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28th September – 5th October, 2005
Sailing south from Western Samoa through blustery wind and squalls, en route towards an
engine mechanic in the Tongan island group of Vava’u, we crossed the dateline and effectively
lost a day: Tuesday 27th September never happened for us! Rolling along in heaping seas our
route south was blocked by an unsavoury-looking low depression, so we diverted to the
northernmost island in the Tongan group, a tiny speck 180Nmiles further north called
Niuatoputapu (affectionately known as "New Potatoes" amongst the cruisers!). Our plan was to
spend 2 days there catching up with cruiser friends and waiting for the depression to pass, but
the eye of the system became stationary over us, messing up all the weather and winds, so we
were forced to remain holed up there for 6 days.
The delay gave us a fortuitous opportunity to experience some traditional Tongan culture; these
islands are very cut off from the rest of Tonga, with no air connection and only 1 supply/ferry
vessel every quarter (!), so western society hasn’t exerted too much influence here. The island
has a population of 1,000 in 3 villages, and the second nearby island of Tafahi (a perfect volcanic
cone straight up out of the water) has only one village of 80 people. Village life continues to
operate within strict hierarchical structures at both family and village level, and each village chief
has a high degree of autonomy in maintaining internal affairs, with ultimate responsibility to the
Tongan monarch (this is the only kingdom in the southern hemisphere), who resides far away
on the southern island of Tongatapu.
Niuatoputapu’s sole anchorage is reached through a very tricky, winding and narrow pass
between shallow pounding reefs; with not enough width to even turn around under sail. It was
touch-and-go whether we would be able to sail through safely. We had emailed notice of our
arrival ahead to our friends Rolf and Yolanda aboard the Swiss yacht ‘Moana’, and as we made
our dawn approach we could hear Rolf’s voice on the radio organising a cruiser's welcoming
committee of half a dozen dinghies expecting to tow us in through the reef! To their universal
disappointment, but growing respect, we fancied our chances so elected to sail in the whole way,
picking a zigzag route just meters from jagged rocks on either side, to anchor first shot in prime
position yet again!! Calls of "Who's the RYA Instructor aboard?" were heard from adjacent
yachts! Nice feeling.
No sooner had we dropped the hook, than we were boarded by a contingent of Tongan
Customs, Immigration and Quarantine officials ready to search our cupboards, and present us
with the usual wad of paperwork to clear into the country. In the last 21 countries we have visited,
this was the first time that the check-in officials have boarded our vessel, but the process was all
pretty relaxed and they were more interested in making friends and pocketing a few candies,
than actually searching for contraband! To conclude our check-in formalities we had to head
ashore that afternoon and hike an hour to the furthest village, to get a health-clearance from the
sole doctor on the island, and pay our fees at the customs office, a wonderfully quaint little building
that doubles up as the treasury for the island! The sleepy village scene was a powerful reminder
of how far from western civilization we were, and all along the dusty main road looping the island
we were met by little children running out to practice their two words of English: “Goodbye” and
“Lolly”!!
Kava Ceremonies and a Tongan Feast
The following day all the cruisers were invited to attend a huge traditional Tongan feast, held
annually to raise funds from all the local families for community projects organised by the
Catholic Church. The feast for about 200 people was truly impressive: they cooked a huge pig
overnight in an 'umu' oven – a hole dug into the ground and covered with earth – spit-roasted
another 80 smaller pigs (yes, that’s almost one between two people!), and gathered lobsters,
coconut-crabs, taro roots, fish etc for a huge over-the-top display! The feast was preceded by a
special Kava ceremony. Kava is the ground root of a local pepper plant that they turn into a
spicy drink that looks (and tastes) like dishwater with a hint of ginger. The beauty though is its
mildly narcotic and anaesthetic effects... it makes your tongue and lips go numb, and sends you
into a mild stupor: marvellous stuff! The men (women aren’t allowed to join in) traditionally all sit
around in a circle in a hut in the centre of each village and drink the stuff all afternoon while singing
and telling tales – no wonder no one gets any work done here, but it sure makes everyone very
friendly. On this particular occasion the cruising men were invited to join the village elders for a
special ceremony presided over by the catholic minister and the head-chief from the village.
Lots of formal chanting, clapping of hands and calling of names, then passing the communal cup
(a polished half-coconut shell), and downing in one!
