Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Category: Cruiser Connections

  • Uoleva

    Before we left Pangai I did one more trip ashore to do some final internetting, buy some more phone time and get some bread. On the way back I saw a tent set up and underneath they were cooking chicken dinners. I managed to get a nice pile of chicken for about 5 bucks which I took back to the boat for our brunch.

    Shortly after we raised the anchor and, with the trade winds reasserting themselves, hoisted the sails for our 5nm sail to Uoleva.

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    Already in the anchorage were Sympatica and Visions of Johanna. Behind us, coming to the same anchorage, was Sea Mist – even though we’d not discussed our plans. Somehow we ended up snoozing much of the afternoon. Bill from Visions borrowed our hookah to clean his bottom as well as inviting us, the Sea Mists and Sympaticas over for cocktails later. Although we came here for a nice walk along the beach we never found the time to do it.

    We had a good evening aboard Visions – Bill being liberal with the rum cocktails. We got the usual boat tour which was quite amazing. Bill had designed a lot of the interior himself. The boat is a whopping 62ft long but he’s laid out the interior for convenience rather than packing in as many state rooms as possible. His engine room is a picture of redundancy.

    Not sure what we’ll do today. Maybe we’ll go ashore or perhaps just push on. Maybe both.

  • Crawshaw Shoals / Pangai

    A pretty interesting day was had yesterday. We left our previous anchorage and headed out to sea for about 4nm in a SW direction to a sea mount called Crawshaw Shoals where we’d heard other had great snorkeling/diving. It took us a while to find a decent patch of sand to drop the hook but we finally found something in 50ft of clear water. We didn’t need to put too much chain down because there was hardly any wind or current.

    We soon had the hookah out and all three of us went down to explore the reef. The area had the most abundant corals we’ve ever seen going on forever with sandy channels running in between the hills of coral. There were the usual nooks and crevices to peer into but no lurking lobsters nor any large fish. All the same it was a pretty interesting underwater excursion. For those remotely interest the lat/long where we anchored was 19 deg 42.96′ S, 174 deg 20.37′ W.

    Out of the water we ate our lunch before moving on to Pangai where we had to obtain our clearance for these waters.

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    We knew we wanted to do some internetting ashore and also eat out so we waited til 3pm before going ashore. By then Sea Mist showed up for the same reason as well as Marquesa. As luck would have it we all arrived at the dinghy dock together and walked to the government offices as a group. Clearance was simple and cost free which was nice.

    We then toured the town for all of a few minutes looking at the few shops that were open. We ended up at Mariner’s Cafe and sat down to beers and time on the computer. After 5 we ordered our food which was simple but enjoyable.

    Back on the boat we only managed two more episodes of Prison Break before having to crash.

  • Ha’ano

    Ben woke with stomach pains which put a dampener on his day eventually ruling him out of the things we had planned. In the morning Helen, myself and John from Sea Mist went ashore to stretch our legs. Having asked a local who informed us we could walk north or south and that either was much the same we chose to go north. It almost felt middle aged with the town surrounded by a fence with gates on the roads through which we had to pass to leave. We walked north along a straight track with lush vegetation on either side, often semi cultivated with plenty of fruit trees. We reached the next village to the north which again was surrounded by a fence and gates. We guess this was to keep the pigs in which roamed freely within each village.

    Passing through this next village and past a pack of somewhat brave (until we got near them) dogs we found a small trail down to the beach/coast. We walked the beach for a while before finding another, longer and run down path which took us back to the trail joining it just before the gate to the second village. We walked back to the first village collecting a few mangoes on the way which were reached by Helen sitting on my shoulders. Back in the first village I picked up a few extra mobile phone minutes. It always feels strange in a village in the middle of nowhere being able to top up the phone although I do understand it’s easier and cheaper to install mobile phones these days than a land network.

    We were back on the boat in time for lunch and a short rest before the afternoon events. We’d planned on getting the hookah out and we’d extended and invitation to Sea Mist to join us. Ian and John responded and with Ben out of action and Helen feeling ambivalent due to the mediocre weather it ended up with the three of us out for just over an hour. Underwater we felt none of the rain that fell. We saw plenty of fascinating corals, not too plentiful fish and explored some caves/channels. I took my small spear gun in case we found lobsters in any of the numerous nooks and crannies but none were peeping out.

