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Monday, Oct.20, 2003 (West of the dateline!) Hunga harbour, Vavau Group, Kingdom of Tonga
Dear Friends and Family: Craig is writing you for a change -- usually these updates are written by Barbara. We are cruising in beautiful Vavau, but spending a lot of the time listening to weather forecasts. Our friends Reggie Good and Barbara Bates have been with us about a week now, getting some time in paradise before the passage to cold climes in New Zealand. |
 Port Maurelle anchorage (Moorings #7) |
| Vavau is a wonderful
collection of islands with many protected anchorages, somewhat reminiscent
of Desolation Sound, British Columbia, but with warmer water and Polynesian
locals. Since the capital of Tonga, Nukualofa is not as nice a cruising
stop, all of the folks who have been following the "Coconut Milk Run" are
collected here at the end of the season, poised to head South to Kiwi land
or west to Fiji to weather the upcoming cyclone season. The weather reports have been on our minds since a big low spawned near New Caledonia and is headed SE, due to cross the path to New Zealand in two days. 30-35 knot gales and 12-16' seas are predicted to precede it to the SE. The local radio net's weather reporter this morning said "This looks as bad as I have seen, folks, so just stay put." Of course we have seen 30 knot winds many times on this trip, but usually from astern as we sailed downwind. The prevailing winds here are from the SE, and that means our trip to New Zealand will probably start close-hauled. This would be extremely wet and uncomfortable, as we have all gotten accustomed to making downwind passages. As someone once wrote: "gentlemen don't sail to weather." |
 This is the Hunga entrance pass, as we were departing, a few days later. On the way in, with 30 knots blowing, there had been no picture takers! |
We were on a mooring at Neiafu, the local burg, for the last few days. This allowed us to buy supplies and visit another fascinating Tongan church service yesterday. I know more than a few Portland area choir directors who would dearly love to get the volume out of their regular choirs that virtually every member of the congregation sings here, just about raising the roof. But Neiafu is crowded with all of those end of the season boats, so we left our safe and convenient moorage buoy there to motor down the group to the outside entrance of Hunga. With 30 knots offshore, we headed into the impossibly small appearing pass, right between the 10' rock and the rocky shore (aka the hard place). But we powered through the 11' shallows with no mishaps. |
| Hunga is a long island, like a smaller version of Whidbey Island, with this enclosed bay in the middle. We checked out several anchorage sites, then visited the North end where there is a reputedly great lodge. There were some mooring buoys there, so we picked up a black ball upwind of the other 4 boats there. Actually, the evolution was much more entertaining than that: as Craig motored up to the buoy, Barbara hooked it but couldn't get it to the cleat as the boat had too much forward motion. In short order our telescoping boat hook telescoped to its 12' max length and wrapped around the curve of the hull before being abandoned. But it floats, and Reggie took to the dinghy to recover it and hand us the mooring pennant. |
 Hunga lagoon, looking back toward Hunga Village on the ridge at the left. |
| We had just shut off the engine, and
were getting ready to relax, when we noticed that we were rapidly drifting
onto the next boat downwind. We wound up motoring off the mooring, which was
still attached but dragging quite freely, narrowly passing between two other
yachts with their skippers looking on in consternation. After we got clear,
the lodge finally answered our VHF call and said that the black mooring
balls belonged to his neighbor and were only tied to old sunken logs! He
offered us another which he said was secure, but by then we had motored to
another part of the bay and anchored successfully. But the guy we almost ran
into, who was on another of the black buoys, lost no time in moving his
boat! A better thing to happen then than in the middle of the night, for
sure. A note on anchors for you sailors: we have four anchors and almost 1200' of various rodes, but the one we use every day is a SPADE S140. It is a new French design and has tested well in the tests of Practical Sailor. This one weighs about 65lb. and is one size larger than that suggested for our size boat. It have worked very well for us -- since March we have never tied to a dock overnight, and have only spent about 10 days on commercial moorings. We have had to reset in only several times in almost 100 sets. We also carry an aluminum version of the same anchor which we have used several times as a stern anchor, as well as a 45lb. Bulwagga and an FX-85 Fortress storm anchor. Our primary rode is 240' of 5/16" high-tensile chain with a 150' tail of 5/8" nylon; we are very glad to have all of that chain with all the coral we anchor around. We usually anchor in 25-65' of water with a scope of 3 or 4 to 1. Sailors notes aside, we will weather the low here in Hunga and wait for a window to head South. And if you are wonder where the title for this report comes from, it is because Reggie and Barbara have tickets home from Auckland that vaporize on November 10th, causing us to consider lots of different passage plans to get them there on time. But we (and they, too, fortunately) know that sailing at the wrong time to meet a travel schedule can lead to unpleasant and even dangerous results. |
| So, while we may skip
stopping at the interesting Ha'apai chain of Tongan islands and go directly
to Minerva reef (the common mid-passage rest stop on the way to New
Zealand), we won't go until the forecast is right! Of course, we may have to
check out the highly rated restaurant here in Hunga in the meantime... Bye for now from Craig and Barbara S/V Sequoia |
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