After a couple of hours of this ceremony, and a series of dance rituals (we were expected to join
in one of the men's war dances!), the head-chief considered us sufficiently inebriated (for now!),
so the patiently waiting hordes were allowed to proceed with the feast. And what a display –
there was enough food on the tables to feed five times the number, but to our relief it transpired
that each family retained what wasn’t consumed at the end of the meal to take back to their
village. By the way, both the umu-cooked and spit-roasted pigs were excellent, we liked the
kava (and went back for more), but we couldn’t get a taste for the roasted taro root! Above all, it
was wonderful to be invited to share a fully-immersed experience of their traditional culture.
Climbing Tafahi Volcano
Two days later we took a trip in a local fishing boat over to the volcanic island of Tafahi about
5Nmiles from Niuatoputapu. There we spent 4 hours climbing 2000ft to the top of the volcanic
rim, taking a route that went straight upwards at about 30-40 degrees and which involved cutting
our way through lush rainforest on the steep slopes, all the while eating green mangoes and
coconuts plucked from the trees along the way for sustenance. It was an energetic climb, but the
view from the top was well worth the effort.
On return to the sole village at the bottom we (3 men) joined the locals in their hut for more Kava,
and some exceptionally fine impromptu singing by them - beautiful voices singing traditional
Tongan songs, which made our staple rendition of rugby-songs seem very poor by
comparison! We then had the chance to visit the tiny one-hut school, where the children proudly
showed off their English projects, and we were presented with baskets of mangoes to take
home. While the projects were similar to those you’d see in many western classrooms, it came
as a surprise to see the ubiquitous “Dick, Jane and their dog Spot” books replaced by the
Tongan equivalent of “Tupuoto, Salote and their stingray”! The villages are very simple, with lots
of pigs and horses running around, and everyone is super-friendly and welcoming: no wonder
they call these the "Friendly Isles"!
Finding we had time to wait before our return trip in the fishing boat, we wandered along the rocky
shore until well out of sight, and took the opportunity to cool off by diving into a natural rock tide-
pool for a refreshing skinny-dip: no modesty necessary here!
Establishing Firm Friendships
Back in the anchorage the ‘Suvarov Effect’ was kicking into action, increasing our social activity
with other cruisers such that we seemed to be rotating lively and entertaining dinners on ours or
other yachts nearly every night… despite restocking in Apia, our wine and food supplies were
consequently starting to run desperately low! A few couples – Berit and Eric aboard the
Norwegian yacht ‘Fruen Fra Havet’, and Rolf and Yolanda aboard ‘Moana’ in particular – have
become firm companions, adjusting their itineraries to match our wind-powered speed, and
looking out for us in many ways – we will be sad to say goodbye to them in New Zealand in a
couple of months.
A cruiser on one of the other yachts in the anchorage had just located the unmarked wreck of a
120ft schooner lying just off the reef in 15 meters of water... so we took the opportunity to borrow
some scuba tanks, find the wreck using his GPS coordinates on a handheld unit, and dive on it
from our dinghy. The surge through the gaping holes in it’s steel hull pays testament to what can
happen if you're not careful enough navigating these waters!
On our last day a local musical group put on an evening’s entertainment under the palms of a
nearby motu (coral island), in an admirable effort to raise a little money for a scholarship fund, in
order to assist local families too poor to afford school fees for their children. It was very apparent
that even the smallest donation would go a very long way here, and we were only too willing to
give a little back to the local community. The musical troupe turned out to be exceptionally
talented, with beautiful voices honed to sing in perfect harmony through years of training in the
omni-present churches. The occasion was once again accompanied by a large bowl of Kava,
served between songs, and this time the Western women were invited to participate and
discover what their men-folk had been enjoying all along!
As the winds returned we left in the first weather-window the following morning (remember with
no engine we were at the mercy of the winds), amongst a flotilla of 11 other yachts all heading the
same way – the first time we have made a long passage in the company and sight of others
since the ARC Trans-Atlantic crossing! Next stop Vava'u, where with any luck we’ll get our
engine fixed before proceeding towards Fiji. We've adjusted to the regime of power-saving and
sail-power quite happily, but we'll be glad for a cold beer from the fridge once again!
The last couple of months have been absolutely magical: the Pacific only seems to get better the
further west we go. Partly it's the allure of the isolated islands we've been visiting, partly the
yachting social scene that seems to have become much stronger the more remote we get, and
finally (and maybe the most significantly) the lack of any deadlines or fixed dates to be anywhere
to pick up passengers or collect parts. It's what we always dreamed about when we started this
adventure, and it's just a shame it's slowly coming to an end! We keep dreaming up ways to
keep the adventure going, but alas the talons of reality will probably stretch out to sink their claws
back into us, and leave it as just a dream…
pass, and anchor under sail
