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A walk on the beach

by KC2RIY, on October 29th, 2010 (Recently Updated, Tonga)

The day ended up being a sunny one although the wind kept up it’s 20+ knot fervour. Around 9:30 we headed into the beach along a channel through the coral off our starboard beam. We dragged the dinghy up the beach and tied it to a tree not remembering well the time we lost it. The beach is just over 1km long, perhaps more if the tide was out.

We first headed north looking for possible places where the ruins of the prison would be. The interior of the island was dense foliage right up to the beach. We did see some propped up sticks at one point and we made a mental note of them as they may have been markers. At the northern end of the beach we were not far from the north western coast so we crossed the interior and came upon another beach on the far side of the thin end of this island.

This beach turned out to be another km long (I knew because I took my hand held GPS with me) which we also walked along. With some optimism we decided to cross the island through the interior. Here my GPS wouldn’t work except for one or two spots due to the overhead canopy. We weren’t able to get too far from the shore as the undergrowth got denser the further we went in. This was our chance to find the fruit trees mentioned in our guide. We soldiered on through the undergrowth sweeping away cobwebs as we went. We soon lost sense of direction although we didn’t know it. When we saw the trees thinning out we headed straight for the beach only to find it was the wrong one.

We walked back along the beach before again plunging through the interior, this time where the distance to cover was only 0.1 of a mile and taking a note of where the sun was. As luck would have it we made it back to the first beach right where we saw the two propped up sticks. We saw nothing to indicate why they were there. No prison ruins. No fruit trees.

We now walked south down the beach. We did find the prison ruins at the back of a small clearing. It turned out to be a concrete block looking more like a water cistern. There was some writing on the interior wall – perhaps from a prisoner but more likely graffitti. Next stop was to look at the wreck of a small fishing boat on the beach. Not as small as we imagined. Our guide book says a few people lost their lives when this boat foundered here in a storm. A somber reminder.

We walked as far south as we could before turning back and dinghying back to the boat where we hung out for the rest of the day making our onward plans.

Today we plan to head to Kelefesia, the southernmost anchorage in the Ha’apai group. It should be a pleasant stop with some shelter from this relentless wind. It will also shorten the trip down to Nuku’alofa as well as giving us an extra 10 degrees on the wind. After all these days of strong wind the ocean swell will be up so anything to make the ride a little more comfortable will be welcome. That means that we’ll be working our way up against the wind which is still coming form the east south east.

I made a mistake in yesterday’s blog. It turns out today (by our calendar) is our two year anniversary since moving aboard. Helen has started to write a perspective on the last year but has a bit of a block. We’ll need some patience.

Category: Recently Updated, Tonga | Here is my comment

Nomuku-iti

by KC2RIY, on October 28th, 2010 (Tonga)

With the weather still not looking terrific there was no desire aboard to stay at O’ua so we set our sights for Nomuku-iti. The sail there was somewhat brisk with the wind varying between mid 20s and low 30s. The latter half of the trip we had so sail close hauled (into wind) including crossing a section of water where we were exposed to the full ocean causing both Ben and Helen to feel somewhat queasy. During the roughest part of the trip we caught a medium sized mahi mahi which I duly gutted leaving the filleting to calmer waters. To get to our anchorage we had to tack many times. Each tack we got closer to land making the seas calmer and calmer. We finally anchored in the channel between Nomuku and Nomuku-iti close to the latter.

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As the afternoon progressed the weather improved. The wind didn’t subside but the sun came out – something we haven’t seen for many days. The air warmed noticeably too so I figure we’ve had something of a warm front go over although this is not apparent from any of the forecasts I’ve been looking at.

We’d agreed that if the weather improved we’d stay here a day and explore. There’s a wreck on the beach and supposedly the remains of an old prison camp. The island is uninhabited and supposedly there are many fruit trees inland. Although we have plenty there’s no harm in looking for more.

We’re back to being the furthest south of our trip. The previous record being Beveridge Reef. We hope the summer catches us as we press further south.

Today marks our two year mark aboard (I think). I’m trying to persuade Helen to write a year two perspective as her first year summary was well received.

Category: Tonga | Here is my comment

O’ua

by KC2RIY, on October 27th, 2010 (Sea Mist, Tonga)

Our trip into the village was somewhat of a repeat of the previous day. John picked me up at 6:30, we crossed the island, found Kaleb the lobster guy who told us he’d stayed up till 4am but noone came in with lobsters due to the weather. We are destined not to have them.

We decided to head for the island for O’ua. This time Helen helmed the boat off the anchor while Ben raised it. With the winds up around 20 knots this was quite challenging and they did well to do this. They followed up by raising the sails and getting us on our way to O’ua including having to tack twice to squeeze between two islands. Sea Mist left a little later and headed further south as they’ve decided to make a party down in Nuku’alofa which we’re not so keen on.

There are a few anchorages around O’ua and we chose the one to the north behind the reef but exposed to the wind.

