Suravov to Niuatoputapu - Tonga

30th August 2007

We left Surovov at 12:30pm it really was a wrench as we have had a wonderful time there, it was quite sad saying goodbye to the family as they had been brilliant hosts.






Leaving Suvarov











Pete….

The forecast has changed its mind and decided that the winds will be light from now on.

We should not need fuel or water when we arrive since we have plenty on board but we are currently running a "dry" ship since the rum has run out. Replenishments will be sought once we arrive.

We like to call our destination New-Potatoes since it is easier to remember than Neiutoputapu and also easier to spell. The pilot book says that the entrance is straightforward but C-Map shows it as very narrow. A mid-day arrival will be good.


2nd September 2007

Well, we have had a good sail so far apart from the second night when it was a bit squally and fickle. Fliss got rained-on and I got a good soaking as well as having to cope with exceptionally erratic winds that varied 120 degrees and had us going between 8.5 knots and 1.5 knots. Not a relaxing watch!

Yesterday we passed Rose Island just before sunset. Unfortunately, the light was not right and we were not able to stop for the night. Rose Island is a nature reserve and one must get permission to stop there but since there is no warden, who would know? There was a single mast sitting inside the lagoon. I was surprised when we saw it since we have been sailing and steering by Celestial and DR positions since leaving - we knew it was on our rhum line but I was surprised when we sailed by within one mile without even adjusting course. Of course, Fliss used GPS and silently made sure that we weren't going to hit it!

The forecast keeps on telling us the wind is dying and here we are doing 6-7+ knots. The latest forecast shows that the wind will stay with us for tomorrow and that is all we need to make landfall. It is 07:30 in the morning and we have 40 hours to go at our current rate. This gives us an arrival time in the middle of the night and so we will need to slow-down once we get a little nearer in order to arrive in daylight.

4th September 2007

We have passed the international dateline and suddenly moved forward a day - and are getting confused as a result!

We had a bit of a wind shift and sudden increase that meant that we were sailing again this afternoon. After no wind, we suddenly had to tuck the third reef in the main and shorten the jib to a handkerchief. "Never Mind" we said, it was just a squall and they sometimes take a couple of hours to blow themselves out. The problem was that we were surfing towards our destination at 7-8 knots and we have budgeted on 5 knots in order to reach our landfall at about 08:00 the next morning. I think that there really was no slowing down for us and if we took the main down, we would have no possibility of hoving-to and awaiting daylight. So, at about 22:30 and only 30 miles from NewPotatoes, we hove-to in order to stand-off until morning.

Both of us were a little nervous of the hove-to manoeuvre since we have never tested Nadezhda's capability to hove to in such wild conditions and the thought of having to tack in such large seas and roaring wind gave us the jitters. In the end, although we were doing 7 knots on a broad reach, it took the engine to get the nose through the wind and waves and to settle us in hove-to. After that, we hid down below and the ride was surprisingly quiet and stable. The only problem was that we probably did not need any headsail out since the small amount that we did have was causing us to lie a little too beam onto the seas. As a result of this, we had the regular breaker that came up like the sound of an avalanche that hit us broadside with an almightily bang and piled hundreds of gallons over the deck that would then slosh around from one gunnel to the other for a while.

As we couldn’t maintain a watch we decided to put out a “Securite” call on the VHF on the hour and every hour to advise all vessels that we were hove-to and not under command, we also politely requested that all other vessels maintained a good watch and kept a safe distance from us. I did get a call back from another Ozzie boat who was also out, I was amazed to hear that he was 40-50 miles from us and could still hear us. He described his conditions as “Dirty” the wind speed he recorded was 30 knots in the gusts, he was on his way “slowly” to Pago Pago, how he managed to go slowly baffled us.

5th September 2007

Pete managed to get some sleep but I couldn’t relax enough, I wasn’t frightened but I felt that someone had to stay awake to keep an eye on things.

All in all it was a valuable experience as Nadezhda rode the waves beautifully and it made me realise that she is definitely the boat for long distance cruising, she really is made of stern stuff!

I woke Pete up at 6:30am and the conditions hadn’t eased in-fact they had intensified

Pete……..

