South Pacific « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Work Day 2

by steve, on September 17th, 2010 (Callisto, Sea Mist, Tonga)

Friday saw us all off on separate projects. I took Ben ashore to talk to the regatta organizers – he ended up staying with them for the day helping to set up the Full Moon Party on one of the other islands. It looks like a lot of effort is being put into this. I did some internetting ashore to sort some things out before returning to the boat and completing the reinstallation of the water maker. Helen cleaned up the entire inside of the port hull as the mildew had set in in a few places and it needed a good going over.

In the evening we met up with Callisto. We first had a couple of beers at the Aquarium Café before moving on to the pizza place slightly out of town where we had delicious pizzas. We left Jennie and Ben together in town as they were meeting up with Ian from Sea Mist. Leaving the dinghy for Ben and Jennie to get back Mike and Ann came to Dignity where we polished off another couple of bottles of wine before late retirement.

Ben woke us up at some unearthly hour. He’d spent some time at the karaoke bar and seemed to have quite forgotten he’d left as he was still singing along. Seems like they’d had a good time.

We were awoken this morning around 5am by a huge fire ashore. One of the guest houses had gone up in flames and people were already trying to contain the fire and prevent it spreading. Concerned about the boats anchored downwind of the fire I got in the dinghy and woke them all up in case embers landed on their boats somewhere. Small chance of a problem but a fire aboard is the absolute worst disaster. Noone was perturbed by the warning.

We learned later that no one was injured and only the guest house was damaged. The place where Ben had spent much time last night was right next door and had got badly scorched but it was in one piece and still open for business.

This morning I dropped Ben ashore as he is due to rehearse his part in the show and continue helping with construction. Helen and I (mostly Helen) have been cleaning the main cabin. I also visited the sail maker who I completely forgot to go to yesterday. He was close of course but the Moorings manager called him. Our sail is fixed but we have to wait until Monday to pick it up. We still have to make up our minds whether or not to stay here until the start of the regatta next Wednesday or take a break out to one or two of the nearby anchorages. Can’t do anything today as Ben is not aboard.

Maintenance Day

by steve, on September 16th, 2010 (Sea Mist, Tonga, Whoosh)

It was a slow start due to the night before. Our first task was removing the mainsail. It’s only the second time we’ve taken it off and I’d forgotten how much work this was. All the batons and reefing lines need to be removed which adds time. We discovered that two of the batons had cracked badly where the main tends to fold against the shrouds if it’s let out too far. They will need replacement sometime but for now we’ve duct taped them up.

Ben and I folded the sail on the foredeck, bagged it up then dinghied it ashore and schlepped it up to the sail maker. We should hear his prognosis today.

The next job was the water maker. It was pretty awkward removing it from it’s mount but we managed it eventually. The high pressure tube end cap came off fairly easily and we replaced the broken end with the new one. We reassembled the unit without mounting it for testing. One of the high pressure lines had a leak but not so bad that we couldn’t test the water output. It was fine so we ran it for a few hours for extended testing and, of course, replenishing our tanks.

We managed to acquire some plumbing compound from Jack on Whoosh which we later used on the compression joint that was leaking. This fixed that problem. When putting it all back together I managed to untwist the joint on the feeder line so this now leaks. I need to fix that but again it wasn’t so bad. We made more water and even ran a wash for the first time in a few weeks.

It was quite a delight to be able to run our taps again and even have showers in the evening.

Today I’ll have to reseat the leaking feeder line and remount the water maker. We need to go ashore today to stretch our legs and look around some more. Ben has a part in the full moon party next week. Apparently he’ll be dressing up as a skeleton and flying around on a zip line. There are rehearsals tomorrow and he wants to get the timetable for that today. He’s also arranged to go out on the town tonight with Ian from Sea Mist.

Neiafu, Tonga

by KC2RIY, on September 15th, 2010 (The Road, Tonga)

Our second day of sailing was fairly uneventful. The wind did gradually drop putting us into the edge of the zone where we could raise the Code Zero. We waited a long time before raising it not wanting to have to bring it down again soon, losing a few miles in the process. We did eventually raise it and took off at a much faster speed for a few hours. Shortly after dark the wind picked up rather quickly and we had to bring it down with a little bit of a struggle.