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This had mixed blessings. The wind gen loved it and the reef protects us pretty well from the swell making it quite calm. The wind picked up and stayed in the mid twenties all day. It also rained heavily all day and into the night pinning us inside the boat. Had we chosen the anchorage to the west of the island we may have had a bit more protection from the wind. For the first time in a long time I set my spare GPS to alarm if we dragged but fortunately this didn’t go off overnight.

We collectively made a decision last night to favour more time in New Zealand rather than here. This may be influenced by the generally poor and cool weather we’ve had for the last few days. We’re slap bang in the middle of one good weather window down to New Zealand. Chances are we’ll take the next one which. The weather windows occur in cycles of 8-10 days as highs spill of Australia and head east. The boats that caught this one appear to have had a good ride. This has turned out to be very much a ‘La Nina’ year which means we should see reinforced trade winds as well as the weather patterns moving south earlier than normal. There is certainly evidence of this. The winds have been pretty strong recently. Looking at the wind forecasts for the north of New Zealand the westerlies have given over to easterlies as the trades have pushed down in late October – something I understand doesn’t normally happen until November. If this persists then the normal sail plan to head more west early on to catch the westerlies on the final leg gives over to sailing the rhumb line which makes the trip shorter and easier. We’ll see.

Category: Sea Mist, Tonga | Here is my comment

Lobsters?

by KC2RIY, on October 26th, 2010 (Gryphon 2, Recently Updated, Sara 2, Sea Mist, Tonga)

At 6:30am, John from Sea Mist dropped by and picked me up to go ashore. We trecked the 1/2 mile across the island to the village on the windward side to find the chap who bought lobsters from the overnight fishermen and sold them on. With all our luck finding them ourselves, this represented our best chance. It turned out the seas had been too rough the night before so noone had brought any in. So it turns out we can’t even buy them.

On the way back to the wharf we found Peter who had agreed to find us some fruit. After nearly a couple of hours of trekking through the plantations outside of the village we had a few bags full of lemons, mangoes and papaya. At the wharf we negotiated a price for it all and headed back.

During the morning I did a few minor projects. I tend not to mention this in the blog these days as I think it’s a little boring to write about and mainly I tend to forget about it when I get round to writing the blog.

Shortly before 12:30am John picked all three of us up to go ashore for the dinner we had been offered by Miimi in the village. Another trek across the island and we met up with Chris and John from Sara 2 and Lorraine and Chris from Gryphon 2. Cheryl and Ian from Sea Mist had stayed behind as neither were into sea food and we had been promised fish and lobster. On entering Miimi’s house we saw that our luck was in. There were indeed lobsters on the table. As seems to be the custom, the eight of us guests sat down to a prepared dinner while Miimi, her husband and other relatives were around. Two of them spent the entire dinner wafting fans to keep the flies away from us. The dinner was tasty and filling. At the end, after some conversation, we offered the gifts we’d all brought from our boats to Miimi who seemed quite pleased.

The afternoon, such that was left, was spent back on the boat generally relaxing.

Today we’ll definitely be moving on. Not without one more trip ashore to see if we can pick up lobsters today. You never know.

Category: Gryphon 2, Recently Updated, Sara 2, Sea Mist, Tonga | Here is my comment

Ha’afeva

by KC2RIY, on October 25th, 2010 (Gryphon 2, Kamaya, Leu Cat, Sara 2, Sea Mist, Tonga)

For our sail to Ha’afeva I again gave Helen and Ben a challenge. This was to determine the best route and plot this into the chart plotter. There was a choice of going around the north or south of the island and based on wind direction, etc. it was really up to them. They decided to go head sail only. With 20 knots of wind this was a reasonable thing to do. I performed my usual (for now) role at the helm to get us off the anchor but handed over to them to set the head sail, get us out from the reef and sail us over to Ha’afeva.

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On arrival we saw Sea Mist and Leu Cat here with Kamaya just raising their anchor. Behind us Sara 2 was arriving. The Sea Mists having been here 24 hours were just going ashore at the same time as we were so we ended up hiking the road across the island to the village together. In the village we found a chap who sells lobsters and agreed to pick up two each the following morning.

Later on during our walk around the village we were greeted by Miimi who invited us over to lunch the following day. We’d heard about this before and were half hoping this would happen. The custom is they invite us to lunch and we bring gifts from the boat. She promised us sea food, including more lobster.

On the way back we bumped into another local called Peter who I think wanted to invite us to lunch but on discovering we’d been invited by Miimi he offered us (probably to sell) some mangoes. We were interested but suggested we’d bring some bags the following day when we collected the lobsters.

Back in the dinghy we dropped by Leu Cat to say hello as we hadn’t spoken to them since Tahiti although we had seen them in Nieafu. As we eventually arrived back at Dignity we were offered a generous chunk of Wahoo from Griffon 2 who’d also just arrived. They’d caught a 36lb fish and had too much for themselves. That was turned into a delicious curry for the evening.

Right now I’m downloading the day’s weather forecasts while I wait to go ashore with John from Sea Mist to get our lobsters and mangoes.

Category: Gryphon 2, Kamaya, Leu Cat, Sara 2, Sea Mist, Tonga | Here is my comment
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