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by KC2RIY, on October 21st, 2010 ( Marquesa, Sea Mist, Tonga) 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.
by KC2RIY, on October 20th, 2010 ( Recently Updated, Sara 2, Sea Mist, Tonga) 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.
by KC2RIY, on September 25th, 2010 ( A Cappella, Anthem, Bamboozle, Callisto, Desue, Freezing Rain, Imagine, Inspiration Lady, Jackster, Kamaya, Mojo, Paleides, Passages, Scream, Sea Mist, Tonga, Trim, Tyee, Visions of Johanna) The Jackster’s showed up and anchored next to us around midday. We soon had them over to share our experiences of the last few months as well as abandoning our plans to hoist the main sail in favour of a few beers.
Around 6pm we headed ashore to Ano Beach for the ferry service to the Full Moon Party. Sadly, the ferry service was the weak link of the whole evening requiring some folks to wait over two hours for their turn to board and make the passage round to the party. Fortunately we made it over on the second one out so we didn’t have to wait too long.
The party was a lot of fun. A lot of the people we have previously mentioned on our blog were there. Most people on their way to New Zealand this year are either now in Tonga or soon to be arriving. I’m probably missing a few but those that we can put our heads together and remember are : A Cappella, Anthem, Bamboozle, Callisto, Delos, Freezing Rain, Imagine, Inspiration Lady, Jackster, Kamaya, Mojo, Paleides, Passages, Scream, Sea Mist, Trim, Tyee & Visions of Johanna. There were many others and we made some new acquaintances along the way.
A lot of effort had been put into things including three 10 minute shows of which Ben played a part (dressed as a skeleton) in the first and third. Not everything went smoothly but it was all appreciated.
We didn’t get back until after midnight. We didn’t see Ben until the following morning around 11am which I saw him on the ferry. I dinghied over and he jumped in the water to avoid the trip to the beach. He hadn’t slept at all having had the beer and food go free around 3am and partying into the morning followed by helping to clear up.
We have some pictures, courtesy of Ann from Callisto, which will be posted when we can get a connection.
Tomorrow the fun continues so we’ll be off early round to Neiafu.
by steve, on September 23rd, 2010 ( Sea Mist, Tonga) Day two was hard and fast. The morning saw us entering the corn hole tournament. Just a bit of fun really but it ended up being quite tense. I ended up partnering John from Sea Mist and made it all the way to the final losing by a whisker. We played five long rounds in all which took, including a long break in the middle, about 4 hours.
 We rested the afternoon building our strength up for the fancy dress pub crawl. Looking amongst all the gear on the boat it was hard to come up with anything really innovative as we’d got rid of all  our junk coming onto the boat. We visited 10 pubs in all have at least one drink in each. The last stop was Tonga Bob’s where we stayed on dancing until we could last no longer (at least Helen couldn’t). When we returned to the boat we were shocked to discover it was already 2am.
This morning we were all hung over – what a surprise. I put it down to the dehydration during the corn hole contest.
This morning we forced ourselves out and about despite our resisting minds and bodies. Ben is back working on and rehearsing for the full moon party tomorrow. Helen and I visited a local kindergarten and watched the kids singing away for us.
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.
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