At dawn land was sighted. As we passed the north end of the islands the wind again dropped. This time we raised the main only to find it had torn – probably during the storm when we struggled to lower it. Fortunately there is a sail maker here who we’ll have look at the sail and patch it up ready for our trip to NZ.

Around noon we were tied up to the wharf here in Neiafu. Within moments we had three officials aboard (immigration, port captain and quarantine I think) to have us fill out practically the same information into separate forms. I was then asked to go ashore to get some cash to pay for their services. Leaving Ben and Helen aboard I took the short walk to the bank and obtained cash – and an ice cream for my troubles. I’d passed a fruit market so before going to the officials I let Helen know and funded her for a trip.

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Back with the officials I met the customs officer with whom I had to again return to the boat to complete paperwork. Then it was off to pay them all their various fees.

Once done and cleared into Tonga we found a spot to anchor amongst very many boats moored / anchored here. We soon were in touch with a few friends, quite a few of them leaving today/tomorrow for ports west.

We were keen to go ashore and were soon in the dinghy and on our way. We headed to the nearest bar, calling themselves the Vavau Yacht Club and tied the dinghy there. Our first stop was the Moorings base where we met the sail maker and agreed to drop the head sail off there the following day. Next it was the Aquarium Cafe where, with great delight, we picked up our water maker part.

We walked the main street to see what was there. We learned that the Giggling Whale had a string band and dancing that evening and booked a table. Feeling hungry with had a bite to eat further down the road. We discovered that the cell phone rates to the US were incredibly cheap so I bought a SIM card for our phone so we can sort a few things out soon. Neiafu is not huge but there seems to be things going on each night of the week so we won’t be short of things to do here.

We headed back to the dinghy and had a beer at the bar there before returning to the boat for a couple of hours. By the time we had returned to the Giggling Whale the place was packed. We managed to get the last table. The music was already playing. For a tip one could sit with the musicians and would be offered some cava – a local drink containing no alcohol but some mild narcotic which leaves the tongue a little tingly. Again there were a number of cruisers here we knew and we spent some time catching up.

The dancing turned out to be the young kids (4 til teens) from a nearby village who were raising money for their education. They did a number of pieces which were all very entertaining – especially the little kids. The dances were somewhat familiar with their hand movements for the women and more energetic dancing for the men. Noticeably, the bum wiggling apparent east of us was missing.

We all ended up having steak which turned out good. Around 9:30pm (very late for us, especially after a passage) we headed down the road to Tonga Toms to watch the (pronounced) Faka Ladies although I understand it is spelt ‘Fake’. We met Shirley, Taffy and Colin from The Road here – another boat leaving Thursday. The ‘ladies’ took their time to start their show so we enjoyed the atmosphere and a few more beers. Ben found some folks his own age and was able to get away from us for a bit. The show was a series of individual acts by large chaps frocked up. Their antics made the crowd wild with more than a little wondering around the audience. It was a lot of fun.

It was nearly midnight by the time we were back aboard the boat and it took us only seconds to sleep.

Today, once our headaches subside, is a work day. We have to remove the mainsail and take that to the sail maker. The we have to fix the water maker which could be a small or large job depending on ease of access, etc. We’ll see. There are other small bits and pieces to sort out too which we should get on with.

Last day in Niue

by KC2RIY, on September 12th, 2010 (Niue, Trim)

Saturday was a tidy up and rest day. More so for Ben as he was a little hung over from the night before. Helen and I along with Ken from Trim dove “The Chimney”. It turned out to be a great experience. Helen encountered four snakes (she was counting) and easily kept her distance. After an initial wrong turn we found the entrance to “The Chimney” at 90ft. After a short horizontal stretch the chimney rose up to about 20ft. It was narrow and full of nooks and crannies, a sort of upwards Alice Through the Looking Glass experience. Ken kindly refilled our tanks so we’re good to go on our next dive.