I managed to get a good 2/3 hours of sleep but Fliss did not get any. She woke me at about 07:00 and I stuck my head out of the companionway to the fiercest and most ridiculous scene of boiling waves and horizontal spume. Actually, we had just been hit by a squall that had piled an extra few knots onto the windspeed and the overall conditions were not as bad as my first morning impression. So, we tacked the jib and we were off again at 7+ knots having a fairly comfortable ride. The good thing was that there were patches of blue showing in the sky and the winds were dropping a little to something a bit more bearable.





The sun poked through









I had checked the pilots notes and the information on C-Map that said that there were shoals and breaking waves at the entrance to the pass and that with an Easterly swell, the breakers could go all the way across the entrance making it dangerous to enter. At 20 miles off, I called out a "Good Morning Campers" to anyone in the anchorage and had a reply from Peter on an American yacht "Marcy". He told us that they could not clearly see the entrance from where they were but offered to take a dinghy ride there to check it out. An hour later and he called back to say that they had sat in the entrance for about 5 minutes and no breakers had actually closed-out the pass. He said that we would need to come in with the breakers about 40 feet to our port side and we should have the engine on hard for steerage. "It will be intimidating but probably quite ok" were his words. He then offered to come out and guide us through and we snapped up the offer.

We called Peter (and Ginger, his wife) when we were 2.5 miles off and soon had the leading marks spotted. Headsail rolled in, we turned for the entrance and soon spotted the little RIB with a Q flag flying on a pole at the back. They appeared to be playing dangerously close to the surf as we hardened-up the main and headed for them. The most natural thing to do was to keep away from the back of the waves that appeared to be curling over and breaking, but the dinghy made a bee-line right next to them and we followed. Not too many yards to the right were rocks and shoals under the surface and we had to resist the temptation to go there. Once past the entrance, the water was flat calm and we had an easy run in from thereon. All credit to Peter and Ginger and our many thanks for getting us in safely.






Entrance to New Potatoes









As we approached the anchorage, there was a familiar shape sitting there. "Splinters Apprentice", a long cabin Saga 36 was bobbing gently there. "Ariel" whom we had met in Suvarov were also in as well.

We dropped the hook, arranged for Customs to visit, blew-up the dinghy and went over to Marcy to offer thanks. They offered us a shot of Tequila that was gratefully accepted since we have been running a dry ship after the rum had run out some time past.

Customs, Immigration, Police and Health officials arrived at the quayside (one man and 3 women) and I ferried them to Nadezhda. Peter & Ginger had warned us to hide our tobacco and leave just a few packets around. The island had not had a supply ship in more than a month and the next one was due on the 24th September. As a result, the whole island had been suffering withdrawal symptoms since the cigarettes ran out and any tobacco was a valued commodity. Each official handed us papers to fill in, each asking for pretty much identical information. They pried into a few cupboards looking for goodies but were satisfied when we offered them 2 packets of cigarettes and one of tobacco (half of what we claimed to have on board).

With no provisions being delivered to the island, the stores were apparently pretty empty and the island had nothing with which to replenish our sundowner stores. We had a response to our enquiries from Nico who ran a tiny store ashore and who listened out to the VHF. He had the entrepreneurial skill to have made a homebrew from tinned peaches, sugar and "other stuff" and we agreed to meet him later. He did not want money for his goods, he wanted to trade tobacco.

We first went over to "Splinters Apprentice" and were invited on-board by "Bone" and Beth who have been cruising for the last 14 years. We compared notes on the Saga and found that we sail our boats in much the same way. They agreed that poling the headsail to windward on a broad reach and flying the staysail at the same time was an excellent way to get an extra knot of boat speed. They use their autopilot in conjunction with their Aries windvane and they also prefer to run a small high-clewed headsail rather than anything approaching a genoa.

We took our leave and went ashore to find Niko and furtively exchanged a pack of cigarettes and a pack of tobacco for a gallon of home brew. It felt like we were doing some sort of illegal drug deal. Nico offered us a large taster of the brew and it was very nice - a sort of sweet Cointreau taste a bit like sherry. We returned to the boat and had a glass each and were suprised when Nico and his wife Siea turned up in another yacht's dinghy offering us half a bottle of brandy…. Word must have got around that we were raging alcoholics but we were glad of the supplies that cost another 2 packets of cigarettes.

