Here’s a few of our favorites from Tonga so far. Of course there’s plenty more on our Flickr Photostream. Also, keep an eye out for a shot of Margie at Dosia’s Nav station in the January issue of Blue Water Sailing Magazine!
Category: Vava’u
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Goodbye Vava’u and Ha’apai Islands Sailing
We are currently about ten miles outside of Tonga’s capital, Nuku’Alofa, and should be safely anchored by the time this blog posts. We said farewell to the Vava’u group about three days ago. Usually when we leave a place I don’t look back with any sense of sadness because I’m already excited about the next place. Leaving Neiafu, however, I sat up on the bow and watched it become smaller and smaller behind us and got a little sad. It honestly felt weird to leave the harbor knowing we wouldn’t be coming back in a few days. Cruisers have talked before about spending several months in a place and I always think in my mind, “how?” I never could quite understand how someone could spend two or three months in a particular place when there was so much more out there to see. Now I understand. Neiafu and the rest of the islands that make up the Vava’u group are no more spectacular than the harbors or anchorages I’ve seen in the past six months. Don’t get me wrong…it’s waters were the brightest of blues, there were quiet anchorages a plenty where you could nestle in for the evening and not feel so much as a ripple in the water, whale sightings were as common as a drunk Georgia fan on a fall Saturday, and if you ran out of something while at anchor then town was no more than a two hour sail away or a boat coming your way who could bring you what you needed. Vava’u definitely had its perks. I think, though, that what kept us there for two months was that it was just…comfortable.
We sailed into the harbor back in August and into the open arms of some whom we’d seen just the week or night before and others whom we’d not seen for several months. Literally almost every boat we’d come in contact with in the past six months came together in one place. It was the biggest “family” reunion I’ve ever been to! Man there were birthday parties, sometimes two or three a week. There were dinner parties, there were beach bonfires, there was snorkeling, there was diving, there was swimming with whales (at least for Drew), and there were beautiful sunsets. We spent the better part of our last morning in town walking to all the local businesses who had supplied us with fresh bread, good meals, cold beer, and good times to bid farewell and hug out our goodbyes. Dosia headed west out of the harbor and even though I was sad to go, more memories were on the horizon.We’ve spent the last three days hopping our way south through the Ha’apai group on our way to Nuku. Two different anchorages became our homes for the evening and though a bit rolly, I was rocked to sleep quite quickly both nights. Night before last we had Richard & Betsy of s/v Qayak and Ian & Ally of s/v Loon III over for a birthday dinner. Yes, more birthdays. Drew and I are beginning to think that lots of parents were getting more friendly with each other during the holidays and through those cold winter months. Ally and I share the same birthday and Betsy’s is just around the corner on the 30th so I whipped up some homemade sausage gumbo, black eyed peas, and brownie cake for dessert. True southern style and it appealed to the taste buds of our west coast and Canadian guests quite nicely. Drew made me homemade pizza last night for my actual b-day dinner and we used the last of our Boar’s Head pepperoni we’d brought from the states. His family will be shocked to know it’s lasted that long on board as Drew’s love for pepperoni ranks right up there next to his love for bacon. A 4 a.m. early wake up call got us out of bed this morning and we lifted anchor to sail the last 50 miles or so into Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga and home of the royal king and queen. Despite being short in length, the trip today has been quite eventful as the fish have finally taken to our lines. Drew hand reeled in a mackerel and as I was typing moments ago his second 20-25 lb. mahi mahi of the day.
As we pulled into the channel that led us to our “parking spot” directly in front of Big Mama’s, a mother whale and her calf waved hellos to us as they splashed around, enjoying the last of their days here in the warm south pacific waters before heading south to Antarctica. Truly…I don’t believe it gets much better than this. We’ll share the love and divvy out our new fish friends but the rest is for keeps and it looks like Drew and I will be the ones eating like royalty tonight! -
Palangis in Vava’u – Life in Neiafu
Vava’u is a mixed bag of two places I’ve been before. Physically, it has the close interisland sailing and anchorages of the Virgin Islands. The area also has large bays, unimposing green hills, sudden reefs that pop out of nowhere reminiscent of the Bocas del Toro area of Panama (minus the cattle herd of Americans thinking it’s the new Costa Rica and buying up all the property). It is third world with an “up and coming” feeling. There’s restaurants and bars, small villas, and “psuedo resorts” but no big, brand name hotels. The Kings owns all and land is leased from him. Local Tongans work cheap. $3/4 US dollars an hour is a good wage. They are friendly people but they are shy and won’t approach you first. The younger Tongans seem to be moving away from their Christian heritage. Rap music bellows out of cars and cell phones. Few teens sport traditional dress and on Saturdays the pants ride low and hats turn backwards.
