The Kingdom of Tonga

As it's been nearly a month since I last managed to post a blog......French Polynesia really should polish up their act as far as internet services to yachties are concerned...far too expensive and extremely unreliable....! Anyway, I digress..... Moonshiner is currently about two thirds of the way to Tonga and we are having to motor for a while as the ocean is glassy smooth without a breath of wind to ruffle its surface. A slight change from the force 8 which blew in last week and delayed our departure from Bora Bora.

The story so far from the beginning, ie leaving Papeete ( that's pronounced Papay et ay....just for the record sorry for repetition!). The intention was to sail overnight to Raiatea, the "sacred" isle believed to be the cradle of the Polynesian race, about 120 miles away from Tahiti. Dick having spent a small fortune on getting everything sorted out once and for all, this short trip was going to be a breeze?............................Wrong!
What went wrong first? Oh yes, the autopilot, {which had so far been working perfectly), decided that it was on strike. No idea what the problem was but impossible to sort out at sea. Luckily, there is a spare on board..one of those Autohelm ones that push the tiller. Phew! I was not looking forward to hand steering even for just one night. The next thing to go was the engine overheating later that night. This was fortunately sorted out by Dick in an hour or so as he found some spare engine hose to replace the one that was spectacularly leaking very hot water all over the place. Ouch! The next "thing" was the main navigation computer over the chart table not working although the cockpit repeater was OK. This meant that I had to use the mouse at the chart table to move the cursor, which Dick could see outside in the cockpit, by him shouting instructions...up, down, left, right, click!! Not easy to do...I'm no "Bernie the Bolt". We were getting close to the island which is surrounded by dangerous reefs as all islands are around here and night was falling so the chart plotter was needed somewhat.

We pressed on and found the pass through the reef into Raiatea later just as it got dark. This pass is well lit so navigating the channel around the island to find somewhere to anchor was interesting but no problems. We found somewhere near a marina in the dark and dropped anchor in about 20 meteres of water. Then morning came..... We were much too close to the marina walls and there were coral heads very close too. So we had to move…… and before breakfast too! This is when the most annoying "thing" went wrong...the anchor windlass just wouldn't work..We absolutely had to move so there was nothing for it but to pull up over 60meteres of heavy chain by hand with just some help from a winch. My poor arms! It took 3 days for the ache to go.
But after all this, things started to go right for a change. We motored down the coast a mile or so and found a very accessible quay at Utaroa, Raiatea's main town where mooring is unbelievably free! After securing alongside, I went ashore to find someone who might be able to fix things. Meanwhile, as luck would have it, he had turned up right there in front of the boat without being asked. This was Canadian Richard the marine electrician...sent from God if you can believe that! Well, he's quite religious, being a Bahai so we found out. Richard spent most of the following four days on board and managed to fix just about everything there was that could be fixed. Manna from Heaven? OK, enough of the religious talk...we did enough of that too!!

I really liked Raiatea and put it in my top three places we've visited. It's just the right size, a small town with about 3000 people....just the right amount of shops with just one or two of each type and a very happy community atmosphere among the people. Each night, there was something going on for the locals young and old, dancing, singing etc. We went to a dance spectacle...very colourful and saw the local women of all ages, shapes and sizes doing their famous bottom wiggling dances!! Dick says that European women just couldn't emulate them. I say we can with a bit of practise...but I was certainly not going to try in full view of passers by!

With a “fully” working boat, it was time to move on. We had been joined in Utaroa by a couple of Blue Water stragglers like us and we had decided to spend a few days together in Bora Bora before striking west for the Cooks and Tonga even though we had been advised against visiting this "Rip off French Polynesia" by the tourist board in Papeete. The spot where we all ended up was outside the Bora Bora Yacht Club on reasonably priced mooring buoys. It should have been idyllic and in the right weather, I'm sure it would have been but we ended up stranded there having to watch white water actually within the reef which would normally have been a crystal clear azure blue. The waves crashing over the outer reef looked incredibly dangerous so we just sat and waited until things improved. Chairs were even blown over on the decking at the Yacht club!

It was a shame I suppose though we couldn't have taken Moonshiner with her deep keel to the best places for swimming and looking at the fish etc anyway. I didn't mind that in the end though because I'd spent many happy hours in Utaroa looking at the reef fish swimming under the boat and around the coral heads which were happily growing around the pier supports under the fuel dock. So much for coral needing perfect conditions in which to survive! I fed some of these fish with bits of bread etc. They loved it! I reckon I spotted at least 20 different species of fish there, some of them the really well known ones too...you know, the colourful ones with very thin vertical bodies..... I didn't find Nemo though...he lives within anemones on the coral and spends most of his time just hiding there. Debs, on Scot Free saw him however while snorkelling and I was just a few feet away so I almost found him I reckon?

