Get Lost On Purpose

Category: Vava’u

  • Pick a number | Cruising Vava’u

    We finally made it out of town! With a borrowed dinghy and some good friends we cruised out of Neiafu and now sit somewhat safely anchored in the bay of Hunga (#13). I say somewhat safely since around 1AM I felt a change in the swinging of the boat and started to hear the chain stretching itself around a large rock somewhere 60-70 feet below us. This morning I get the sense we’re swinging around and around and around that rock tightening the noose. I’ll have to figure something out since my scuba tank is completely empty and 60-70′ is on the deep end of free diving for me.

    I’d love to say we kicked Zen’s tail on the way down here but come on…there is little Dosia can do against a 48′ catamaran! I’m still shocked by the speed I can manage to pull out of her though. We were right at 7 knots downwind the whole way and I never put the main up. That was actually the first bay-like sailing I’ve ever done on Dosia. I never sailed around Charleston harbor before I left. I cruised right out the jetties and never looked back! So this type of smooth water sailing is new to me. I even did my first ever race Friday night on board Flashback (a Choate 40) with Geoff, Tom, and Allen. We came in third after knocking the socks off some Kiwis who seemed none to happy about it.

    You may have noticed I included a number after I wrote where we are anchored. All the major anchorages in the Vava’u group have been assigned numbers by the charter boat fleet over the years. So now instead of jumping on the radio and trying to pronounce something like Lua ui Vaha, you can call up your buddies and tell ’em “yeah man, I’m at 35.” It’s actually a great system for a place like this.

    Night before last we attended the hospital benefit function at Aquarium Cafe. It was a big event for this place. I’d say 400 people or more were in attendance. It was a traditional Tongan feast with dancers and a huge buffet. All proceeds went to the hospital in hopes of getting the anesthesia department back up and running. The company was wonderful, the dancing was decent if not hilarious (once the town drunks joined the festivities), but the food left something to be desired. Especially when it’s dark and you can’t tell what’s on the end of your fork as your hand reluctantly guides it toward your mouth.

    We’ll be out for a few days before heading back to town for the start of Regatta Vava’u in which Dosia will be entered. We ordered our official Dosia regatta tees and Margie is challenging everyone in town to beat her at the CORNHOLE tournament on Monday! Yes, CORNHOLE! One of the official tailgating games of the southern US has somehow transplanted itself into the middle of the South Pacific. We’ve not met one person who has a clue what it is so we’re shocked to see it appear as part of the regatta. Maybe this could work to her advantage.

  • Tonga ‘tastic!

    I’ve been doing my best to behave since the debauchery that was last Friday night and obeying the finger wagging via email of my mom who didn’t like it to much when she read that her daughter didn’t remember what she had for dinner. I’m sure she wasn’t surprised as I’ve always been a bit of a party girl but even from thousands of miles away, my mom can still get onto me and put me in my place. That’s some pretty powerful parenting, huh?! Okay, okay…we over indulged one night. Shame, shame but it sure did make for some awesome sudo memories for me. All I’ve been able to say in emails to folks back home about this place is that it is Tonga ‘tastic and I’ll tell ya, it’s making it hard to act right! Let’s see…for the first time in months we’ve got more than enough restaurants and bars to entertain us about 30 yards from the boat and getting two for every dollar in the exchange rate has allowed us to partake in those. Getting there was a bit of a challenge seeing how we still have no dinghy and we had pretty much resorted to sticking our thumbs out and hitching rides to and from shore. But our good friends Christa and Richard from s/v Karma had a spare dinghy and 4 hp engine on board and have been gracious enough to let us borrow it for the time being. So as far as the dinghy search goes, here’s a quick, hopefully brief, update—-

    We thought this place would be a gold mine for a new dinghy with the moorings fleet here. Oh it is…just none of them are for sale. For days Drew and I were teased by a stack of about 15 dinghys, one on top of the other on shore, but they all belong to the private yachts in the harbor and are spoken for. Well crap…there goes that idea. We have worked daily to find something to replace our poor dinghy but let’s face it, we aren’t settling for anything less than we wanted and don’t feel like we should have to, even if it means leaving here without one and moving onto Fiji and searching there. That being said, a restaurant owner here heard Drew was looking and he may or may not be interested in selling. So we’ve resorted to going to his restaurant for the past two days and we’re hoping to eventually wear him down and that we might be able to persuade him. If not, we’ll enjoy Karma’s spare for as long as they’ll allow us and we’ll move on and search in Fiji—-

