Author: richwest3

October 20, 2012

Cruiser’s Ankle from frequent mosquito encounters.

And “Frito Bandito Toe” from Cyndi’s run-in with an errant board on the dock, way back in Papette.

October 18, 2012

Is it uncharted coral reefs? Hurricanes or cyclones? Sharks, sea snakes or other deadly marine life? Pirates? No. No. No. And no. It’s alcoholism. I have never consumed so much alcohol as I have since we’ve been cruising.

It started innocently enough with a glass of wine during a special sunset, and since each sunset here has been amazing, this quickly became a daily ritual. Then there’s the alcohol when socializing. This is one great big adult summer camp and it seems the socializing never ends (nor does the drinking).

Now in Tonga, a new problem… cheap beer at The Aquarium Cafe at town here in Neiafu (Vava’u Tonga). How can you pass up on a 5 pa’anga draft beer with lunch or dinner (or maybe even breakfast)? We heard someone say that they needed to get away from Neiafu to dry out their liver and I thought they were joking. Now I’m not so sure.

We’ll be away from town soon and on another passage. That should dry us out. Unless we’re at all scared, or uncomfortable, or apprehensive, or jittery, or, let’s face it, awake, in which case we’ll have a shot of rum. Oh well, maybe we’ll dry out in New Zealand. -Rich

October 18, 2012

We’ve been in Tonga four weeks and we’ve loved every day here. It’s been a magical place. We spent the first three weeks in Neiafu harbor at a mooring ball. The first of those weeks was Regatta Vava’u and it was an amazing party with about 90 cruising boats participating. The party slowly tapered off over the next two weeks. Last week, we managed to cast off the lines and get out to the surrounding islands and motus to explore. We returned to Neiafu today to provision for our trip south to two other Tonga island groups before setting out in mid November for New Zealand. 

October, 2012

Our first decision was about New Zealand and basically came down to this: when did we want to make the crossing? When you start making these plans from the US, the common assumption is you want to be south by the start of cyclone season (a cyclone is what a hurricane is called in these parts). This is generally December, but November is a transition month (like May in the northern hemisphere) and is considered a risk, enough so that most boat insurance companies demand you be out of the tropics by the end of October (as we weren’t currently insured, this insurance pressure was not an issue for us).

When we came to Tonga, we assumed we’d be leaving for New Zealand by the end of October. But then we started to listen to the cruisers who were actually from New Zealand, and what we came away with was this: they do not make this crossing until the end of November at the earliest, or better yet early December. The reasons are very simple: in November the risk of a cyclone is tiny, but a gale on the passage to New Zealand is pretty much guaranteed. The longer we could wait, the less the likelihood of our encountering a strong low pressure system (causing gales), and if we did get one, the winds would be less forceful. On top of that, the longer we waited, the closer we’d be to New Zealand’s summer, which starts in late December, and the warmer it would be. I think the cold was the final deciding factor: why go early and have to be huddled in our boat with the heater running?

We were tempted early on by the All Points Rally we had joined, which had boats leaving Tonga at the end of October to arrive in Opua early November. There was a big welcome week planned, with cruiser parties, seminars, freebies and festivities. It sounded like so much fun, but we wondered why they do this so early. In any case, we had to decide: is it worth being out in 45-knot winds and rough seas to get free beer at a cruiser party? The answer was a quick no. We would wait as long as we dared before heading south to New Zealand. With that, we could take our time and see more of Tonga. -Cyndi

PS: While we relaxed, we enjoyed more sunsets.

October 18, 2012

When we headed back to Neiafu, it was mid-October and time to start making the decisions we’d been putting off:

1. When did we want to make the passage to New Zealand?
2. Did we want to depart for New Zealand from here (Neiafu) or make our way down to Nuku’alofa, the southernmost island in Tonga and a popular jump-off spot for New Zealand?
3. Did we want to cruise the Ha’apai, a group of islands south of Vava’u? They had fewer protected anchorages and were more difficult overall (just the sort of situations we’d been avoiding) but were en route to Nuku’alofa and supposed to be beautiful.

For now, we would have some time to ponder these things as we had weather coming in and would not be going anywhere for at least a week. Meanwhile, our first decision had partly been made as we had decided not to leave for New Zealand until late November. -Cyndi

Note: I have some Neiafu sunset photos to add to the blog posts, and this seems as good a place as any.