We did go ashore to fill our water jugs and to pay off our tab at the Niue Yacht Club. We ended up with NZ$5.40 after everything so we bought a couple of ice creams to blow the rest.

We are now en route to the Vava’u Group in Tonga. It’s a 250nm passage practically dead down wind. We’re taking it easy with the head sail up only which will allow us to arrive some time Wednesday.

The timezone in Niue is UTC-11. In Tonga it is UTC+13. That means our clocks won’t change but our calendars will. We will lose a whole day. That’s how a two day passage takes three calendar days.

Snake Gully

by steve, on September 11th, 2010 (Freezing Rain, Infinity, Mariposa, Niue, Tanaya, Trim)

We all headed ashore shortly after 7am. Already at the quay were the folks from Mariposa, Freezing Rain, Trim, Tanaya as well as Anna from Infinity who was celebrating her birthday by taking the dive. They’d all been told to be there by 7am whereas we’d been told 7:30am which turned out to be the correct time. Helen stayed in town to clear us out of Niue as we intend to depart Sunday.

The rest of us were all taken to the dive center in their trucks to be briefed and kitted up. We were then taken, along with the dive outfits dinghies to the sea ramp/crane a mile or so south. On the water we were taken to our first dive close to the Matavai Resort where we stopped for the first time in our rental car. The dive was fairly average. Our maximum depth was 94ft and the highlight was a lot of intricate corals not affected by the cyclone that swept through here a few years back. While on this dive we were accompanied by whale song off in the distance.

After a rest stop we dove on “Snake Gully” which turned out to be a fantastic dive. As expected there were quite a few snakes (kraits really) in and around a gullied area. The kraits are extremely poisonous but have tiny heads and are very docile. They seem unperturbed being stroked or even held. The second part of the dive was to visit a cave and an underwater canyon, both of which were superb. The cave required us to swim into a dark labyrinth reaching an end chamber full of lobsters floating around in the water. As we were in there the sun came out and shone through small gaps in the ceiling – all very cool.

Back on Dignity we treated ourselves to a full English breakfast even though it was now early afternoon. We rested up a couple of hours before Ben and I decided to explore the “Bubble Cave” to our south. We’d had directions to the cave from Jackster and had heard that there were lobsters in the cave and that they may be accessible without dive gear. As it is illegal here to hunt lobsters with scuba gear it did seem tempting (and sporting) to give it a go without.

We dinghied over to the dive mooring balls and tentatively made our way in. We were extremely cautious swimming each underwater section to each surface access. In hindsight none of the stretches were too difficult but one never wants to go beyond half way and run out of breath. It was a little more difficult carrying torches and the spear gun. Towards the back of the cave was a section we could surface in and right at the back in a narrow section were a few lobsters. They were unruffled by our presence until the first took the spear between its eyes. We left it safely on a rock before trying for others. The original cluster had dispersed and were now harder to find. Even as we hunted the swell in the area we were in was picking up. We managed to snag a second lobster before calling it quits as we were being swept in and out of the narrow areas and the sharp coral was starting to leave us a little scratched up. We tucked our torches into our swim shorts and made it back out of the cave with a lobster each.

Later we boiled these two beasties up and ate them with soy sauce and wasabi. We’ve certainly seen bigger lobsters but these were meaty and delicious. As Helen is not a big fan of lobster, Ben and I had most of them. Yum.

We spent the evening aboard Infinity where they were celebrating Anna’s birthday. Infinity is a 120ft ferro cement vessel with a rotating crew of all sorts. They work hard but it looks a lot of fun. They certainly know how to enjoy themselves. This was Helen and my first time aboard but not for Ben. We were given a tour of the boat and were welcomed into the celebrations. For a bit more info on Infinity and what they are about, here is their website.

Today, all three of us plan to dive “The Chimney” nearby and perhaps revisit the “Bubble Cave”. We’ll clean up the boat and leave for Tonga on Sunday morning. We expect it to be a two day sail arriving on Wednesday. Sounds wrong? Perhaps you can work it out.

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Work Day 2

Maintenance Day

Neiafu, Tonga

Last day in Niue

Snake Gully