The weather eventually improved and we left.....in the wrong direction! There was a slight glitch with something... so we headed back to Raiatea (which is only about 40 miles away) for Richard to fix it... not sure if he was pleased to see us? A very simple job in the end but leaving us another two days further behind the rest of the the stragglers. This meant that we wouldn't have time to visit the Cook Islands so we are now heading straight for Tonga, about 1400 miles from Tahiti.
As I type this, it's day eight with about 400 miles to go. One gets used to the distances for sure. That's practically next door in these parts. Let's hope I can post this from Tonga.......
In the meantime, I'm passing my time handsewing some skirts in beautiful Polynesian flowery cottons. I can do one a day if circumstances permit, weather etc but I'm definitely not taking orders...apart from being commissioned to make a "wedding" skirt for Debs on Scot Free. The tale of the proposal etc is another story...... maybe next time........

So we are now in Tonga after 11 days & 1500 miles. 1st impressions? 1930s time warp apart from 4x4s, internet & mobiles! Leaving for Fiji in 2 days. More from there plus photos I hope.

PS We crossed the dateline and lost a whole day. I think it may have been Thursday!!

Believe it or not, the boat is very nearly ready to go and we should be off sometime tomorrow morning (Weds).
I was a little bored on occasion being unable to leave the boat and "confined to quarters" so I started to sew and these are some of the results. I was quite pleased as they are all completely hand sewn...every single stitch I might add! I took the pattern from an old swimsuit that I cut up.






I bought the material in Trinidad last November and was uncertain how handsewing spandex would work out as you would normally use an overlocker but it's very forgiving stuff and I wish I'd bought more now!
I have also bought lots of cheap flowery (typical Polynesian designs) cotton material and am in the process of making some skirts. More "fashion shoot" photos in the next blog in a couple of weeks or so if they have decent wifi in the Cook Islands.
In the meantime, I'm looking forward to being at sea again where I can't spend any money!

Some Mediocre photos......hopefully

Our guide for the day, Alain. One cool driver!! I didn't dare look over the edge in some places.







This is Tahit's highest mountain...just. It's usually cloud covered and I've forgotten just how high it is too.

The landslide! It looked as though there was more to come with the next batch of rain too.

The river bed as we crossed in the landrover..very bumpy!!

OK, and a final shot of me with the new hair at one of the "scenic" spots. It was all very dramatic and I'm glad we survived to tell!!

Pape/ete means water basket.

The boat stays in Tahiti until the work is done!! This is proving quite costly both in time and money but as we still have half an ocean to cross, getting things working properly is a must. At least here, there are good engineers with access to the right parts though some of them have to be freighted from New Zealand and May is a very frustrating month because it’s full of holidays…Pentecost, Spring Bank holiday etc….. so every weekend becomes a long one. We also have to spend a lot of time just waiting around for engineers etc to arrive and they seem to spend a lot of their time stuck in traffic jams or trying to find a parking place. At least there is plenty of water though via the hose so I can splash around on the boat washing things down and keeping cool at the same time. It heats up quite dramatically here during the day compared with other places we’ve been to and cools down to “extra layer” temperature around 4am each night.

But, hey..the cheese is wonderful!! I’m even getting used to the poly extruded starch that they call bread in France…though it can be hard to find if it’s after midday and the local sandwich bars are very reluctant to sell them even they can only throw them away if they’re not made up into sandwiches. Strange!
The other day, being Sunday and therefore no workers around, we decided that it was high time to do the obligatory island tour…so I booked a full day’s tour, with lunch, in a 4x4 which took us around most of the island …and across the middle. Definitely not for the faint hearted, or pregnant ladies or those with bad backs. We bumped, splashed and crashed our way up the course of a steep valley right into the centre of the island driving through the worst roads ( engineered by the French army ) I’ve ever seen. We had to cross the river several times on our way up into the highlands and were told that other tours had cancelled that day’s trip because it had been raining hard since the night before making the roads quite treacherous. Large chunks of road had fallen into the river in several places and eventually we had nowhere left to go because a landslide had completely blocked the road (a photo may or may not accompany this piece)…so we couldn’t cross the island completely as there is only the one road and a couple of footpaths. I think we were a little fortunate that the landslide happened earlier and not as we actually drove along that stretch!? The rocks which make up Tahiti are very young (less then one million yrs) and although very hard, they are very friable, so shatter and crumble (lots of the minerals simply dissolve in water) very easily. The dramatic mountains look perfect for climbing but this is impossible and very dangerous to attempt so all the peaks remain virtually untouched and unexplored and very green too. The crumbly rock is why very little of the carvings done by the ancient islanders have survived in most of these islands.

The whole island like others across the Pacific is cooling and shrinking after the cessation of volcanic activity (just a few thousand years ago in Tahiti’s case) and will eventually disappear beneath the waves leaving just the rim of the crater which will then become a coral atoll…… I know this because I studied these things but our delightful guide, Alain was there to tell the rest of the group. So, basically, if you want to visit Tahiti or the other Society Islands, you’d better do it quickly!!

Everything grows madly here and many introduced species of plants are causing havoc as they spread and engulf the native flora….not very good for the future even though some of them are very pretty like the tulip tree from India with its bright vermilion flowers which stand out amongst all the green in the vast valleys of the interior.

