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.Vava’uWe arrived about noon on Saturday the
17th. We got no response from anyone by radio. Not Max, and
not the port authorities. We were headed towards the moorings when Thomas
called from the charter company office to explain that the town was closed
now, but that he had asked for a mooring for us and we could grab #13.
Great stuff. We did that for T10 per day (about $7.50 US). There is a
nice dinghy dock there, a restaurant and bar (Anna’s café) and a proper
restaurant, the Mermaid, right there. Lots of yachties and charter
crowds. A bit too white.
We went to the Paradise Hotel later to get our mail
and have an ice cream. There was no mail there, only single letters.
Told us the post office held all parcels. Bummer. We had nice ice creams
there. The desert menu was very attractive, things like chocolate sundaes
and peach melba. They were all a bit dear, about T3.50. Bronwen pointed
out the single scoops at the bottom of the menu for T1. So we ordered
scoops for B, D, E and myself, then Sarah said she wanted an iced coffee
ice cream. I switched. They were very nice. I told the kids we’d come
back sometime for a nice one. “Right.” Said Bronwen. She knows the
drill too well.
Saturday night we had wahoo at the Max’s. It was
great. Nice white fish, prepared simply by Irene. We took the kids home
after dinner and stayed with the Max’s for a while. Lots of fun as usual.
Sunday morning, we all (7) went to the Wesleyan
church service. It is a nice big church, open with breeze blowing. All
of the ladies had fans. No one wore a hat. Not done here. Actually a
German cruising woman did. She also had bare shoulders. Neither of these
things are appropriate here. The singing was good. The service was
diabolical. It was very long winded and seemed quite unfriendly. It went
on for 1hr 15 min and we were all relieved to have it over. I spent some
nice times letting my mind free, thinking about the trip and my past, and
the work that I was committed to doing but not getting done. Bronwen
calculated the number of hours in a year, two ways.
Monday we went shopping, got our mail at the post
office, and tried to find a hose for the engine. The post office was
great. Tiny and dirty and very poor. Huge tree out front, people milling
around. We spent 10 minutes pouring, in disbelief over two logbooks with
held mail in them. No Margarita, no Stanford, no Paradise Hotel. Finally
we said it was a parcel and they went off into the cage in back to look
for it. We caught up with the Max’s at the Sunset Restaurant, an Italian
food place. Very nice. Nice view of the water, nice food. We read our
mail.
In the afternoon, Sarah and I went back into town to
look at the shops and try and find some hose for the boat. It was a fun
adventure. The hardware shops didn’t have anything so they sent me up the
street, towards the country to the auto shops. These places were tiny.
One room with a few things on the walls. Mufflers, tire rims. Lots of
waxes and cleaners. Really friendly people there. They all want to help,
agree with anything. “That other shop is on the left?” “Yes.” “On the
right?” “Yes” Lots of fun. We were invited to the town darts match on
the way. In a hardware store with paints, tennis rackets, darts, booze.
All in a very small place, one quarter of a gas station mini mart at home.
Monday night we ate at The Mermaid with Thomas and
Irene. It was very nice. We laughed a great deal. There was a string
band there. Guitar, banjo, homemade standup bass. Other yachties were
there, the Rolands and Sophie, and a German couple. Later in came a South
African skipper with his two American crew. They were very young and
drunk, doing their finest French accent to entertain the crowd.
We left for anchorage #7 on Tuesday. Found out on
the way that there was a big party planned for the birthday of Josh on
Blue J and Kareena on Bandit for the next night. Oh well. That night we
joined a small get together on the beach and had a nice time. The party
the next night was entertaining. There were 28 boats here. Too many by
25 or so.
The water is pretty clear and the snorkeling is
reasonable, not great. The coral is a bit dead and the fish are not so
plentiful.
November 5, 1998
We have been to 11, 30 back to town for laundry, then
to 7 again, then to 10, then 13, snorkeling to 14. 11 was nice, windy,
sheltered from the east, nice little beach, not much on shore. We walked
around carrying Douglas looking for the shelling beach to the north.
Ended up walking to the beach where the feast is held and chatted with
them for a bit. We then moved to #30 the next day. It is the East most
motu, nice. Windy, nice beach and a great walk over to the East side with
huge surf and great scenery. There was a group on a charter boat there.
Very friendly, S and I went over for a beer and a tour of their Moorings
51. They treated us like real celebrities, asking all about the trip. We
went to Max for pasta and late talk. We were visited by a whacko Tongan
man literally foaming at the mouth. Wanting us to come to the beach and
check our feet against some footprints in the sand that he was sure were
made by a thief that stole gold and silver from a German woman living in a
treehouse. (whew). We finally agreed with his threat to call the police.
Max didn’t like the anchorage and ended up back at #10 which they love.
Hioave and Bossanova and Shokti came the next day. Thane had lots of
trouble finding the pass in, too many captains aboard.
