Blog June 1
#1 June 9
We are finally cruising, not just getting from A to B, but meandering from anchorage to anchorage when the whim takes us. In the evening we often have drinks with other cruisers and swap notes and stories. It’s taken about seven weeks to get to this point, so thank goodness we have several months here.

After taking delivery of our new dinghy named Atata, after the island where her predecessor was lost, we headed north. It also means “Ah tata (dinghy)” as in goodbye! We did our first two handed overnighter from Tongatapu to Vavau. I was sick the first day but then it was glorious sailing.

On arrival at Vavau we came into a bay full of NZ boats! It’s been very social.
Sitting here at Nuapapu, in the Vava’u group. The sun is just setting and we are drinking pina coladas made with coconut cream we made ourselves. This was no mean feat. We found coconuts in the bush and thought great, heaps of coconut cream..........that is till we tried to husk them. Us palangis are not very adept at these things. After much hacking we managed a few. We have since bought a decent size machete. I bought a local coconut grater that is a piece of wood with a piece of metal with teeth nailed to it. You cut the coconut in half grate out the flesh then squeeze it in a cloth. Divine.

School building at Matamaka Village in outer Vava’u. We spent the night anchored off this gorgeous village and in the morning went ashore to see who we could meet and what we could learn. But, apart from a few reserved responses to our greetings of “malo e lei lei” we failed to cross the divide. I felt a bit uncomfortable, like we were walking through people’s living rooms. Then we spied the school and correctly deduced that the conch blast meant lunchtime, that the teachers would be free and perhaps more willing to chat. The rest of the day was a treat. There were 2 teachers and one volunteer and all very keen to talk and explain things. We met some of the kids and in the afternoon joined in a beach cleanup. We were told about the coral garden they had created by transplanting bits of live coral to areas just down from the school where it had died and later snorkelled through it. It’s a very small enterprise but you can see the result. Impressive.

A couple of the boys zoomed up nearby coconut trees to offer us green nuts to drink. Another lopped off the tops with a machete as big as he was. When I asked the teacher how many fingers were lost doing this he showed me his missing digit. Clearly a regular event. So it seems we have a bit of an entree here and will return in a few weeks when school is back in.


The waterways of Vava’u are very deep close to and there are relatively few dangers.

Soren Larsen. This lovely old girl turns up just about everywhere we go. It could be 200 years ago.

#2 June 13
On arrival in Neiafu, the big smoke of Vava’u, there looked to be debris all over the water but on closer inspection it was flower petals, everywhere. It felt like we had flowers strewn across our path as a welcome.

Spent last night at a bar watching the All Blacks play Ireland with a bunch of kiwis; we could have been in a bar anywhere except the temperature was 26 degrees, there were no walls, fruit bats swooped through the coconut perfumed air, the bay was full of yachts from every corner of the globe and the satellite delivered TV reception was a little intermittent.

We went into town for two days to collect our dear friend Richard and reprovision. We’d been short of water so we filled every available container and have done our first decent loads of laundry. Yesterday I was folding strange things like jerseys, socks and woolly hats. When would we ever wear those?

Friday night we crewed on a boat in a local cruisers yacht race. Very light airs but heaps of fun.
I’m revelling in using local food. We are loaded up with coconuts, pawpaw, pineapple, bananas, cucumber, kumara, breadfruit etc., and the very occasional fish. We caught a small tuna this morning and will have sashimi for lunch. I have made marmalade with local lemons that I picked, and a pawpaw chutney.

Richard arrived with the makings of Margaritas so that’s our sundowners for the next week.
This morning we got email briefly, it’s so lovely to hear from home. Keep emailing and texting.
Off for a swim, again.


June 15
Here’s a typical day – at least we hope it remains typical. A slow start with coffee, a swim, some pawpaw and lime, up anchor and meander out of this bay heading to another anchorage we fancy – number 16 featuring the coral gardens. Trolling along the way yields a small tuna which becomes sushi – yum.

That's me in the rigging conning our way through coral shoals to a delightful spot among a few other yachts some of whom we know.


Wander along beach to check out the coral gardens which are exposed at low tide so no swimming.

On our return we find the path which leads to the ruins of a resort abandoned perhaps after cyclone Rena last year but lush now with limes, pawpaw, banana palms and hibiscus. We gather a bag of fruit and return to the boat for a quick swim and margaritas as the sun goes down on yet another glorious day.

#3
June 22
In Neiafu to drop Richard off but coincidentally to greet the 3 traditional waka that have sailed up her from NZ via Tahiti and Samoa. They were glorious vessels and got here solely on navigating by the stars.

We spent the last two days in a lagoon, a crater perhaps, on the island of Hunga.

The entrance

was very

narrow.

We visited a local village where the people, in particular the children were very welcoming. We bought some local vanilla pods and the children picked us a bag of real limes. Excellent for the margaritas. They invited us to watch the rugby, NZ vs. Wales on their generator powered communal Sky TV. Alas when we arrived we found that someone had died and a funeral was under way.

They sang through the night and from our yacht we

saw the funeral procession going to the graveyard in

the morning.

That night we visited a nearby fishing lodge for a drink and got a lot of interesting local information, including fishing tips, which greatly improved our catch yesterday. We trawled on our way back and got two tuna. We had sashimi, then seared tuna with tapenade, kumara baked in coconut cream and local beans.

Still at Tongatapu. We are hoping to head North to Vava'u tomorrow. We now have a local phone at much much better rates than the Telecom ones. It doesn't cost us anything to receive calls now and we can reply to your texts. The number is 00676 8798280. We are having a lot of trouble with getting onto our email.

I caused our delay here by the simple expedient of losing the dinghy - oh yes, the whole dinghy, motor, oars, gas can and pretty much all my self esteem. I am more chagrinned (is that a word?) than I can recall. There is, of course, a story to this sad and very costly event but, there's no way around it, I miss-tied it while on another yacht having drinks.

We were anchored opposite the lagoon entrance with a steady wind blowing directly out to sea. It was pitch black by the time we discovered the empty space where the dinghy was supposed to be. I have never before seen so empty a space. I realised then and there just how much I loved that dinghy. It was our connection to the shore, other boats and people, our method for exploring shorelines, lagoons and secret places, our vehicle for fishing and gathering supplies. Without it we were marooned.

We did scan a few metres of sea with a search light but it was rather obvious to us all that our dinghy had an unassailable head start on us of at least a couple of hours and was, in all probability, well on it's way to the Lau Group of Fiji.

The VHF station here has kindly broadcast this loss in the slim hope that it will be sighted but, apart from letting everyone in Tonga know that it was me that has done this fantastically stupid thing, we have had no good news. I spent a sleepless night berating myself - Janet is just so relieved that it was not her fault - and wondering how we were ever going to find a wee dinghy suitable for our yacht. It seemed we would have to have one flown up from NZ or Australia. But, to our amazement we've had several offers of 2nd hand inflatables and have gone with having a fibreglass one made. And more amazingly, it has taken just two days to complete.

We hope our trustly little dinghy will bob across the sea and be washed ashore into the arms a Fijian family who will love her as we have.