Tonga

Well Tonga is beautiful, such a shame we were delayed leaving NZ. Will definitely be back here. 

We checked it at the Ha'api Group but only had time for a few days there before doing an overnight sail up the Vava'u Group.

The ICA Rally had a pirate party at the Ha'api Beach Resort and the local school band and the Governor attended. I can only guess they were a little surprised at some of the antics of our fellow sailors, especially the scantily clothed wenches. The band were great and played lots of dancing music like La Bomba, Do you know the way to San Jose, some Beach Boys classics. as well as music for some traditional dancers.  It was lots of fun. 

We are in the Vava'u group and spent a night out on one of the eastern island anchorages, Kenutu. No villages there, it is used as a fishing outpost by the Tongans and has a lookout at the top of the hill which we clambered up to in the afternoon.  The lookout itself did not look very stable so we edged forward to the cliff top for a spectacular view of waves crashing on the reef below us and out to the south.   Sunset drinks at the beach on the sheltered side of the island and some fun running hermit crab races.

Although our time in Tonga has been all too brief we have experienced some spectacular anchorages, sampled some local culture and good times socialising with fellow rally boat crew.

The biggest banyan tree we've seen

Local transport with very friendly kids

One of the many churches in Vava'u

We have cleared Customs out of Tonga today and will be leaving for Fiji tomorrow morning Tuesday 20 June. The weather is looking like a fast lively 2 day trip and we should arrive in Fiji on Tursday into the Lau Group at Vanua Balavu.

Minerva to Tonga

It is so good to be a sailing boat again. We haven't had to use the motors since turning them off 7am yesterday and it looks like the wind will hold for us to sail all the way into Pangai this morning.

We left Minerva Monday afternoon around 4:30pm with another rally boat, Pixie from Sydney. Pixie is a 36ft mono and obviously has different sailing characteristics to us. By dawn Tuesday morning Pixie was over the horizon behind us and no longer showing up on AIS and by mid morning was longer on the radar. From that point on we saw no evidence of any other vessels out there with us, not visually, on AIS nor on radar. We were still in VHF radio range with Pixie and had morning and evening chats on each others progress, but apart from the radio contact you feel very much on your own in a big ocean. The reality is there were probably serval vessels within 100km of us.

Tonga sits on the Pacific fault line and has active submarine volcanos. The route we are taking from Minerva to Tonga takes us pass 2 of these, one of which has been very active lately with underwater eruptions producing new islands which only last a few months then break up and disappear back below the surface. Needless the say, these new islands are not on our charts. As we are coming passed at night we are giving the area a wide berth.

As mentioned in the previous post, we are having to control our boat speed to arrive at the start of the reef system in daylight with the sun fairly high so we can see the reefs and bommies. The charts, paper and electronic, for some parts of the Pacific are inaccurate as some are still based on surveys done in the 1800's if there haven't been more recent surveys done. This being our first time to Tonga we don't know how accurate the charts are so we are being very cautious, although we have heard that NZ has conducted extensive surveys in Tonga over recent years. The best navigational aid around reef is your eyes and they need the sun to be at the right angle to be effective.

Full moon is Saturday so our moon overnight has been very full and bright which is great while on passage. Last night there was little cloud cover so the moon lit up the ocean and you could see the swell and sea state which is far more preferable to those dark lightless nights where you can't see the swell coming at you, you just feel it toss you about.

We have just come in behind the outer islands so the sea swell has dropped and we have light rain washing the salt spray off the boat. It is another 15Nm (28km) to the start of the reef system and the rain and clouds are clearing. A prefect way to finish a ocean passage, to arrive with a salt free boat.

Minerva Reef

We arrived at North Minerva Reef and had the anchor down and set around 9:30am NZST Friday. At 9:40am we were swimming off the back of the boat. Water temp 25.4 degrees, very nice after the 18 degrees in the Bay of Islands when we left (not that we were swimming there).

The Minerva Reefs are interesting and it's quite surreal to be anchored there in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. There are two reefs North and South about 20Nm (37Km) apart and are 320Nm (600km) from Tonga. North Minerva Reef is higher than South and as such offers more protection from the ocean swell. North is almost circular with an entrence on the north west about 200m wide so quite easy to navigate through as long as there isn't a large swell running across the entrance. It is a relatively large lagoon, 3Nm north/south and 2.6Nm east/west (5.5 x 4.8 Km) We were travelling with another boat in the rally, Vivacious, and on their recommendation we anchored in the northern sector was turned out to be a good choice with regards to crayfish (more on that later). Once inside the lagoon you can anchor in most parts of the lagoon but as with all reef systems beware of coral bommies. We anchored in 10m of clear water over sand so no problem seeing the bottom. While we were there, at the peak there would have been about 20 yachts anchored in various parts of the lagoon. The attached photo of the helm station show the reef on the chart plotter.

The depths in this part of the Pacific are generally 2,000 - 4,000m. The reefs have steep walls and sit on an underwater platform about 500 - 800m deep. These must be old reefs as the top of the reefs are rock and sand unlike the soft coral reefs in Qld. There are corals on the sides of the reef but at low tide you can safely walk on the reef without damaging the reef system or yourself. Consequently reef walking is a popular activity at low tide.

The relative calm of the lagoon was an opportunity to do some essential repairs. Definition: "Cruising - Doing maintenance in exotic locations". Fixed the mainsail traveller, we can use the mainsail again. Fixed a newly found problem on the boom vang, a major problem averted. Adjusted both prop shaft seals. Prepared meals for onward passage tp Tonga. A load of washing done, yes domestic chores still have to be done no matter how exotic the location.

