Date First Posted: September 7, 2006
Log Entry Start Date - August 23, 2006
Log Entry End Date - September 7, 2006
Location Covered - Vava'u, Tonga
Present Location: Neiafu, Vava'u, Tonga
Latitude: 18 deg 39.6 N Longitude: 173 deg 59.1 S
Weather: Thick clouds, fog, rain, thunderstorms
Distance covered since last entry: 20 nautical miles
Total distance traveled since departure from Antigua: 8034 nautical miles
Commentary:
We arrived in Tonga an hour before sunset, having left at first light the day before. We had asked for a specific weather forecast since a front was expected to pass through Tonga around the time we would arrive. We were assured we would have southeast winds all the way. Naturally the forecast was wrong and in the middle of the night the wind shifted 180 degrees as we went through an area with a lot of heat lightning and rain. For us that means changing a lot of lines as we jibe (shift our sails from one side to the other), and doing it at night takes a bit longer as we wear our safety harnesses and lifejackets. We made pretty good time all the way except for a counter current that cost us about a knot of boat speed, meaning we had to run the engine for a while to keep up with our target speed.
Arriving
in Tonga brought back memories of our last visit. The Vava’u archipelago is
near the northern end of the country, about 100 miles or so north of the
capital of Nuku’alofa. Most of these islands are relatively flat, but rise
to about 500 feet with cliffs on the north side of the main islands. The
entire area is filled with protected anchorages and deep water and as a
result is one of the premier cruising areas in the Pacific. We think it
looks very similar to our favorite cruising grounds in the Great Lakes, the
North Channel of Lake Huron, except that the water is warmer and there are
palm trees instead of pines. The main town of Neiafu sits in a completely
enclosed bay that many boats use as a base even during the hurricane
season. There is a large charter sailboat base here, along with several
waterfront restaurants, bars, internet cafés and dinghy docks. The harbor
itself is very deep and is filled with moorings provided by the various
shore based businesses.
Clearing in through quarantine, immigration and customs was a bit of a hassle as you are required to tie alongside the commercial wharf and wait until the officials feel like visiting. Officially the cost to enter the country is low, but many of the officials feel comfortable “asking” for gifts. We got by with only a beer for the agricultural quarantine officer and a length of rope for the customs officer’s horse.
Since
our last visit in 1997, we estimate that there are three to four times the
number of boats, and at least twice as many shorefront businesses. At the
same time, the town looks a bit more ragged, perhaps due to shops that were
damaged during the last hurricane that were never repaired or reopened. The
most prevalent businesses are small grocery stores, maybe a dozen or more in
the space of a couple of blocks of “downtown”, some run by Chinese
immigrants. It took us nearly two weeks to find the one store that sold
paper towels.
As one of the main sailing hubs in this part of the world, it seems that we have come to know dozens of the boats moored off the town or cruising these waters. We could arrange social activities every day of the week with different groups of friends. In fact, we recently had dinner with friends on Halekai, a boat we last saw in Ecuador. There are also a few “megayachts” here, 80 to 100+ foot sailboats with lots of professional crew. The locals are all very friendly, especially at places like the Aquarium, which became our favorite Internet cafe. They help making any kind of arrangements you need, and feature pretty good coffee, breakfasts, and lunches.
One of the issues of concern here has been the health of the king of Tonga. He has been very ill and reportedly in a coma in a hospital in New Zealand. Although none of the locals are prepared or are comfortable talking about it, some seem to expect the king to pass away very soon (he is relatively old), and it is likely that the country may be nearly shut down during an extended period of mourning. There is also a bit of controversy over his successor. We were told that the crown prince is not really interested in becoming king (he is about 60 years old and happy to manage his business interests which would be difficult as king), while the crown princess might be a better choice. She is also quite the business person, apparently owning or controlling the countries communications company, airline, and other key activities. The alleged extreme wealth of the royal family contrasts sharply with many of the citizens. In any case, we hope the king recovers. We had gone to church with him in Nuku’alofa back in 1997. He sat in a special section behind the pulpit, while we were in the front row of the church. We had hoped to see the crown prince one night as he was expected to have dinner at the restaurant where we were, however, he was delayed and hadn’t arrived before we left. We later ate dinner another night at a restaurant called the Sovereign which had been the residence of the crown princess some time ago.
