2011-8-30 Neiafu, Vavau, Tonga

The sailing south from Niuatoputapu was quite rough. The grib files forecasted 20 knots wind from E/SE. In practice the wind was between 20-30 knots, the direction was as forecasted so it allowed a 60 degree apparent headwind sailing towards Vavau.

The high sea, waves 3-4 meters, with a lot of turbulence resulted a crushing sailing. Occasionally the waves broke against the hull pouring water over the boat and on the other hand the boat fell down in a hole between the waves making the rig to pump.

We departed Niuatoputapu in the morning and arrived to Neiafu afternoon the next day. Only then we noticed that the port side intermediate shroud was damaged with few broken wires.

The are no repair facilities in Tonga so we have ordered new shrouds from Malö/Selden, let's see when/if we get them here.

We have some dynema rope and mast fittings for emergency use but prefer to have a permanent repair before heading towards New Zealand as during that leg one most likely will face some rough weather anyway. 

The Neiafu harbor with moorings is a protected and calm place to stay. Beluga Dive and Aquarium Cafe provide moorings for cruisers. Moorings and Sunsail have own moorings for charter boats. Some anchoring locations exist but the waters are very deep.  

2011-8-26 Niuatoputapu, Tonga

The sail south from Samoa was very nice in 15-20 knots wind from E-NE, the sea was also quite smooth.

Niuatoputapu is a port of entry in the north part of Tonga. It is quite remote as the distance to Samoa is 180 miles and to the Vavau group of Tonga 160 miles.

The Samoa tsunami in 2009 had damaged all the three villages in Niuatoputapu and most of the houses were of same type and delivered to the island through a development aid program. There are no shops or services for yachties. A supply ship and an airplane is visiting the island once a week.

 The anchorage is very protected from the waves although northerly winds blow over the reef and southerly winds over the low island. The pass through the reef looks bad on chart but when following the marked line in the lowest water depth was about 6 meters.

The people are very polite, they like more to trade fruits and food to various products than use money for exchange. We were joining the local families two times for eating, the local food includes breadfruit, taro, fish, seafood, chicken and pork. The visitors usually bring some desserts and drinks. The eating is on the floor with hands.

We had also our first kava drinks in Niuatoputapu. It looks like mud and tastes bitterly. In many evenings the local men were sitting in the village hall drinking kava and singing until quite late.    

2011-8-12 Apia, Western Samoa III

The Samoans' are very good at adapting the current themes into cakes. The left side in the picture is obvious, it is to favor the Samoa rugby team in the world champion games. The right side with the beer bottles in the cake was sold as " A present to the father at Father's Day".

2011-8-12 Apia, Western Samoa II

The marina has many rules for visiting boats as the table shows. In practice the life here is very relaxed and the people are really friendly.

The price level is well down from French Polynesia. For transportation there are many taxis, the price from the biggest Apia supermarket Farmer Joe to marina about  2 km away is 6-7 tala ( appr 2 eur).

Going around the island can be done very cheaply with buses, this may take quite long time anyhow. We selected to hire a taxi for one day tour costing 250 tala.

The Apia downtown life can be enjoyed just sitting down in a street restaurant having a Vailima beer. Samoa men are usually wearing a lava-lava (a skirt), especially the various officials in the town. There are three major markets in Apia, the fish market, the craft market and the fruit market. Every market  has a lot of products offered, at the fruit market there is also two tables for cava drinking.

There are some nice weekly activities performed like Tuesdays a fire dance performance at the ice cream bar near marine, Wednesdays a traditional dance show  at the Aggie Cray's hotel short walk towards the town. Almost every evening the big rowing boats go out from practicing, they have a crew of about 50 persons with rowers in pairs, a drummer and a rudder man.

One day we were following a parade for Manu Samoa, the rugby team, as they were starting they way to New Zealand for world championship games. The police music band was leading the way.

We also received  the windpilot spares and got it installed after some acrobatic positions for fixing all the bolts in place.       

2011-8-4 Apia, Western Samoa

Based on the grib-file forecasts the sail to Suvarov/Samoa seemed straight forward, winds from ESE/NE 15-25 knots i.e. downwind sailing.

The start was as forecasted but for the second day wind went down to 5-10 knots level so some motoring at that stage.

Then came the few days of stronger and squally winds with rain showers. Winds were up to 35 knots in squalls while the prevailing winds were 20-25 knots, direction still varying between ESE-NE.

At that stage the sea was also quite turbulent with swell of 2-3 meters high, so quite much rolling in down wind.

Now it  is again time to give credit to Malo's well protected cockpit. When the rain came we just rolled down the cockpit side canvases and continued the life in T-shirts. The cockpit remains dry as well as the interior of the boat as no wet gears were needed to move in/out.

About one day before Suvarov the wind were still at 25-30 knots level with quite high swell so we selected to continue directly to Apia. The Charlie's Charts says that entry to Suvarov should be made only in good weather with calm sea.

The day after the wind calmed to 20 knots level giving nice down wind sailing until about 100 miles from Apia. Wind started then gradually go down to 10 knots level and finally during the final morning at sea even below 5 knots. There were again some motoring during the last day to reach Apia during day light.

The sailing from Bora-Bora to Apia took exactly 9 days.

Apia nowadays has a well protected marina where the visiting boats will be guided after calling Port Control on VHF channel 16 . The capacity of the marina is 60 boats, presently here is 7 boats.

The shore facilities are under construction but even now the place is quite nice with water, electricity, toilets and showers.

And the Apia city is near by. There is a clear difference to French Polynesia, the price level is well down, the baquette bread has changed to white toast bread. The famous Vailima beer is good.

We will also get the wind pilot spare parts here during the next week.   

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