It was a splendid day out marred slightly at the end unfortunately…we had stopped on our way back to the coast to stretch our legs. There was a definite smell of something very dead nearby and on investigating over the side of the road into the river valley, I saw a puppy lying among some rubbish bags….it wasn’t dead but wasn’t very well and only moved its head a little in response to Alain throwing it some bread. It obviously had dead brothers and sisters nearby. Quite horrible. Impossible for us to do anything either as the valley slope was very steep and unclimbable. I only hope it died quietly in the night. People can be very callous…..sad.

So, back to the boat and Monday dawned with more work being done on the electrics…the wiring on this boat is very complicated and something has been connected wrongly by someone in the past which may be the cause of many other problems. There is a very good all round boat repair man who speaks very good English, Patrick, who is trying to sort it all out once and for all….It would be rather nice to arrive somewhere with everything working for a change…but then as people in the sailing world everywhere will tell you, “it’s a boat”…so what do you expect?

We were surprised and delighted the other evening when Scot Free turned up and moored next to us. we last saw them in Santa Cruz, Galapagos when we were both stuck with engine problems etc. Debs and her Texas Man, David entertained us royally last night... I lost count of the number of empty bottles/boxes of the red stuff! Then earlier this morning, we were hailed by Sharon and Nigel from Honalee whom we last saw again in Santa Cruz. They are shortly off by air to NZ so we will arrange a farewell dinner I hope soon. This is one of the nicer things about being stuck somewhere....If we stayed for another month or so, even Pete (Troutbridge) and Pam and Jim ( Delicado) might catch up.... I suppose I must also hope that this won't happen as it would mean we were seriously stuck and they could even overtake us from then on! There would also be no money left at the rate it's currently being spent on the essentials like cheeeeeeeez!!

I am now going to sit and wait while some photos upload and it may just cost me another beer...at nearly £4 for a small glass.....Eek. I therefore hope they will be "appreciated"??

Positively the very last time I try to upload anything in Tahiti!

Hoorah! At last I've managed to do this. You won't believe how much it has cost to upload these few nondescript pictures...certainly more than the haircut which you can't really see here anyway! Oh well........




The view from down the road. Moorea in the background.







The traditional boats, pirogues, I think the French called them, which were just about to sail off into the sunset.






The view across the road from the marina with the mountains in the background. They are usually bathed in cloud and as I write this, they can't be seen at all as it's pouring with rain...again!
We should be leaving here in a day or so for the Cook Islands possibly via one or two of the other smaller islands in the group. We have been put off Bora Bora as it's a hotbed of crime apparently. So much for the "most beautiful place on Earth" title! Huahine sounds quite nice and not touristy and there's another one beginning with M whose name I've forgotten but it has lots of vowels in it as do most of these places.
Tahiti has been an expensive experience with lovely people along with the flowers and the frenchness of it all but it'll be good to move on to a quieter place where it's easier to imagine how it must have been in Cook's or Bligh's day... I expect they'll have internet though....?

Hoorah! At last a photo after trying for hours and hours. This is me (!) with my head on the block in Nuku Hiva waiting to be sacrificed at one of the sacred "tiki" sites. Goodness only knows how many poor people were beheaded over this stone and then consumed by the villagers. The eyeballs were a delicacy!

Papeete and it's charms.

Once again, we are just a little bit behind the Rally as they all left a few days ago for Moorea which looks wonderful, just a few hours sail from here. We are waiting for people to repair things. This time, there is more of a communication problem, surprisingly because hardly anyone speaks enough English and my French is OK except over the phone where everyone jabbers away so quickly that I get completely lost and misunderstand those important little words that make sense of everything…. Oops!

The wifi continues to be pretty useless and expensive but I have come ashore now while the boat is full of repairmen to find a better spot so that I can hopefully upload a photo or two. I had my hair cut a couple of days ago and it’s now quite short…nice to feel the air on my head again and I want to put an up to date photo on this blog!
I’m sitting in a nice place by the sea, surrounded by birds, (bulbuls and mynas) but no wifi here so I will have to move again. At least it’s not too hot yet and the insects aren’t biting much…it’s 8.15am here, 7.15pm in the UK.

The five traditional Polynesian boats all left last night after being here for a few days for some celebrations etc. They all looked quite spectacular as they left in the fading light (at least one photo came out so fingers crossed for the uploading). The crews were putting on a show as they went, singing and dancing, and the boat from the Cook Islands that had been alongside us did the haka. They were also blowing on triton shells to summon all the crews back on board. I’m pleased we were still here and in the middle of it all. They are lovely people and obviously very happy with their lives, mostly simple and traditional except that they all have mobile phones now!!

Moving on along the coast a little to an open air cafe, I find that the wifi signal is excellent for a change so here goes with the photos..and sorry they are so poor. My camera just isn't up to the job. It can't be my lack of photography skills can it? It has cost me nearly £7 for an orange juice here though. This place is exorbitant!