Day 44

Saturday 13th June 2009
Port Maurelle

A bell started ringing in the village at 6.15am, at first we were surprised that it only rang about four times if it was meant to wake everyone up � we felt we could easily have slept through that, however, more bells joined in and they continued ringing on and off for about 10 minutes announcing the start of the day to everyone. Many churches a single bell under a covered area on the ground, but often empty gas cylinders suffice as bells.
We watched as lights turned on in the houses as it was still dark and the moon was still out. The bit that impressed us the most though, was that at 6.20am we heard numerous voices cheering joyfully, it only lasted a couple of minutes, we could only think it was a great way to welcome the new day. Abby and Joy felt that we should do that at home but, apart from the fact that it would take some practicing to get everyone up at the stroke of the bell, the neighbours might think we�ve finally gone nuts!! Joy and Tom were up early to snorkel the false entrance of the lagoon and discovered great snorkeling on the far side of the gap with wonderful coral valleys and plenty of reef fish. It was a beautiful sunny day and the water was warm at 8am. Em and Abby went back with Joy so as not to miss out, despite being asleep previously, they agreed it was worth getting up for. We left the Hunga Lagoon at high tide and made our way under jib to Sisia Island. This island is not far from Port Maurelle. It�s small and uninhabited and has a lovely beach on the western side. Here we stopped for lunch and snorkeled. Matt took Emma for some scuba lessons � She�s doing very well and can comfortably take her mask off and on etc at 15m, and enjoyed doing somersaults and handstands on the seabed! Rebekah finally discovered that she was able to stay afloat and swim in her snorkel and flippers out of her depth without her lifejacket. This was a pivotal point for her and she enjoyed snorkeling around looking at blue starfish, orange finger coral and beautiful coloured reef fish without being afraid. We�ve had a good day and are anchored in Port Maurelle for the night. Mum cut her finger during dinner preparations, so Matt finished off cooking a delicious butter chicken curry and Mum got waited on, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Matt also washed up � and we have the photo to prove it.

Skipper

Day 43

Friday 12th June 2009

Hunga Island: north anchorage no.13, off Hunga village, in the Lagoon

Day 42

Thursday 11th June 2009
Port Maurelle

Today we got word of a whale in the channel near Mariner�s Cave, so we set off on Avant Garde along with the crew of Red Thread to go and find it. We could see it�s blow from a far and we headed in. Avant Garde have a much better engine than us and so chased it so well that we caught up with the whale. We then spent over an hour just enjoying watching the humpback whale repeatedly surface, blow and dive. We got quite close on a number of occasions, cutting our engine, and just watching the majesty of this beautiful mammal, the only noise being its breath and our whoops and cheers of delight; it even swam under the boat checking us out and we could see its white underside as it breached. What a thrill! This whale is here early in the season, the whales mainly come in during July and August to calve up here and whale watching is a big tourist business. We had thought we might miss out on seeing them, returning home so soon, so this was a real bonus. As it was over lunchtime, I�d taken along some home made bread dough, tuna, cooldrink and papaya and Marion baked the two loaves in her oven while we watched the whale, and then treated us to a lovely lunch on board on our return. They are lovely people, who also have their own island! Oyster Island near Espirito Santo, Vanuatu; the Island Cruising Association are all stopping in there after Fiji on their 6 month Pacific Tour, hopefully we�ll sail there someday too. Rebekah, Abby & Tom spent the rest of the afternoon on Red Thread, cleaning their boat in return for the treat of watching a movie onboard afterwards! Tom�s choice of Star Wars won, not sure that the little girls enjoyed it as much though. Matt and Emma were returned from Kairos in the early evening, we were sad to say our farewells to Kairos as our association with Abbey and her parents has made our holiday. They left for Fiji at midnight, to make the best of the good winds, for their three day trip over. Charles was sorely tempted to take off for Fiji, we have the charts and we had initially planned to go there, however we decided to stick with our current game plan and make the most of Tonga, we�ll just have to do Fiji another time!

Joy

Day 41

Wednesday 10th June 2009

Port Maurelle

The crew slept in late. The day was funny with quite a number of showers and strong gusts of winds. Kairos is planning to leave tomorrow for Fiji, and the teenagers on board are sad. Its amazing how short and intense these relationships are, when you are so isolated. I�ve had my arm twisted to let the two oldest return to Neafu with Kairos as she fills up with diesel and water and clears customs � we will make some plans to retrieve them tomorrow or the next day. The younger crew are happy as not only do they have the friends from Red Thread but Tusitala has arrived with more little people. Joy and I looked after the young people from both theses vessels for the afternoon to ensure that their respective adults could get to Mariners Cave.

We have momentary entertained the thought of joining the few boats that are going now to Fiji � it would be fun but we are coming to the end our trip and this would entail nearly a week all told of sailing and officialdom etc. So we have reluctantly stuck to our plans for making our way back to Nuku�alofa. We will have some fronts with Northerlies coming through Sunday that we will wait to pass over us before making our way down to do some more exploring of the Hapai group on the way down. We are missing Josh a lot and are looking forward to have him join the crew for the trip home.

We are impressed by the number of people who we have met that have sold their all, quit their jobs and careers and sunk all into their vessels and their trip. They sail until all their money has run out and then intend to return and sell their vessels and start again. This is a major commitment but we take only our experiences with us and the memories of the people we have touched with us when leave this earth. Its funny because when you speak to the land lovers they see the wealthy out cruising but the vast majority have no other asset on the planet except their boats � so when misfortune strikes in the form of major repair this has a huge impact on their cruising budgets and plans.