At seven o'clock we were to be found fast asleep on the couch having hardly touched a drop of our new supplies.

6th September 2007

In the morning, went over to "Splinters Apprentice" who were having trouble with water in the laptop and some of their keys on the keyboard were not working. As a result, they could not do a system restore that required use of the "O" key. We took along our spare keyboard to sort them out and I also prised the key off and got it working (although I never managed to re-fit the offending article, they were happy that it was now useable). They gave us Maxsea navigation software and soft copies of many pilot books from New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, SE Asia (Volumes I & II), Thailand and India through to the Red Sea.

We then took a walk into the main village, which is about a 45 minute hike along the dirt track that runs around the island.

The island is a complete culture shock after leaving French Polynesia. The houses range from cinder-block structures with tin roofs to wooden shacks covered with palm leaves. Little children run everywhere and all want lollipops, which we do not have. They mix with the dogs, pigs, piglets and horses that roam around freely. Pork is obviously not in short supply but we were surprised at the lack of chickens - especially since we have run out of eggs and there appear to be none available on the island. We later learned that the locals do not eat eggs and were horrified that we would even consider it.

The walk was interrupted in each small settlement by people asking for cigarettes until we eventually arrived at the main village where the Treasury, Ministry of Commerce and Trade, Revenue Office, Labour Office, Ministry of Agriculture and other major government departments were housed in a wooden shack that was indistinguishable from the run-down surrounding houses. This was where we changed some dollars for the local Pa'anga (1.8 Pa'anga to the dollar) and then paid our customs and health dues and were parted from some more cigarettes.

We then found the local shop that was impressively large. It sold cooking oil, cans of soft drinks, machetes, corned-beef, UHT milk and tinned mackerel. It used to sell rice as well but we snaffled the last bag.

As we walked back, the local schools turned-out and flooded the street with a hoard of red-clad, brown-faced, bare-footed little-un's. They surrounded us and escorted us back along the road as we tried to avoid stepping on the tangle of little bodies around our legs. The boys are fascinated in the men and the girls staring agog at Fliss. The swarm slowly shrank as homes were approached and the little red bees waved "bye-bye". All the smaller kids were wearing red uniforms and the older kids from a school further along the road wore; purple dresses for the girls, and grey tunic and grey skirts for the boys. The boys also had what looked like woven grass kneeling-mats that they folded and wore around their waists like a cummerbund.




















Fliss….

On the way back I asked the kids where we came from and they said “Tonga” so I gave them a clue and started to sing our national anthem (they new the words) after I had finished my poor rendition I asked them to sing theirs, one boy started and then stopped out of embarrassment but after a few seconds all the kids were singing (about 15) it was wonderful as they harmonised beautifully and sang it with immense pride. Incredibly sweet moment as the kids where aged between 5-12.



Pete..

In the evening, we were invited over by Ian and Cathy to "Ariel" for dinner. Ian cooked-up some starters to give us a taste of things that can be done with local produce. We had fried breadfruit chips that were a pretty good replacement for the potato variety and also we had fried coconut that had a splash of soy sauce added - It was amazing how much it tasted like crispy bacon! Main course was corned beef bolognaise.

7th September 2007

We went over to Niko's and offered him some impact adhesive to fix the inner tube on his car and he gave us a lift into the main village where we got our exit papers. The forecast looks good for a trip to Vavau on Sunday and we thought we might as well get the outbound clearance early.

We went with Ian and Cathy to a nearby Motu for a little explore and then we all visited "Marcy" in the evening for sundowners and snacks. It still amazes us how other folks provision - they had cheeses, cold sausages, crackers and popcorn to offer us.

8th September 2007

Today we will relax and tomorrow, the weather looks good for a trip to Vavau. There is a serious low pressure hanging off New Zealand at the moment and we are not sure how that will affect us in a couple of days time so we will get out tomorrow and then we won't be stuck here for the next week. There were about 8 boats in the anchorage here when we arrived, half of them left yesterday and 3 left this morning leaving just Marcy and ourselves.