    To top off the bars and restaurants there are birthday parties everywhere! Today we celebrate Allan’s 50th from s/v Lovesong and last Saturday Seth & Elizabeth of Honeymoon threw a joint birthday bash, which I made a cake for that turned out super yummy. Check out their website to read all about that as it was definitely a b-day extravaganza ! Yesterday Drew and I wandered over to Tonga Bob’s to work on the fellow with the dinghy only to find out that night the restaurant hosts a drag queen show for the Faka ladies of the island. Well we weren’t missing out on that and our bartender at the moment was going to be in the show. Drew went to the restroom and he proceeded to tell me that the two young gentlemen, roundabout 13 years old, in school uniforms who had been playing pool when we arrived told him to put something in Drew’s drink to make him woozy so that they could take me with them. I told Drew as soon as he came back and he brought to my attention that their name tags on their uniforms said prefects, meaning they were school leaders. Rather scary….goes to show that the strict religious foundation here in Tonga might be wavering a bit. We did in fact gather a group of other cruisers and ventured off to check out the show last night and our shy little bartender who’d served us up a couple of beers that afternoon was long gone and in his place was THE entertainer of the evening swinging from the rafters and lip synching to Celine Dion in panty hose, angel wings, and a diaper. HILARIOUS! We were all in tears from laughing so hard and it was a great night. There is little room for close minded people in the cruising world, trust me.

    We’re off to cruise the island with Lovesong, Karma, Zen, & Flashback today in 4 wheel drive buggies for Allan’s birthday. Tonight a birthday dinner of fresh mahi auctioned off on the local VHF net this morning to raise money for the hospital. I cannot tell you how awesome it is to finally be reunited with folks we hadn’t seen in several months. It’s like seeing family again, in a sense, as you can develop such close relationships with other cruisers. No doubt, there will be plenty of memories taken away from this place and mom, I’ll do better so that I can remember them all : )

  • Neiafu Harbor, Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga

    What a cool place. We cruised in early yesterday morning after probably the best sail we’ve ever had. We flew the spinnaker right up until dark the day we left Niue ghosting along at 7 knots. The next morning I flew it again for a couple of hours till I started seeing 9.5 knots. I figured maybe it was a good idea to keep the mast standing upright and I took it down. We stopped briefly at an anchorage right around the corner from the main harbor (Lotuma Bay #5) to take showers, clean up the boat, and give a couple of other guys the chance to check in and get off the wharf before we made our triumphant entrance. We could already hear our friends from Zen and Honeymoon on the radio so we gave a call and announced our presence. It’s was like entering a reunion. All the boats we’ve met along the way and all the people whose voices we’ve heard and never met all seem to be here. Even Jeff and Julie from Flashback who we affectionately call Ma and Pa after someone mistaked us for being their children! Check in was relatively simple. The Quarantine and Health officials were standing at the dock when we tied up so they came aboard first. I handed over the papers they needed with a couple of candy bars and some diet coke hoping to speed up the process. Twenty minutes later, paperwork done, we couldn’t figure out why these guy were still sitting on the boat. They were thumbing through some of Margie’s magazines, hanging out like they were right at home. I guess they needed a few minutes to study up on the latest Cosmo and Vogue before they decided it was time to go and finally they dawdled off the boat. Next came Customs. Simple. Then I took a walk to the bank and Immigration while Margie, sitting on the boat at the city dock, somehow ended up with some fresh bread after a local paddled by and made her a deal. Ten minutes later we were tied to a mooring owned by the Aquarium Cafe with three dinghies and all our friends hanging off the side of Dosia. Nice.

    Then came our first Friday night in Neiafu. Picture it. A georgeous harbor surrounded by hills and mangroves. A hundred plus sailboats, some charter, but mostly cruising yachts from all over the globe. Huge multimillion dollars catamarans with paid captains all the way down to 27′ single handers. Converted race boats, sleek lined Italian yachts, refurbished classics, and junkers. It doesn’t matter. On Friday night, everyone gathers at the Mermaid, home of the Vava’u Yacht Club for drinks. Right on the water with its own dinghy dock. T-shirts, burgees, and flags hanging from the ceiling. Happy hour prices on a selection of beers from Oz land, NZ, the local Ikale and Maka brews. Heaven on earth. After losing hope in French Polynesia and the Cooks, here it is. The perfect image of a south seas sailor bar in its truest form. It still exists. Where else can you find a 70 year old single-hander with a white beard in crocs and a tie-dye shirt arguing with a pressed linen German couple off a sleek 60 footer about the finer aspects of rum distillation? Classic.

    When you wake up in the morning and can’t remember what you had for dinner or if you even ate dinner or where you might have tried if you were so inclined, you had a good night. If it weren’t for the missing cash, I might have thought we missed my favorite meal of the day. I know it was pasta and I’m positive it had bacon in it because that’s something I rarely forget. Each bacon experience should be cherished. I haven’t a clue what Margie ordered but that’s alright…neither does she. We haven’t had a night like that in a long, long time and even though I felt like a million bucks this morning when I woke, I would have preferred to not wake up belching vanilla infused rum. In order to not take responsibility for the over-indulgence, I need to blame someone else. So Flashback, you’re it. It’s all your fault. 🙂