Get Lost On Purpose

Category: Niue

  • Niue, Niue, ohhhh baby, I said we gotta go….

    Bound and determined to see the Northeastern side of Niue before departing for Tonga, Drew and I braved foul, rainy weather and set out Monday on a couple of bikes looking for some adventure. A half hour bike ride later, we found just that in the Talava Arches, the Matapa Chasm, and the Limu Pools. Prior excursions in Niue had stenciled imagery of clear water pools, caves, and jagged coral in my mind and these three places did not disappoint in living up to those visions as well. The Talava Arches was a maze of caves that all led to what can only be described as a massive eye to the south pacific. What remained of the cliff side was the result of hundreds upon hundreds of years of incoming and outgoing tides and waves that crashed against the shores, creating giant holes in the limestone. The ocean-the artist, the land-its canvas, its work-magnificent. From my view, perched up high and safe in the cave, Drew appeared to be nothing more than a tiny speck as I tried to capture with a camera the grandness of the arch. I was instantly reminded of years ago when my Aunt Cookie, my Uncle Gary, and my cousin, Holly all took me along on their vacation out west and we visited arches quite similar to this one. Only difference in the two was here on the other side lie the south pacific, out west on the other side was about a 2000+ foot drop. I didn’t have to be QUITE as careful here…

    From there it was a short walk to the Matapa Chasm, which, according to guidebooks, was the favorite swimming spot of prior Niue kings. One quick glance and I instantly knew why as what lay before me was the clearest of blue, natural pools nestled amongst the limestone walls. In less than a minute I’d stripped off my hiking clothes and was diving into the water as I found it completely irresistible. I couldn’t risk looking back on this one day and wishing so much that I had jumped in. Refreshing would be an understatement and for about fifteen minutes I FELT like a queen as the water washed away the evidence of the bike ride before. I hated to get out of the water but we’d seen pictures of our final destination for the day and if it was at all possible, the Limu Pools were even more of a sight to see…

    So off we went and this time it was Drew’s turn to dive in the cool waters and refresh himself. The damaging effects of Cyclone Heta were evident amongst the coral here although slowly but surely the sea life is beginning to return. Try as I might to describe it’s beauty, try as I might to capture it with a camera, sometimes I just don’t know if there are words possible or a photograph worthy. We returned the bikes that afternoon and although my butt was sore, as rental bikes never are very comfy, I felt I could leave Niue with a better sense of what the island had to offer and all I can say is wow…what an experience. We sadly said farewell, donning our best Finding Nemo whale voices, to our newfound harbor friends and set sail for Tonga yesterday afternoon. I honestly can say that being amongst those gentle giants ranks up there as one of the top highlights thus far in my life. It was absolutely incredible.

    Granted the trip continues to go well, we’ll arrive in Tonga tomorrow morning, having lost a full day so it will be Friday for us and still Thursday back home. Lots of friends will be in Vava’u and we are anxiously awaiting a reunion with all of them and the joint birthday party on Honeymoon Saturday night!

  • Rollin on the Rock – Niue Style

    The mooring field here in Niue has turned rolly. The swell is coming around the northern point and we’ve been miserably rolling all around as monohulls do when they sit side to the seas. It’s uncomfortable but livable. We enjoy getting off the boat whenever possible but, of course, without a dinghy, we’re at the disposal of others. It’s not been a huge problem though. After a great dinner aboard Follow You, Follow Me with Allan and Rina the other night they offered up their dinghy as a loaner while they took a night in one of the local hotels. It was super nice of them and gave us a chance to get some shopping done without the worry of overloading some poor guy who offered us a ride but didn’t really have the space! We spent a good bit of time the last two days on the internet posting pics on the blog, figuring out what’s going on in the world, and studying New Zealand in hopes of finalizing a place to stay. I also filled the propane tank. I say I filled it cause this time I actually did. I’m mentioned the problems I’ve had finding places to fill my “California special danger tank” since we left the states. So far no problems in Jamaica, Panama, and Tahiti but in Ecuador there was no place in the county to have it filled so I had a small adapter made to gravity fill the tank. So I spent a couple of hours Wednesday standing in the backyard of a hardware store figuring out how to gravity fill an empty propane tank from a full one without blowing myself up. Now that I know the secret, it’s freaking easy!

    Niue is an interesting place. There are abandoned houses everywhere. Much of the population up and moved to New Zealand so there’s barely a 1000 people left on the island. In 2004 a cyclone devastated the northern, western, and southern sides. Ninety foot high waves washed over the island taking houses and all the vegetation with it. Somehow only two lives were lost. A lot of Niueans decided at that point to give up and leave. Rebuilding was just too hard. The people still seem happy and everyone is ridiculously friendly but in my mind there’s an underlying feeling that something is missing. It’s like that storm took away a large part of the island’s spirit. It’s such a unique place I hope to see it grow again. It’ll be interesting to watch its progress and stop back through here next time we sail this part of the world.