Neiafu and Vava’u as a whole is deserving of its own blog post if not for the plethora of beautiful, somewhat simple anchorages, then for the interesting social dynamics that allow a place like this to exist. Palangi. What is a palangi you ask? A palangi in its simplest definition is a foreigner and Vava’u is full of them. We, as visiting cruisers, were palangis but it’s the other palangis; the retirees, expatriots, and business owners who moved to Tonga that I’ll write about here. They are the ones who’ve adopted Tonga as their new home and are trying their hardest to bring this third world country into the 21st century but not always in the best manner or with the best intentions. The relationships between the “settled Palangis” and the locals is tenuous at best. There is obvious tension and the palangis face an uphill battle against royalty, nobles, and the everyday Tongan in their quest for policy change and modernization.
Most all of the restaurants and bars in Neiafu are owned by foreigners. Seeing as how Marge and I enjoy eating out and consider it just as much a part of the cruising experience as snorkeling the reef, we met and spent time with most all of them. Some became friends while those we didn’t know personally always offered a wave or hello in passing on the street. True to restaurant form, there is drama and plenty of it. In the grand scheme, Neiafu is quite small and competition is fierce. When the cruising fleet of any given year rounds that corner into the harbor, the gloves come out. The natives of the island either can’t afford to dine out or spend their time trying to make a living off of the cruisers so the last thing they want to do it spend more time around them. Therefore, the business owners rely on these few short months for the vast majority of their income for the year. Different nights of the week offer different themes at different places. There is Movie Night, Kava Night, Tongan Band Night, Faka Lady Night, Rugby Game Night, Buffet Night, Tongan Feast Night, and several cruiser birthday parties, all held at any of the given restaurants which for the most part are within about a half mile of each other. The biggest question posed in opening and operating a business is whether it’s better to be profitable or popular? The ones making the most money are quick to cater to cruiser needs while many of the others sit on the side and talk trash about them. In our experience, there was only one restauarnt owner who, while he was probably thinking it, did not vocalize a single negative thought about any of his peers. Mike, owner and operator of the Aquarium Cafe, was professional, helpful, and quiet in his “domination” of the competition. Food on the island in pretty much every restauarnt was great and there were dishes we absolutely loved and raved about to other crusiers. The worst thing a business owner anywhere could assume is that cruisers don’t talk to one another. A fleet in a harbor is as bad as a middle school girl’s locker room. Personally, we hate to see great people with great product with bad attitudes; ruining the dining experience because the entire meal was filled by rants about what other businesses in the area were doing to hurt them. Best advice we could give to any future business owners in Neiafu…stay out of the drama. Let your product speak for itself. Neiafu has a good thing going and we’d love to see the same people still there, doing well, when we return in years to come.
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Jammin with the pig – P.I.G. FM Radio Vava’u
We’re wrapping up our time here in Vava’u. Planning to leave Neiafu today and start heading south to the capital city of Nuku’alofa. Margie’s out shopping somewhere and I’m working on the computer and rockin out to PIG fm, the local radio station run by a Canadian ex-pat. For most of the day, it’s one of those massive collections of music shuffling on a Mac in the studio but in the morning and sometimes in the evenings Greg rolls in and DJ’s. We’ve heard everything from the Footloose soundtrack to Fergie to Louis Armstrong to Tom Petty. It’s quite an interesting mix.
If you haven’t seen the Sale page for the boat, you gotta check it out. As you may have noticed, our blog post dropped off the past couple of weeks. It seemed everytime I sat down with the computer I was editing photos or writing stuff for the page or listing Dosia on a bunch of “selling sites.” Now that’s all done and we can get back to cruising!
The plan is to island hop our way south to Tongatapu, the southern island group in Tonga. That means a few illegal stops in the Ha’apai group since I checked out with Customs here and said we were going the whole way down. Oh well. We’ll be in the Nuku’alofa area for a week or so and then we’ll be off for the big sail to New Zealand. It’s potentially a nasty little passage and requires close monitoring of the weather systems moving off Australia and the Tasman Sea. We’re not sure when we’ll leave on the passage since we may get stuck waiting several more weeks for a good window. If all goes well, we’ll join a rally of boats departing on Halloween, the day after the party at Big Mama’s Yacht Club. Not sure why they planned a rally departure the day after a party.
We’ve said goodbye to our many friends here in Vava’u. It’s a very interesting place and I want to sit down and write a nice long blog post about it. But for now, the engine is running…Marge is back…and we’re off!