Heading South from Vava'u

Hello to all,

We left the Vava'u group of Tonga on Sep. 30th. We had a great time there despite some very 'unsettled' weather during much of our stay. "Unsettled" is the term the South Pacific weather people like to use to describe rain, more rain and blowing like stink. The night before we left Neiafu there were gusts over 60 knots and we had continuous winds over thirty knots for nearly 20 minutes. This was in a very well protected anchorage. Of course by the time we left the group it was dead calm and we motored all the way down to Ha'ano in the Haapai Group. At least it was a beautiful day. And we caught the biggest fish of the trip so far. It was a 62" Yellow Fin tuna and it was quite the fight. Luckily it was calm enough to maneuver the boat while the fish fight went on and we tried to board the beast. When we finally got him gaffed he was too heavy to lift over the life lines so we tied a rolling hitch to the gaff with a spinnaker halyard and used a halyard winch to hoist him up and over. He was probably over a hundred pounds. There will be pictures to follow when we get internet access again. We've been giving away fish to everyone. We'll never eat it all even though it's absolutely delicious.

As far as we know there's one computer in the Haapai group and it's dirt slow on the net. This letter is coming via HF/sailmail. However, the Haapai group islands are very beautiful. It's a combination of the low lying palm tree lined beaches of the Tuamotuos and the slightly more raised and rugged Vava'u group. The villages and the one real town, named Pangai, are very quiet and rural but a little better organized and seemingly more prosperous than the out villages in Vava'u. Things here are very basic. There are several churches, a couple small groceries and one 'cafe' with that computer I mentioned. There are a few very remote and quiet resorts which tend to be very nice but the kind of place where the customers think they're the only people in the world who know about it and everyone wants to keep it that way. We have the place pretty much to ourselves but there are two other boats now in Pangai, the capitol, of Haapai. We initially anchored in Ha'ano and spent one night there but again it began blowing really hard and backing around to put us on a lee shore. So we pulled anchor (really fun in those conditions) and headed south to Foa where there was better protection. We spent a couple days there and then moved here to Pangai this morning. We're here with 'Free Spirit' and 'Be Be' and they are very good company. The anchorage is excellent and although there are plenty of reefs surrounding us I described this to Janet after I dove the anchor as the "perfect set". And what is the perfect set? We're in 18 feet of clear water above smooth white sand. The wind is holding us offshore and the shore reef is 200 yards to windward. The offshore reef is a good quarter mile to leeward. The 3/8" anchor chain lies for a hundred feet straight ahead without a lump of coral in sight and the 55 pound Rocna is half buried in nice sand. It don't get much better than this. Now if the wind would calm down (still blowing 20-25 knots)we could really enjoy this sunny afternoon.

The plan from here is to head for New Zealand. We'll wait for a weather window and depart from wherever we happen to be when it looks good for the 1100 mile voyage. We contract with Bob McDavitt of the New Zealand meteorological service for weather forecasting. In his latest mini update he thought it might look good for a departure on the 8th. We'll see. We can get fairly good weather info off HF radio but I feel better on a long trip having the local weather expert, and that's very much what Bob is, telling me what I'm seeing and analyzing is or is not what I think.


Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream

Good Times In Vava'u

Hello to all,

It's been a very social time here in Vava'u the past couple weeks. Just about everyone we've met along the coconut milk run has congregated in Tonga although a few boats chose to go to Fiji and a few boats have left for Haapai. We've been racing on Fridays and doing well although we can't seem to actually win outright. There is always some big boat or two which is just too darn fast to beat boat for boat. We console ourselves that if this was 'real' racing with any kind of handicap system we'd be well ahead of the game. Of course, what would happen with the boats who are slower and have correspondingly greater handicap ratings than us? Best not to think about it. We've had only one casualty. Glen from "Tin Soldier" who crews for us trimming the traveler got whacked by the mainsheet when the boom came over in a jibe. Luckily there are a couple doctors in the fleet. A few stitches here and there and he was racing again with us next week. And watching the main sheet very carefully!

We've spent more time in the 'big city' of Neiafu than we planned. We were waiting for our new windlass to be delivered. This is not such a simple matter since it came by air from New Zealand to Tongatapu and then by the weekly ferry from Tongatapu to Neiafu. This has been known to take awhile. For us it worked just fine and after a little discussion with the customs officials, very gentlemanly and sweet, and the exchange of some cash in the form of a 'use tax' we had our new windlass. A few hours of wiring, hammering and bolting and, low and behold, it works as advertised! I feel now my fingers and feet have a much better chance of survival than had we tried to continue with the previous old beast.

The weather has been a bit of a disappointment. Just too much rain and overcast. We could have been in the Pacific northwest if it were about ten degrees cooler. That system does now seem to have finally broken down and we've had some sun and we're looking forward to more.