    We had a potluck gathering at the yacht club on Thursday. Margie made her super dip which is always a huge hit and disappears faster than anything else. Tim and Ruth on Victory Cat had tons of Spear Fish and Wahoo they grilled up. Someone made a birthday cake and even though I sang, I couldn’t tell you who’s birthday it was. I always love having Margie along on the gatherings. She doesn’t know a lot about boats or sailing but she’s such a conversational powerhouse, she steers discussions right away from broken watermakers and low pressure systems to family left behind, boat fashion, and Hollywood gossip. She’ll bring even the hardiest of sailor down into a discussion of why she’s a better match for Tom Brady than Giselle.

    With the loss of the dinghy and the unknown amount of money it’ll cost, we are looking into ways of saving money in the next few months. I think we’ll end up storing Dosia on some sort of a mooring in NZ while we travel home for the holidays. It’s up to $200 cheaper than a dock slip although it’s hours farther from the airport. It seems I made the mistake of buying a nonrefundable plane ticket or I, myself, would be staying in NZ for the holidays. Candidly, I’m still thinking of skipping the trip since it’s not necessarily the ticket cost but the cost of living during that month at home that kills me. Guess we’ll see how that one works out. We are, however, in negotiations on a dinghy and could have a possible replacement lined up. Fingers crossed.

    Well, today’s biking excursion appears to be canceled by the grey and raining skies. Maybe tomorrow. We plan to leave on Tuesday for Tonga since the sail westward is only 240 miles but takes 3 days since we cross the international date line and skip an entire day! From that point on, we will be one day ahead of everyone back in the states instead of hours behind! Seth and Elizabeth’s joint birthday bash on Honeymoon is this Saturday and we wouldn’t miss it for the world! Plus our friends on Zen, Karma, and Flashback should all be arriving there soon.

    Stay tuned for some interesting blog posts concerning the future of this trip and our plans. Wallets are emptying, clocks are ticking, and things are starting to take shape for a potential end and/or long hiatus in our journey. I wish it could last forever but alas, all good things…..you know the rest.

  • New Adventures in Niue

    Charts showing several more days of foul weather in Beveridge Reef were enough to convince us that our departure from there should come sooner than we had planned. We’d definitely recommend a stop there to any other cruisers headed in that direction but unfortunately our own experience of the reef was limited because of the weather, temperatures, and the loss of our beloved dinghy. Patrick and Rebecca, s/v Brickhouse, were fantastic in carting us to and from the boat to the reef so Drew could do some spear fishing but I don’t even have a wet suit so I spent most of my time on the boat. It was time to go. We took with us the memory of our first whale sighting of this year, a freezer full of fresh grouper, and a lifelong lesson in that when going to other people’s boats, always tie off your own dinghy. One can never assume that your dinghy rope is the same as the next boater. An honest mistake but, nonetheless, a lesson learned the hard way.

    Dosia did her best to cheer us up in absolutely kicking butt on the overnight sail from the reef to Niue. At anywhere from 6 1/2 to 8 knots, we completed the 130 miles in about 20 hours. Now I am not the kind of boater who has that intoxicating need for speed like most. If anything, when we start flying over waves at too great a speed I get a little anxious and uneasy. This trip, however, brought speeds we hadn’t seen in a while and of course they came at a time when we didn’t need them as we’d arrive in Niue before daylight. Drew and I quickly decided that we’d hook a mooring by early morning moonlight if we had to because there was no way we were giving up the chance to really, really feel the wind. So we rode it out, enjoyed every second of it, and were on a mooring ball in Niue by sunrise, enjoying our morning coffee.

    Niue has been an incredible breath of fresh air thus far. The water is still a bit chilly, there is a definite nip in the air, but who thinks about those things when you’ve got 15 to 20 humpbacks swimming, literally, FEET from your boat!? July to October they take over the waters off the coast of this island to breed and we are lucky enough to be here during those months. The waters most certainly belong to them, we are their guests, and respect must be paid. They could sink Dosia in a heartbeat if we pissed them off somehow. Some boats throughout the harbor have been able to hear them talking/communicating at night through the walls of their vessels. Unfortunately (at least in this particular instance) Drew insulated the walls a little too well so we can only hear them when they rise to the surface to breathe. To be in their presence, this close, is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. Each sighting is another reminder to me how grand and massive this ocean is that Drew and I are living our lives on right now.
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    If you are looking for sandy beaches and palm trees then don’t head for Niue. Jagged shorelines, caves, and deeper anchorages make up this island-the smallest island nation in the world. We spent most of yesterday with s/v Honeymoon and s/v Follow You, Follow Me in a rented van exploring all the eastern coast had to offer. Five of us donned our best hiking shoes, Drew…his flip flops due to blisters from spear fishing excursions on the reef, to tackle three different chasms, or caves. The land here is brimming with dated, aged coral that is probably hundreds upon hundreds of years old. Although in appearance it is rather sharp and uninviting, we wasted no time in tackling shorelines, climbing in and out of caves, getting chased by bone crushing waves, rope climbing down into a sloping cave to the freshwater pools below, and capping the day off with well earned beers at the local, and only, resort on the island, the Matavai Resort. Drew and I could barely keep or eyes open past 8 p.m. last night. Tonight, dinner aboard Follow You, Follow Me. As I write, Drew is preparing some of our fresh grouper to take as bite size appetizers, as most cruisers haven’t had any luck in catching fresh fish in the the Pacific waters this year. Pictures of the cave excursions and the whales will be up A.S.A.P.!
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    Happy Birthday to both Drew’s Dad and his Nanny who celebrated her 91st birthday on Monday : ) We love y’all!

