Enjoying Cruising Life Again!

What a rush of email I had in response to my last story!  And 'No', Blue Moon is not slowing down in her old age!  She actually did very well considering the conditions. We had NE winds for most of the trip and our course was supposed to be 030.  For those of you who are not yachties, this means that we had to tack (sail one way and then the other) because we were unable to sail straight into the wind.  Also the seas were pretty big due to the strong wind (28 feet according to the marine weather report on the Internet - thanks for that info, Mom!) - so we spent a lot of time going up and down and not really getting ahead.  Some days our position on the chart hardly even moved at all, despite a full day of sailing.  The other little thing that we ran low on was diesel, so were not able to motor all day when the wind died.  This inevitably happens before a big storm and we spent hours on end just drifting.   Most people we have talked to since we arrived look at us incredulously when we tell them we came from Sydney.  "Don't you know that's the wrong way to sail across the Pacific? - and the weather has been terrible!"   "Yes!", we reply.

So we have been in Vava'u almost a week now.  Chris has flown home to Whangarei.  Lucky he actually made his plane, since we didn't realize Tonga time is UTC plus 13 (their own time zone) and our clock was an hour behind.  So someone was looking out for him, as we discovered our error just hours before his flight was due to leave.  He originally booked a 6:30 am flight which he would have missed completely.  Someone was also looking out for us when we sailed through the patch of volcanic activity that lays to the west of Tonga.  One morning we were surprised to find an entire island appear in front of us at dawn, where our chart shows only shoal patches.  On arrival in Neiafu, Vava'u, we were given two full pages of waypoints titled 'uncharted shoals' for the area, including new islands and reefs that do not exist on our older chart.  We have been impressed at the amount of organization, information and services available to yachties here now.

Having said that, they still haven't fixed the fuel dock, which sank the day after we arrived.  We had our suspicions when we tied to it to wash down, as the boys were nailing one of the cleats back on.  Also the supply boat had gone up on a reef so there was no fuel anyway.  I notice from my 1995 yacht log that the supply boat had also gone on a reef just before we got there - "no diesel, no propane, no petrol, no beer" it says.  Yesterday was the 'King's Birthday' holiday, which was celebrated at the Mermaid Café with an all day fete to raise money for the hospital.  The Mermaid seems to be the focal point of the waterfront, with an open air bar right at the waters edge, and home to the Vava'u Yacht Club.  Naturally, this was our first stop when we came ashore (although there was no draft beer left due to a mega yacht rally that had just been through - the smallest boat was 104 feet!  And of course the supply boat was on the reef!).  Coincidentally, the site of this bar was previously a boat shed with a sort of meeting area in front where we had our farewell dinner nine years ago.

One of the activities yesterday was a yacht race around the harbor, and we crewed on a' Moorings' charter boat. The nurses from the hospital had come down for the event, and our boat 'bought' two for crew.  They were characters.  Just after the start I noticed both of them hanging on for dear life, and asked if it was their first time sailing.   "Yes!"  they said, and we all dissolved into laughter.  The course included several 360's (sailing the boat around in a circle) and one of us had to swim to the mark boat and drink a beer at the end, so goodness only knows what they would have thought of the experience by the time we arrived back at the dock.

The entire day was jammed with activities, music, beer and a BBQ, and all the proceeds went to the hospital. There is a group of Canadian archaeology students here at the moment, from Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, BC, Canada) and they joined into the spirit of things by dressing up in nurses outfits, cooking at the BBQ, serving drinks, and being auctioned off to perform various other duties, all of which was very entertaining.  The day raised over $4,500 and one of the projects will be to paint the hospital, with the paint supplied by the local hardware store at cost.  So we are happily settling into cruising life again.  We took a couple of days out at one of the islands to unwind, made friends with some of the local boys who were out fishing and gave them some hooks.  They offered us the fish they had caught, but we suggested they keep it for their dinner.  So they paddled back from their village later, which was quite a long way, with lemons and coconuts for us.

To us, this is the world as it should be!

Credits to -
Pictures of Vava'u & Mermaid Café

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