November 14, 2012
By Wednesday, 11/14, virtually all of the cruising boats had left Neiafu. All that were left were Legacy (us), the boats Bright Angel and Sockdolager, both of whom were both leaving tomorrow (Bright Angel for New Zealand and Sockdolager for the Ha’apai), Gato Go whose owners were currently back in the US attending to some business, and a catamaran heading to Fiji. Two or three boats had left yesterday for the Ha’apai group, and now it was our time to go.
After heading into town to say some good-byes and having a final pizza at the Aquarium, we went back to Legacy and dropped our Neiafu mooring for the last time. I had some tears as this place has been very special for us, but I looked forward to heading south and on to our next adventures.
This would be an overnight trip–we left at 3pm with plans to arrive in the Ha’apai group around 7am tomorrow morning. A southerly wind had come up, but we hoped it would be mild enough not to matter. Alas, the wind picked up as we headed down the channel; so we went with plan B: stop at Port Maurelle (about 30 minutes out of Neiafu) for the night and then go tomorrow.
I suspected the bay might be empty, and I was right. It was a shock to go into one of the busiest bays in Vava’u and see the anchorage area empty and every mooring ball free! (The moorings always fill up before the anchorage does and are very hard to get). We had our pick of any one we wanted, and that actually made the choice difficult—we were like kids in candy store! After making our pick, Rich went below to rest his back (he had hurt it a couple of days ago but was doing OK now), and I took a cushion and went up on deck with a beer to enjoy a Corona moment (or in this case, a Lion Brown moment).
Having this bay to ourselves was an amazing experience. Nature behaves differently when all the yachties are gone, as though having one boat here is the equivalent of no boats at all. The birds were so active: I could hear them calling to each other, and the lush greenery on shore seemed alive with them! I watched fairy terns swoop down over the water to catch small fish and saw a pair of large gray herons mate in the trees nearby. At this point, I felt no disappointment about not getting south tonight and no trepidations about being nearly the last ones here. I was only enjoying it. Later, the fruit bats started to appear, many more than I usually see here.
As the the late afternoon turned into evening, Rich was starting to get nervous about something that had recently happened (and had coincided with the storm). A boat had washed up on a reef south of us, in the Vava’u group. We only heard at first that “this is not a rescue operation,” and any boats that came near the scene were threatened with fines and arrest! We finally learned there was a dead body in the cockpit, and that after the officials got on board they discovered a lot of cash and cocaine, and the other man sailing this vessel had disappeared.
It seemed these “cruisers” were actually drug runners. As of yet, the missing guy not been found, and an idea started to nag at Rich as night was nearing and we were alone in this anchorage: what better way to escape the islands then to hijack another cruising vessel and head off. As we both started to feel uneasy about being here alone tonight, the wind died. It wasn’t too late to head south; so we decided to go ahead and do it. -Cyndi