  • R.I.P. Dinghy

    —–Ahhh…Beveridge Reef, what an unkind animal you can be. We sit here on your sandy shelf and wait and wait for good weather to explore your outer reefs, inner lagoon, and your mysterious windward shipwreck. When finally a day comes, we join our neighbors for a day of spear fishing and collect your bounty as though it were our own. Grouper, Jack, Parrotfish…all relinquish themselves to the spear tip. Though we look carefully, you hide your lobsters and leave us with only molted shells. “Tis the Season” I guess, but the fishing is good. Blood gathers in the dinghy and the surrounding waters and you send your sharks to fend us off. Whitetips, no problem, but when your rally your Grey Reef sharks, we retreat and head home, taking with us pounds of fish for untold meals to come. We plan our first feast that evening aboard the good-ship Brick House, a Valiant 40 from Rhode Island. We gather and socialize while the wind outside rises, the anchor lines stretch. A shot of fine Italian Amaretto begins the meal. We sit. And then you knock us down.
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    It was two hours before Patrick climbed up into the cockpit to check on things. Our dinghy was gone. A miscommunication, a mistied cleat, it’s not really important. Patrick took off in their dinghy for the mile and a half trip across the lagoon to search the other side. Even with a full moon, a good light, a night vision scope, and two hours of searching…no luck. My Caribe dinghy and Nissan outboard, together one of the most expensive pieces of equipment on the boat, were gone. Either it hit the reef, flipped, and got smashed to bits or it cruised right out the pass and is halfway to southern Tonga. We thought about leaving immediately, in the darkness, to try and catch up to it, but what if it really was on the reef and this isn’t exactly a friendly place to come and go in the night. What if we passed it in the night? We looked at the situation again the next morning. A small windshift, a twelve hour headstart, a dead downwind sail, an approaching low pressure system…what were the actual chances of finding it? Patrick reexamined the reef taking into account the angle of the wind and current and surmised it most likely hit some breakers and flipped. An APB went out on all the nets for boats in the vicinity to keep an eye out. The government of Niue and the entire anchorage Alofi was notified since it could float in that direction if it did make it out of the lagoon. After a brief period of mourning, Marge and I could do nothing but pick our heads up and start searching for a replacement. Patrick and Rebecca have agreed to alter their plans as needed to help us find another one. They feel awful about it and though it’s frustrating as hell, it was an honest mistake and could happen to anyone. Right now, it sounds as though the Moorings base in Vava’u Tonga may be our best bet. I’m hoping Zen and Flashback who are only a week or two away from there can send out some feelers and make some connections. The last thing we want to do is spend weeks waiting anywhere for a shipment from the states. Thankfully a few boats have offered up loaners as well.

    Other than that, we’re still here in Beveridge. There a small system passing over us today and tomorrow and we’re heading to Niue on Monday. We went spearfishing on the outside of the reef again yesterday. My feet are so blistered and raw from hours in my fins I duct-taped the balls of my feet and put on some socks. The sharks got a lot more curious. They’d swim right up to me near the surface, even if I was hanging on the side of the dinghy. A quick glancing blow with the spear gun sent them running. We finally gave in and let them have the reef. We weren’t doing so well anyways with only two groupers (one large and one small) for the day. Not that we didn’t try. Patrick and I spent hours in the water chasing groupers and parrots through the ravines and caverns of the reef. We dropped the carcass of a huge grouper to the bottom. The Grey Reef Sharks and huge snapper fought it out for the remains while we hid off to the side and watched. I wish one of those snapper would let me get close enough to shoot it. Another boat, Peter and Nikki on Bagheera arrived this morning and we all moved to the northwestern side of the lagoon in anticipation of a windshift. So far it’s the prettiest day we’ve had since arriving. In a half hour or so I’m putting my wetsuit on Margie and we’re heading out to snorkel the inside of the reef. It’s nice to be outside enjoying this place finally. Even though there’s a black cloud hanging over us from the loss of the dinghy, we’re doing our best to soak up the rays and go to sleep happy. I’m hopeful it’ll all work out in the end.