Cook Islands - Tonga
Cook Islands - Tonga in Google Maps (Webbrowser) and in Google Earth (separate application)
Our Cook Island visa is running out and we are sad to leave the friendly people of Palmerston; we had too good an experience with them. It’s more windy than forecast, but the 25-35 knots are at least from the right direction. We are sailing with three reefs in the main and genoa to not to arrive the day after next before sunrise and the passage is not too uncomfortable.
Older Palmerston house
Beveridge Reef is 6 miles long, penetrates nowhere the water surface and encircles a deep lagoon. The waves breaking over the reef are conspicuous and we find it easily despite having no accurate charts. We just about make it through the pass against the strong wind and current under mainsail and one engine – the other stopped with a clogged fuel line just before the pass.
Palmerston paradise
Louie and Alicia on Tar Baby 2, with whom we shared the time on Palmerston, are arriving in the course of the day, too, but they don’t manage the pass and head towards Niue after radio contact. We are sleeping soundly anchored on the sand bank in the lee of the reef with the wind howling through the rig.
An Orion rescue plane is circling Beveridge Reef and is looking for a boat to help a dismasted yacht without engine in distress. We could be there the next day and give our satellite phone number to be reachable. We are even happier to help, once we learn that it’s our friends on Tar Baby 2, who are in distress. So little has been missing and they would have been safely tucked next to us in Beveridge Reef.
Tar Baby 2 © 2010 RNZAF
Fortunately, a 100m Taiwanese fishing vessel can be there already in a few hours to rescue them from their boat. We learn later that the bowsprit waterstay broke and the rig collapsed. They switched on their EPIRB to send a mayday, which was promptly picked up and acted upon by the New Zealand rescue forces. But they couldn’t relay that they were looking for someone to tow them to Niue. But the fishing vessel was unwilling to tow them 60 miles to Niue and I was unsure whether I am able to tow a 20 ton boat with our 6 tons in 35 knots of wind. Learning this, they only had little time to decide and decided to give up their boat and to be rescued by the fishing vessel.
A good short wave radio or satellite phone would have enabled them to much better communicate the kind of distress and the required help. You will find Louie and Alicia's perspective of the distress Tar Baby 2’s Blog and on Latitude 38.
Tar Baby 2's Rescue © 2010 RNZAF
We are waiting out the strong winds in Beveridge Reef and sail in 15 knots to Niue two days later. It has an unprotected roadsted anchorage with good moorings and a dinghy-lift to get it out off the swell while being on land.
Niue dinghy lift
Niue is geologically much different than the South Pacific atolls with a 100m think coral block on a former volcano being raised out of the water.
Niue formation
We’re greeted by my good friend Wayne, who made his way back from New Zealand and explore with him the very rugged, 20 mile long island.
Exploring Niue with Wayne and Loly
Numerous caves invite to explore and soft-formed stalactites and stalagmites create a beautiful contrast to the sharp coral stone.
Niue caves
The water around the island is crystal clear due to the little biomass on the island and has a tremendous visibility. But I have been diving a lot last year and am not really motivated to explore the many underwater caves.
Niue reef landscape
Some thousand people are living today on Niue, kind of too little to be a country on its own albeit a dependency of New Zealand. Up to 20’000 people have been living here in the 50ies. As everywhere in the South Pacific people left for education and work opportunity and only a few are returning here after a life and career spent in New Zealand or Australia.
Niue market lady
Niue also sports the “biggest small Yacht Club in the World” and I am hanging out there for a day to download new charts and meet fellow cruisers.
Niue Yacht Club crowd
It’s again a blistery passage to Tonga – literally no wind during the night and a few hours later 25 knots in a passing front. The water was relatively quite despite the strong winds and I dare to enter the Ava Fenua pass on Vava’us windward side despite inexact charts.
Niue arches
We are hiding out two days next to Ofua before clearing in on Monday. The Kingdom of Tonga is independent in contrast to the New Zealand dependencies Cook Islands and Niue. It feels more like third world and Africa, despite the Polynesian roots of the country. It’s relatively dirty, the fruits in the market are on the floor and the locals seem a bit apathic.
First Vava'u impressions
Nestling on its own tectonic plate lifted by the Pacific plate, Vava’u looks again much different than the South Pacific atolls: rolling hills alter with deep waterways creating dozens of well protected anchorages, reminding me more of the archipelago of Gothenburg or a flooded Appenzell.
Hilly Vava'u
Tying up to the dock to clear in, the rudder quadrant falls down – the ball bearing has disintegrated after 10 years. I can do the repair island-style: Aquarium Café, which offers moorings, internet, bar, restaurants and advice brings me in contact with a first mechanic. He can’t help but instructs the taxi driver to take me somewhere else. We end up next to a shipping container on a green field, where a man is sawing a piece of weed with a handle-less iron-saw blade… I ask him for a temporary bushing. Yes, his colleague should be able to it. A day later I return and not only find a temporary repair, but perfectly fitting ball-bearings. I have no idea where he procured these on this small island, where you can seemingly get nothing and I can fit it with the help of Wayne and his tools.
Neiafu cathedral
A small charter industry has developed and cruisers from all over the world are meeting. Not only circumnavigators are flocking here, also New Zealander’s and Australians can make a round-trip.
Neiafu mooring field
Vava’u doesn’t offer too much, particularly fresh food is very erratic to get, even so basic staples as potatoes or eggs.
Vava'u market ladies
We are meeting new and old friends and joining the feast to celebrat the 25th anniversary of the High School.
High-school feast
Together we are cruising the many anchorages of the Vava’u Group. It’s easy cruising and just what I need after the experiences of the last weeks.
Blue Bie in Blue Lagoon
(C) 2011 - Alle Rechte vorbehalten