Although
it would be easy to simply hang out in Neiafu for a long time, and many
cruisers do, the real reason for visiting Vava’u is to cruise the islands.
After a few days of provisioning, checking email, and arranging some minor
work for the boat, we headed out for several days of cruising. All of the
anchorages are only an hour or so from Neiafu, and most of the cruisers
refer to them by a number, based on a cruising guide sold by the Moorings
sailboat charter company. Out of the 60+ spots, we first went to #40, the
island of Ovalau, a perfect little uninhabited island protected by a reef on
one side. The sandy beach, good snorkeling, and secure anchoring made this
the favorite anchorage for the author of one of our guidebooks.
After two nights there, the wind picked up and blew very strong for several days, so we moved to anchorage #8 near the island of Nuku. On the shore we saw a horse roaming the beach, and the high bluffs to the east left us in a calm while the waves and wind elsewhere were pretty rough.
Our
next stop was anchorage #16, off the island of Vaka’eitu, one of the most
popular anchorages in all of Vava’u. Although there were several boats
there at first, including three large catamarans chartered by a group of 18
Australians, and the maxi racer Lion New Zealand, to our surprise, the next
night (a Saturday), found us alone in a bay that had been used as the
backdrop for travel posters for Tonga many years ago.
We
know it won’t be so quiet this next Saturday as two of the Neiafu businesses
are arranging a “full moon” party, with a BBQ, band, and bar on the beach.
There may be dozens of boats for the party. We were happy meeting the
Australians who gave us some contacts for our visit later this year, but
also having this idyllic bay to ourselves.
We
then moved on to #41, Mounu Island. Just past Ovalau, this island has an
"eco" resort run by a New Zealand family.
Their website is here. With only four fales (guest house
rooms), they can only accommodate around 8 guests at a time. We were told
that they offered a gourmet dinner, so we made reservations and took one of
their complimentary moorings. Better known than their food or resort,
however, is the fact that Alan, the owner, was the founder of the whale
watching industry in Vava’u back in 1993. We arranged to go out the next
day with him and his daughter Kirsty, and joined another cruising couple
from Switzerland.
This area is famous for the humpback whales that come here to breed and give birth to their young from August through November each year. They estimate that around 200 whales migrate here from Antarctica each year. We saw a couple whales at a distance as we first entered the channels between the islands as we arrived. Later we saw them swimming by in several of our anchorages. At times they were perhaps only one hundred feet away, and you can hear them blow as well as see their spouts and smell them as well.
Going
out in Alan’s whale watching boat was another story. The industry he
started here has expanded to around twenty boats, but we felt that Alan
would give us the best chance of getting close to the whales. Starting
around 10 in the morning we went around his resort island and headed toward
some open water. Within a half hour we came across our first whale, a male
that wasn’t very cooperative, diving every time we approached. After
waiting for him to resurface several times, we gave up and saw another whale
watching boat following a small pod of whales. We waited at a distance
until they left, as the rules that Alan and his competitors have established
only allow one boat to follow a pod at a time, and that they have to give
the whales a rest period before they reapproach them.
After
a while we began to follow the pod as it slowly swam toward a nearby island
and then out to open water. The pod consisted of a female with a calf, and
from one to three male escorts. It was fascinating watching the primary
escort act as a protector, chasing the others away. Our boat was able to
approach slowly and then cruise along with the pod for several hours,
literally only a few yards away from the whales. The calf seemed to be
playing, jumping completely out of the water (breaching) as many as 30
times.
The
adults would do tail flips, and wave their pectoral fins. On occasion an
adult would breach at a distance. The whales averaged 30 to maybe 40 feet
long, while the calf was already at least 10-15 feet long. They weigh about
one ton per foot, and although these aren’t the largest species of whales,
their size was astounding. At times they would swim directly under our boat
and roll over showing their white sides and belly.
This picture of a whale passing about 15 feet from our boat shows it waving its pectoral (side) fin. This appendage is about 16 feet long. You can also see the white underside of the fin and the white belly of the whale under water as it shows off to us.
Click here to see a video clip of the whales along side, spouting, and breaching.