But it wasn't all work. There was time to socialise, shared bubbles Friday evening with Russ & Jane off Vivacious celebrating the passage to Minerva. It was Jane's first offshore passage so a second bottle was called for. Coffees and chats with fellow cruisers. Fishing, caught a nice spotted cheek emperor for dinner Saturday. Catching crayfish.

Crayfish are nocturnal so there are 2 main ways to catch them. One is in daylight hours, dive down the outside of the reef wall and look for them in the crevices, grab them with a gloved hand and pull them out. Sounds easy but the reality is on the outside wall of the reef you can get tumbled around in the swell, the crayfish are surprisingly strong and can really hold on to the rock wall of the crevice with their 8 legs and that powerfull tail is flapping about, all the time you are holding your breathe. The other way is at night, walking on the reef around low tide with a powerfull torch or lantern. When caught in the bright light, the crayfish stay still looking at the light with their eyes glowing bright orange. You can grab them with a gloved hand or use a hand spear to pin them to the bottom while you get hold on them. This takes place in about 20 - 30 cm of water. No prizes for guessing which method I used. Sunday night I went with friends, Lars and Maria off Alexandra around 8pm. Unfortunately, Lars and Maria's torches weren't powerfull enough to immobilise the crayfish but mine certainly was. I lost a couple initially caught off guard by how strong the tail is and how tight you have to hold them to get them up and into the bag. Once I had mastered the technique I managed to bag 5 crayfish, 2 of which we shared with Lars & Maria. I removed the tails and cut them down the middle and Ann grilled them in the oven. Delicious with salad in a wrap for lunch Monday and today.

We left Minerva yesterday, Monday, around 4:30pm and ETA in Pangai, Tonga is late Thursday morning. We were motoring in light winds overnight but have been sailing since 7am this morning. As usual we are timing our arrive and passage through the reef systems for good morning light after 9am. As such we a running the boat with reduced sail area to maintain a speed for that arrival.

Day 6 to Minerva

Another day motoring. Unlike yesterday which was no wind and oily calm, today we had light winds and a bit of chop so not as comfortable moving around the boat.

The wind picked up a bit in the afternoon and we were able to motor sail from 4pm to midnight. The boat motion is smoother with a sail up so it was a welcome change after days of just motor alone.

A lot of my spare time today was sorting out how to post photos to the blog. We were able to do it last year going to New Cal but since then the computer has had a rebuild with a new hard drive and all new software installed. The new version of the satellite communication software had different settings and the help manual was very basic without internet access. Obviously we got it sorted thanks to the help from Sherrie. I was able to send her test emails and advise her by SMS text and she would text me back the results. Now days we take that sort of communication for granted but today I was pretty impressed by it. I was in the middle of the South Pacific using satellite comms and Sherrie was on a train outside of Melbourne using her mobile phone.

Not long now. Expect to arrive at North Minerva mid morning Friday. It's now 3:30am and we are coming passed South Minerva and there is a cluster of lights from the boats anchored in there. Quite surreal. The moon is down so it has been a dark night and here in the middle of the ocean is what looks like a mini town.

Looking forward to getting the anchor down in North Minerva and having a swim in warm waters, fresh fish and a celebratory drink.

Here's todays sunset photo. Another special moment.

Day 5 Sunset (Repost)

As I said in the Day 5 update, the weather conditions yesterday with no wind and full high cloud cover created an eerie atmosphere. It also created a spectacular sunset.

Living on the water we get to see some amazing sunsets and sunrises and some are very special.

The silhouette of the yacht that came up while we were check the spinnaker can be seen in the darker photo. Pretty amazing when you consider we are hundreds of kilometers from land.

Day 5 to Minerva Reef (Repost)

Today we are about 1,000km from NZ. The wind has dropped out altogether and virtually no swell. The ocean had that oily sheen you get on very still days, plus we had almost total very high cloud cover which filtered the light adding to the eerie atmosphere. A prefect day to repair the spinnaker sock.

For the non-sailors, the spinnaker is a large sail, usually colourful, that is flown from the front of the boat when going downwind. It is not a sail that is permanently fixed in place like the other sails on the boat but is hoisted up the mast when being used. Being such a large sail it is difficult to manage while getting setup so it is contained in a sock while it is raised and lowered. The sock has rigid hoops top and bottom joined by a tube of light weight material. The sail is attached to the top hoop with points for hoisting the sail and the bottom hoop is also connected to the top by a system of ropes to slide the sock up and down over the sail. Once the sail is raised up the mast the bottom hoop is pulled up allowing the sail to open and be filled by the wind. To get the sail down pressure is released from the sail by easing the ropes the control the sail and the sock is pulled down over the sail so the sail can be lowered. Sounds like a simple process but Ann & I often struggle with it and can end up in a terrible mess when things don't go just right.

The damage to the spinnaker sock was in the bottom hoop. The hoop is made out of 3mm nylon board bent into a hoop with the ends joined and held together by a patch of 3mm board hand stitched on to both ends. The patch board is about 100 x 150mm and has split so the hoop has opened at the bottom but still joined at the top of the hoop and the join is now a V and catching the sail preventing the sock from coming all the way down.

The repair wasn't high tech but was effective. I removed the old patch board and use it as a template to cut and drill a new one out of an old flexible chopping board then hand stitched it in place.

Given there was no wind it was a prefect time to raise the spinnaker to test the repairs and to check we hadn't torn the sail when we were trying to lower it on Monday. So we stopped the engine and got the sail up while just drifting. Good result all round, the sail wasn't damaged and the repairs worked fine.

Footnote: We hadn't seen another boat all day and as we were getting the spinnaker down we see a yacht coming up behind us. Don't know what they would have thought seeing the spinnaker up in no wind. I know what I'd think ;-)