We went whale watching and swimming with Humpback whales a few days ago. It was a really rough day so they were on the move and we only got in the water a few minutes with a cow and a calf. Still very impressive to be snorkeling along with a forty foot beast and her ten foot calf. Day after tomorrow we plan to head south to the Haapai group and spend at least a few days there. Then we go a little further south to Tongatapu and the capitol of Tonga, Nuku'Alofa. From there we shove off for New Zealand. So this is the beginning of the third phase of the season for us. We did the passage to Polynesia, we have crossed much of Polynesia and now we leave Polynesia for New Zealand. There are certainly mixed feelings about this. We have already said goodbye to some good friends who we may not see anymore. There's the feeling that we won't be coming this way again and that we haven't done all we should have done. There's the thought that we're letting 'time' and 'insurance criteria' (the insurance companies require boats to be out of the tropics during the typhoon season) run our lives. But there's also the desire to move on. And desire to meet friends in New Zealand. And, the truth be told, the desire to actually come back to our home for a while and see family and friends and cats.

Love to all,
Bill & Janet

Life Around Vava'u Tonga

Hello to all,

My apologies for the length of time since our last update. Could it be we've been having a pretty good time in Tonga? Yep, 'tis true, and since we survived yesterday's weekly 'friendly' yacht race, sometimes called the 'Friday Night Fight', I'm inspired to write.

The Vava'u Group of Tonga is a busier place than ten years ago when we last visited. There are a few small resorts on the out islands now and town (Neiafu) has more to offer in the way of feeding and watering establishments. Actual provisioning from the grocery stores is still pretty sparse. There is decent wireless internet coverage in the anchorage. How we lived before this became available I do not know. We've been alternating between time spent at out island anchorages and time spent on a mooring in Neiafu. Both have their joys. However, Janet is still healing up from her exhaust pipe burn so she's not been engaging in her principle joy which is snorkeling and scuba diving in these waters. As she puts it, "Spying on the private lives of fishes." She's about healed and says next week it's back into the water. Around Neiafu the principle joy is the daily discovery of some small thing about the place interspersed with a lot of cruiser social activity. Most of our friends are here now. It's high season in Tonga and the Aquarium Cafe, the Bounty Bar, the Mermaid, etc., can be pretty crowded any time of the day. Since everything depends on the arrival of the inter-island cargo boats and then the not-so-efficient dispersal of goods you never know where you can eat what from one day to the next. Last night one of our favorite places was "out of food". The ferry didn't get unloaded. Often times the ice cream place is out of ice cream, horrors! A couple days ago I stopped by the local 'ice cream parlor' and they said they would have ice cream in the afternoon. There were a bunch of very large rather determined looking Tongan guys just standing around. I came back in the afternoon and the guys were gone and they were now "out of ice cream". Oh well.

We raced our own boat yesterday for the first time here. We've got very good sails and this is a fast boat but it's not set up for 'around the buoys' racing. There was the usual turnout of about fifteen fairly serious boats. We a had a nice crew of friends aboard. This racing is very basic. All boats are thrown together with no handicapping and the first boat around the course wins. The course is set up to offer maximum thrills to the spectator/bar flies at the Mermaid (who sponsors the race) so there's a lot of maneuvering of big boats in very close quarters close to shore and obstructions, exciting but dangerous. Baring big problems the fastest machine wins. We won the start but gradually got over hauled by a couple pure racing racing machines a 47 foot catamaran and some sort of fifty foot custom boat. Finished fifth which won us dinner at the 'Dancing Rooster'. More important we all had a blast and nobody got killed or even seriously damaged. There's nothing more exciting than a crowded mark rounding of a bunch of big boats in very tight quarters.

Loren and Mary Halverson were here for a couple weeks and we had a great time. They are active, athletic, outdoorsy types who can deal with a marine toilet and smile. A dark night dinghy ride in the rain seemed to hold no terror for them. They were great company. Michael Roach, the previous owner of this boat, Fred Huffman, who is a mutual friend and who did a lot of rig work on this boat and other friends are here on another boat which is a lot of fun. We did have some pretty crummy weather for a few days. Came down about thirty hours straight and must have rained about a foot. Had enough wind to destroy my wind generator when I didn't get up in time to shut it down. Had three hours straight of absolutely continuous lightning. The most spectacular display I've ever seen from the ground. Our anchor windlass has finally died. I ordered a new replacement from New Zealand yesterday. Thank god the Zealand dollar is even worse off than the US dollar. Windlasses are not cheap. This one lasted twenty-three years and I knew it would go eventually but the thing was getting down right dangerous to use and now it's really squirrelly.

So that's all part of this kind of life. I've now got to replace a wind generator and a windlass. A couple of our good friends just had their genset and their water maker fail on the same day. A very expensive day! Sometimes my sweet spouse thinks I'm lower than whale droppings on the bottom of the sea. Sometimes I'm her hero. Sometimes we have priceless experiences. Sometimes the price seems pretty high. Life out here is life like anywhere else but maybe, I think, a little more direct and pretty darn nice. No matter where you go, there you are. Most of the time!

We'll be in the Vava'u group for a few more weeks and then head down to the Ha-apai Group and then Tongatapu and then to New Zealand. We hope to be under way for NZL by mid October, earlier if possible, all depends on the weather. We'll spend time there with friends and then be back in California until around April. As they say in the cruising community, "That's the plan." We'll see!

Love to all,
Bill & Janet