The
highlight of our experience was actually getting in the water with our
snorkeling gear and watching the whales under water. Alan would drop us off
just ahead of the whales and Kirsty would swim with us as a group so that
the whales would swim past us. Seeing them that close alongside and
swimming under us was definitely the highlight of our voyage so far. It was
a special experience given that Vava’u is one of the only spots in the world
where you can swim with the whales.
We
learned a great deal from our trip. For instance, these whales only feed
for about 6 weeks every year, and then only down near the Antarctic. Alan
estimated that the females lose around 30% of their weight by the time they
finish feeding their calves 100 liters of milk every day for the months they
are around Vava’u. The whales start to breed when they are around 7 or 8
years old, and half one calf every few years. They live to be about 60
years old. Alan and Kirsty keep a log of all of their encounters and can
identify many if not most of the individual whales by their markings and
special characteristics of their fins. This picture shows Kirsty at
the bow of the boat as a whale passes just ahead.
Alan was hired by a BBC crew several years ago to make a documentary called the Blue Planet, and another crew was about to arrive shortly after we left. They will stay at the resort and go out to photograph and research the whales for about five weeks. We’re looking forward to when the next production is aired. The owner of the mega yacht that was anchored next to us at the resort had hired Alan for most of the days of the prior week so that they could also do a film production.
Alan was very interesting beyond just his whale expertise. He had been a professional fisherman and scuba dive master in New Zealand before bringing a large fishing and charter boat up to explore Vava’u. At one point his boat caught on fire and was lost, but he decided to stay in Vava’u and create his resort as an alternative to the slim choices on the main island and around Neiafu. He had been involved in some salvage operations including the salvage of a Swan 65 sailboat several years ago that went up on a reef. Kirsty was also interesting, having spent several years on a long line tuna fishing boat as well as working with the Formula One racing organization in New Zealand and traveling around the world.
After
our whale watching tour, we invited an Australian couple staying at the
resort to visit on our boat. Similar to most of the other Australians we’ve
met so far, they were very friendly and offered a mooring for us if we ever
got to Adelaide, their home town. He is an orthopedic surgeon that has
served as a brigadier in their military when needed, with assignments
recently in East Timor and previously during the first Gulf war. His vision
is to facilitate visits by senior medical staff to places like Tonga by
having yachts or luxury homes made available to them in exchange for
spending a month or so of free services. This would be in addition to the
short visits that many New Zealand and Australian doctors already make to
remote islands like Vava’u and communities in the outback of Australia.
We’ve now returned to Neiafu to prepare for our passage to Fiji. Besides laundry and provisioning, we’re trying to get some zippers repaired on our cockpit bimini and clear plastic side curtains. We asked the sail repair man if he could do it in one day since if it rains we can’t sit in our cockpit without them. He said he could and that it wasn’t going to rain anyways. That night the rain began and the next two days (without our bimini up), we had the heaviest and longest lasting rain since January. With strong winds, lightning and heavy downpours, we’re now sitting in our cabin watching videos instead of joining a group of cruisers onshore at a restaurant for a BBQ. We’re hearing boats calling around and canceling plans due to this unusual weather. Hopefully the weather will clear and we can get away by the end of the week.
We’ve begun listening into the “Rag of the Air” net, that is broadcast out of Fiji. The operator of this net tracks boats underway between Tonga and Fiji as well as those going west from Fiji. He also provides extensive weather information. He has also been reporting on an unusual “raft” made up of pumice (floating volcanic rock) that has been sighted along our expected path to Fiji. Although most of Tonga and Vava’u in particular consists of these rather flat, limestone islands, Tonga sits along a geologic rift going toward New Zealand that is very active. To the east of Vava’u is the Tonga trench, and area of water over 30,000 feet deep, while to the west are some volcanic islands. Just southwest (60 miles or so) of us is an underwater volcano that is continuously erupting, and from time to time creates a small island that later disappears. This volcano has been producing pumice that later floats into the Vava’u area. Apparently a very large mass turned into a pack that was 7 miles long and many feet thick. A sailboat going to Fiji passed into this at night and sort of ground to a stop for quite some time. The pumice is too light to cause any holes in a boat, but being very abrasive would ruin the paint near a boat’s waterline.
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