Author: richwest3

November 17, 2012

We headed over to Uoleva Beach late in the afternoon. I thought it might be fun to have a picnic, but we didn’t have any convenient food ready so I just brought a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses. Our dingy gave us something to sit on while we enjoyed the wine.

This beach evening ended up being one of the nicest and most carefree times of our entire trip! This part of our cruise–sailing the islands of the tropical south pacific–would soon come to an end, and we would be on to a different sort of adventure in New Zealand. We were more than ready for the change! Even though we wouldn’t be leaving Tonga for another week or so, this felt like saying good-bye. Tomorrow we’d catch up with the other boats, but this evening we had an anchorage to ourselves, and it would likely be the last one for a long, long time.

This evening was one of of those magical pre-sunset times where everything seems washed in a golden light. The air was warm, the water still, and the only sounds were from the birds in the trees behind us. We drank our wine, walked on the beach, waded in the water, watched fruit bats fly over us, and waited for the sunset. I don’t think we could have been happier than we were at this moment. -Cyndi

November 17, 2012

While we were enjoying the beach, the two other boats remaining here left, and we were on our own. At this point, no one was behind us; we were trailing the last of the pack. Our plan had been to head on to our next destination, Ha’afeva Island, just after lunch, but plans change. Rich was still recovering from a back injury, and a day here just to rest sounded like a nice idea. Plus, we had been enchanted by the beautiful beach and if we stayed, we could go back again this afternoon. With that, we decided to stay one more day.

I noticed I felt strangely uneasy sitting in the cockpit that afternoon. We had this incredible anchorage and beach to ourselves, which is a rare and precious thing, and I have never felt anything but giddy when this happens. Now, though, the situation was a bit different, and I realized I was dealing with a primal feeling: the back of a traveling pack is the most dangerous place to be. Stragglers are picked off first, and suddenly we were the stragglers. I came up with a nickname for us: Tiger Bait.

As soon as I realized what I was feeling and named it; the feeling dissipated. Rich and I laughed about it; and we kept the nickname Tiger Bait through the rest of our time in Tonga as we had a tendency to linger behind the others. -Cyndi

November 17, 2012

We were anchored off the long stretch of beach on Uoleva Island. It looked nice enough, but not that special aside from being so long. We planned to head to another island today and nearly opted not to go ashore as it was such a gray and cloudy morning, but we figured we should at least go walk on this beach after making the effort to get here.

The sun came out as we neared the beach, and once again I was reminded that you don’t really see a place until you go ashore. What looked like long, boring stretch of sand from the boat turned out to be one of the most beautiful, enchanting beaches we’ve been to.

We made an easy beach landing, then walked down towards the point. This beach made coming to the Ha’apai island group well worth the effort. -Cyndi

November 16, 2012

We were concerned about the trip to Uoleva as it meant another passage through a large area of coral reefs, but it turned out to be relatively easy. We arrived to find a couple of the boats we’d caught up to yesterday, but this big anchorage with its all-sand bottom felt luxuriously roomy: there would have been room for 100 boats!

This anchorage is famous for it’s endlessly long white sand beach and beautiful shells; but since it was breezy and cloudy we opted to hold off on checking it out until the next morning. We did have our friends from the neighboring boat, Picara, over for a sundowner. We’ve known them since meeting them in the Tuamotus (in French Polynesia) and always enjoy running into them. We were all part of the last of the fleet and would be taking the same weather window to New Zealand, and now we were able to sort out who would be in our group.

Two boats were now in Nuku’alofa, the south island. Two boats had left Vava’u the day after us but today had arrived at an island just south of us. One of the boats we’d seen yesterday was going to a different island, and one was here but would be heading back to Vava’u for the season. For now, all of us were heading to the same place: Nuku’alofa, and all of us would need to arrive there before a bout of westerly winds that was due to arrive in a few days (most Ha’apai anchorages are open to westerly winds).

We now knew of 7 boats making the passage to New Zealand in our group, and it seemed one more was coming: our friends on Gato Go, who had to run back to the US to take care of some business, had just returned to their boat in Neiafu and were headed this way.

Boats generally leave on this passage in groups, and there is a strong sense of camaraderie and kinship within that group. In spite of modern-day weather forecasting, there is a large degree of the unknown in this journey, and you will be sharing this adventure together, exchanging and sharing advice, commiserating, offering support, and standing by to help. It was nice to get a sense of who would be in our group. -Cyndi

November 16, 2012

The next morning, we headed into the town of Pengai. I was struck by how much it reminded me of Baja, Mexico as it managed to have a dry, dusty feeling in spite of being in the tropics. It’s not the prettiest place and there’s not much there; so most cruisers choose to bypass it.

There is one attraction, though, and that’s the legendary Mariner’s Cafe. It’s owned by former cruisers who years ago opened this little bar/restaurant. They cater to the cruising crowd, offering advice and information, internet service, and general camaraderie. They also have a guest book, and it’s fun to go look at who’s been there before you. Even though we hadn’t planned to stop here, I was glad we got to see it. I was aware as we signed the book that we were very likely to be the last entry for 2012.

The customs office wasn’t far as this is a very small town. We had heard the locals here are friendly, but we didn’t find that to be the case as almost all our hellos to passers-by were either ignored or met with stares. It was a startling contrast to the warm and friendly people of Vava’u. The customs official was OK, but he wanted to know: “Why so many boats this year? There are too many boats!” I felt as though he expected us to do something about this. (I have to say he’d be really shocked at the number if every boat actually checked in!)

All in all the welcome here was really lukewarm, even from the Mariner’s Cafe. Maybe the masses of boats this year have worn everyone out. We decided to head on to our next destination that afternoon, Uoleva Beach, a few miles south. We had caught up to three other boats here yesterday, and they had all left by the time we returned to Legacy. Once again, we were alone. -Cyndi