Skipper

Day 40

Tuesday 9th June 2009

Port Maurelle

We walked from our bay to Otea Village this morning, about 20 minutes on a dirt track. We were looking for the LDS chapel with the million dollar view and we found it in this little village. The chapel overlooks a magnificent bay and is right on the waters edge. One of the villagers and a church member showed us around his village. The principal of the government primary school came out and spoke to us, there were 18 children at the school and two teachers who lived in the village. We gave him balloons to give to the children, not much, but it was all we had on us. He offered to take us into the classes but we didn�t like to interrupt the children�s lessons, however, now our primary children wished we had taken him up on it. We also saw the neighbouring Reef Resort, it shares the same wonderful view and has very nice fales to stay in. It took 18months to build and has been open for just over a year. Charles and Matt took off with Kairos to go diving the island of Tu�ungasika, which is supposed to be the best coral diving in Vava�u. They said it was good, but not as good as Minerva Reef. Emma joined Alison, Warren and friends on Memphis, and showed them where Mariner�s Cave was and went snorkeling with them, she had a great afternoon and enjoyed being in adult company. They were glad they�d taken Em otherwise they said they wouldn�t have been able to find it. The rest of us enjoyed snorkeling in the bay and basking in the sunshine. On their return we invited Hazel and Bill from Liberation over for sultana scones with jam and cream (long life cream that is), it was good to see them again and to thank them for the delicious fish they�d given us for tea a week ago!Abby and Rebekah noticed a boat come into the bay with children on, and within minutes they were in the dinghy and over to say hello. It turned out that The Red Thread, had two little girls aged 5 and 8 and they were delighted to see other girls. They invited them onboard and immediately engaged them in games with their toys. After a tea of fried bacon, eggs and baked beans on freshly baked bread, we took off to the beach to light our evening fire. Matt took along a cloth to attach to a stick, dip in fuel and have as a torch � our children are pyromaniacs! However, I have to say it worked well. Tom and Emma invited all the boats in the bay to come to the fire and they came. Although the guitar came along too, we mostly chatted tonight, the fire burned well and everyone had fun. We thought Tom was doing his nightly fire dance, even though it was a little more exaggerated than usual, however, it turned out that he�d been bitten, he thinks by a centipede. He has two puncture marks about 1 cm apart on the edge of his foot, it bled and he was in pain, he said he saw a long worm-like thing with legs, disappearing after he was bitten. The fear of getting bitten, along with a rain squall, ended the beach party, but it was a good night. Rebekah�s friends, MeiMei and Linzi from Red Thread, plotted for her to sleep over on their boat and, as Matt and Emma have had sleep overs on Abbey�s boat Kairos before, Rebekah was keen to go, even though Abby didn�t want to. Tom has now taken paracetamol and antihistamine, hopefully the redness and swelling will have gone down by tomorrow, and he�ll be able to sleep tonight. I�m getting quite used to this lifestyle and the talk of carrying on to Fiji and Vanuatu like the other cruisers is very tempting � shame, we have to return to work to pay for this wonderful experience!

Joy

Day 39

Monday 8th June

Position: Port Maurelle

The night was much cooler last night, down to 20 degrees C, we had to get out the sleeping bags as our sheets were not warm enough. But fortunately the blue skies and sun came out today and it was glorious. After a bacon and egg breakfast, with waffles on Kairos, Charles and Matt enjoyed diving the drop off on the west side of Nuku Island down to 34m, and later, the wall back towards Port Maurelle from Swallow�s cave, with the Kairos crew. The rest of us snorkeled the coral in the bay, and marveled at the infinite collection of reef fish we saw. A cruise ship came into Nei�afu today and brought 1800 people to this tiny town � it took two hours just to unload people who wanted to come ashore. One of the yachts here � and we�ve all got to know each other now � Pacific Rose, hired their services at $200 per person for a cruise, and took four people on board for the day, showing them the sights � now that�s enterprising!

We collected drift wood and lit a fire on the beach in the evening, this is something we�re not permitted to do in NZ, so the kids were very excited about it. We discovered that dry palm leaves really make the fire roar, and realized just how quickly the traditioanl woven huts would go up in a fire. The crew from two other boats, Memphis and Just Magic, saw our fire and joined us bringing their guitar, so we had a wonderful evening, singing songs on the beach and chatting, under a full moon. We got back to our boat at 10.30pm!

Joy

Day 38

Sunday 7th June

Position: Neiafu

Walked up to the Saineha Chapel again this Sunday and enjoyed their fast and testimony meeting. They had hymns that we knew this time, even if we did have to sing them in tongan! And it was good to see two rows of members, including youth, queueing up on the podium to bear their testimony � we could learn from their example! The children all went to their own classes and Charles and I to ours, and we all had friends in members who translated for us, so it was a very enjoyable day.

After church we took off for Port Maurelle, feeling culinarily adventurous, we peeled the yam we got in Ha�pai, chopped it into cubes, par-boiled it and then roasted it in oil in the oven. I also made an apple sponge in the oven, and a loaf of no-knead pressure cooker bread. Surprisingly it all turnout out well, the yam needed a lot of salt, but otherwise was crunchy like roast potatoes, the pressure cooker bread, despite being cooked on low heat for 45mins was not burnt and the apple sponge was delicious with long life cream � which, I discovered, if you put it in the freezer for an hour before serving turns into thick almost whipped-type cream. Charles then barbequed lamb chops off the back of the boat and, as we were ready to eat around 6pm, Kairos came in and dropped anchor. We invited them to join us and added salad, beetroot, corn, papaya and watermelon to our spread and they were impressed with our Carenza feast! They invited us back to their boat to watch a movie, the Privileged Planet, which rounded off our Sabbath beautifully.

Joy