 2 days and
some of it even manages to get back to the boat. We are currently
waiting for friends, LA FAMILIA, to joint us in anchorage #6. Here the
water is clear and clean so I am diving under the boat sponging
INTENTION’s bottom removing the green slime and moss growing along the
waterline.

October 21st – Yesterday The activities for the day were swimming &
diving during the day, Volleyball on the beach with LA FAMILIA in the
evening and after dark ping pong tournament at the island resort. Last
night around 11:00 PM God, or who ever is up there, put on a beautiful
thunder, lightning, wind , and rain storm for our entertainment. The 50
knot winds were exciting for many boats that dragged through the
anchorage, lost anchoring gear, and one boat I know damaged their
rudder, SPEEDBIRD. A Moorings charter boat didn’t have anyone aboard and
was chased across the bay until retrieved. The thunder and lightning
part of the show lasted for over five hours with flashes and strikes all
around us. It is sometimes an advantage to have a small boat as my mast
is considerably shorter than all the rest of the ones all around me so
we are less likely to be struck. Luckily I know of no boats that were
struck. That morning I had dove on INTENTION’s anchor and hooked it on a
coral head so we held firm all night.

Volleyball on the beach

More volleyball and ping pong scheduled with LA FAMILIA tonight and for
Brimman’s special interest the New Zealand Rugby Championship game on
the big screen at Mala Island Resort Bar starting at 6:30PM. We had fish
and chips at the restaurant while watching the rugby finals.

The patio of Mala Island Resort

October 24th – Yesterday we sailed to another beautiful anchorage, # 11,
with a with more sand beaches and a good holding sand bottom. Also we
went in to the Spanish Restaurant for a fabulous 6 course dinner. With
SPEEDBIRD and friends had great fun watching a music group of guitar
playing and singing where we each got to play along with our own chosen
percussion instruments well into the night.

Brimman and a friend playing along with rhythm instruments

Today I’ll be helping to fiberglass SPEEDBIRD’s rudder so they can
continue their island hopping to Fiji or New Zealand. We are next to
them on a mooring with their rudder pulled out sitting in their cockpit
drying out waiting to be fixed. During my daily swim in the anchorage
I’ve been discovering many new the varieties of coral and multicolored
fish.

Anchored next to SPEEDBIRD

October 27th – Next we sailed through a series tight channels out to the
eastern outer reef, Anchorage #30, We went swimming and snorkeling on
coral gardens. Brimman and I took a walk the length of the eastern side
of the island watching the crashing surf from waves traveling over four
thousand miles across the Pacific. It was difficult getting back to town
through those tight channels in the near zero visibility of a torrential
downpour. At one point we were just motoring in circles so as to not go
aground on the reefs around us as we were approaching one of the two
tight passes. The day ended with a great sail back into Neiafu in time
for Brimman to get one of the last spaces for the next day on the local
plane and be able to make his connections to San Francisco. We had a
farewell dinner at a great Swiss restaurant for our last night together
with many toasts and much discussion.

Brimman during the island hike on the outer reef

October 29th – We met Diane, a local, who came to Tonga as a Peace Corps
volunteer and has been serving the Tongan people for the last four
years. She took me for some exercise with a 2 mile hike to the top of
Talau Mountain and had a beautiful view of the town and bay of Neaifu.
We were able to accompany her as she accomplished her tasks of teaching
three classes of English at an outlying school, getting a doctor to
treat a bad infection for a Tongan paraplegic man in outlying town,
invited to a seafood feast with prospective airline executives at
Paradise Hotel to promote more airline competition.

Dianne leading a song with school kids

Teaching English

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