    Helen cooked up a curry for dinner and as we were settling down John dinghied over from Sea Mist as the one other boat nearby, Sara 2, was having difficulties raising their anchor. The winds were predicted to rotate round overnight and they had been trying to move to get further from the reef. In doing so they’d discovered their anchor was tangled in the coral and had jammed their windlass. John had got involved and figured we needed numbers and muscle to get them shifted before the light fell. John went to fetch his son, Ian, to go underwater and free the anchor while John and I went aboard Sarah 2 to assist. We soon figured out the windlass wasn’t broken and got that going again. With Ian in the water direction our motions and occasionally diving down to free up the chain/anchor we were soon off. I took my leave and zipped off back to Dignity to finish my cooling curry. We capped off the evening by polishing off 4 more episodes of Prison Break. We’re over half way through now.

    Today we’re out of here. One could easily chill for days here but there’s lot to see and time is running out. The weather windows form a pattern that seems to repeat every 10 days or so. There’s a weather window opening up right now and some vessels are already legging it south to catch it. Their should be another at the beginning of November. I suspect we’ll catch the one after that.

    We learned from Sympatica, over the radio a couple of days ago, that there is an excellent sea mount 3nm away from us. We may well visit that later this morning before heading back to a new anchorage.

  • Arrived in Ha’ano

    During the morning I visited Scream to lend Darusha my eBook where I had made annotations on her book. She is a science fiction writer and I’ve just finished reading her three books, the final one that she’s only just finished. She had welcomed my feedback on typos so my visit was to share these with her. I really enjoyed reading her books – particularly as it’s the first time I’ve read an author I knew personally. If you’re interested in them her books are published under the name ‘M Darusha Wehm’.

    With light winds forecast overnight we (I) decided to leave before dusk. Good job we did as the anchor chain had fouled on some coral heads at 60ft. We only got out by sending Ben down with scuba gear on to untangle the chain from three coral heads. With that behind us we were still able to make it out of the bay and through the pass before it got dark.

    And then the fun began. As soon as our radar was able to peer beyond the bay we’d been in we saw rain clouds all around us but mainly off to our starboard and slightly ahead. The winds were still very light so we motored to give us time to assess. We learned that although the wind was blowing from our port, the weather systems were moving from right to left. We dodged the first path of rain welcoming the increased wind on it’s far side. We raised the sails and killed the motor and sailed through the night. On my 8-11pm shift I ran into another rainstorm 6-8 miles across which I could not avoid. I reefed the main and plunged into it. This was to be the worst rain I’ve ever sailed through. While I stayed moderately dry in the cockpit I was still getting wet from the rain curling in over the bimini so I spent the latter half of my shift inside the cabin going outside to check the radar every 10 minutes.

    The rains subsided before I handed over to Helen but both she and Ben experienced similar weather during their shifts. A very wet night. I began my 5am shift by noticing that Sea Mist were on our tail making a lot of speed. I contacted them on the VHF to learn they were motor-sailing with the same destination as us in mind. We had a brief chat and continued on our way.

    Helen woke early and I asked her to cover me as I was tired having had very little sleep during my time off. I managed a short nap before the winds fell and Helen woke me to start motoring. The rest was uneventful. We’ve anchored in a beautiful spot of of Ha’ano. The water is beautifully clear with some interesting reefs nearby. After we’ve rested we’ve plenty to do.

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  • Not a lot

    Another day of doing fairly little which is in keeping with Tongan tradition for Sundays. Ben and I did go for a snorkel outside of the pass and in the evening we visited Darusha and Steven aboard Scream for dinner. There we were introduced to the card game “Fluxx” which we enjoyed immensely. We rounded off the evening with a heated argument (largely among the Southwoods) about the nature of free will. That’s what you get from too little to do and perhaps a tad too much rum.

    It’s getting likely that we’ll be heading south within the next 24 hours. Winds are currently light and getting lighter so we may even leave before dark for a very slow passage.