We went back to town for the laundry. Did some
shopping and ate at Anna’s café, I watched the Friday night yacht race,
Sarah and Bronwen crewed on Hioave, Douglas sailed Emily around. After the
race we went to Anna’s for drinks and then the Mermaid for dinner and the
dance show. Anna’s was hopping with post race partiers, lots dressed up
for Halloween. All participants received a prize of some sort. Even
Douglas got a tee shirt for the dinghy category. It was a hoot. The
Hoptoad boys wore dress shirts and ties and alien head masks. Very
entertaining. The dancing at the Mermaid was a bit funny. Kids only,
from 4 yr. on up. The girls dance was dead boring, cross between French
Polynesian (not boring) and Thai. The boys had much more fun, hooting
around with sticks and acting all kali. We returned to Anna’s for late
night drinks.
After town, we went to #7 for the night. We really
like it there. Glory Days and Max and Brisa were there along with a
little Canadian cat. There was a beach BBQ at #8 that we didn’t really
fancy joining. Max had invited us for drinks on their boat with Glory
Days prior to the BBQ announcement. GD decided to opt for the BBQ, so the
Maggies and Max’s dinghied over. It was a typical beach gathering. Some
people that would be nice to get to know and some that were deadly, and I
wanted to avoid at all costs. Then Brenda from GD came up and asked if I
saw my daughter. I thought it was something cute, but in fact Sarah was
carrying her to GD’s dinghy with a very bloody foot. We cleaned it up and
bandaged it at Hoptoad and then I took her back. Later the rest of the
gang returned in Emily and Min, a moonlit, light air sail. We had dinner
on Maggie.
We went to town the next day to have the doctor check
the wound. He was happy with Sarah’s work, asking her if she were a nurse
(not a doctor, S noted.) We bought some B’day pressies for S and a
walking stick for E, lots of junk food for the boat and headed out. I
stressed about not being able to send or receive faxes properly from home
and we left for #8. In fact on arriving we waffled and ended up at #10,
our last opportunity to see it before leaving Vava’u. It was nice a
peaceful, but not much to do, and not breezy enough to keep the heat
down. Very hot.
The next day we came over to #13. On the way we
stopped at Swallow’s Cave to show E and D and I had a snorkel there. Very
cool. Lovely blue water, lots of fish, a thousand perhaps. Very deep in
spots. Erie. Then GD came by to show us where Mariner’s Cave was. Rod
and Sarah dove it. I had little interest. Trying to allow myself to say
no to something that I did not want to do, not simply going along to save
my reputation. S said it was very cool. A bit scary to get into, very
glad when you finally come into the air. Neat inside, weird pressure
changes with each wave. 13 was fun to go into , a very tight little
pass. Not especially pretty, only Hoptoad and GD for company. From there
we did a day trip to #14 for some great snorkeling and a fantastic beach.
We had a picnic, it was Constitution Day after all, and did some more
snorkeling after the picnic. We did the two big coral heads in the middle
to East of the lagoon. We came back to 13 at about 4:30 to try and attack
Hoptoad (retaliation for their unprovoked water balloon assault on
Margarita a few days ago.) The Toads were with Rod and Brenda in GD
dinghy going towards Club Hunga for a beer. We called off the attack
(hatches were all closed, three kids nonchalantly waiting up on deck with
Baggies of water at the ready) and followed them in. Very funny to watch
the panic. They were all sure that we were mounting a big attack ,
innocent bystanders or not. Rod took evasive action in the dinghy and we
made a radical turn with them, they increased speed and pulled away,
nearly bringing water over the bow. “Go Rod! Faster!” It was
hilarious. Then we resumed our course to the mooring. They passed us as
we were getting secure, Rod said to Douglas “You couldn’t hit me from 5
feet!” Then in the clubhouse the insults and challenges continued, he
said how he had a power washer etc. We had a few beers at Club Hunga.
The owners, Pete and Happie, joined us and gave us a plateful of chips at
the end of it. We were a dead stingy crowd. I was a bit embarrassed at
it. Thane joined us and he and I got into it a bit about the question of
multihulls vs. monohulls. He was defending the former, just to be
argumentative, as he and we both have monohulls, very similar at that.
To #7, swimming with whales, snorkeling off of #16.
#7 resting and catching rain water, cleaning bottom.
Hioave.
Left for Uoleva, Ha’apai with Glory Days and Hoptoad
and Hioave. Potluck on the beach. Max in another anchorage. Town, Pangai.
Sarah’s Birthday with Toad and Fledgling. Brandreth’s fishing, Gift to
Sarah. Gun for Neill. Sonny Hoptoad’s adventure playing with dinghy in
the surf.
On to Haafeva. Nice village, snorkeled on the wreck.
Then to Kelefesia with Fledgling. Water balloon fight
on the way. Hairy entrance. Great place. 5 fish a day for each boat from
fishermen. Treasure hunt for Emma’s books. Waiting for the window and
then the wind. Pauline’s birthday, kayaking around the island, twice. How
to convince Sarah to leave. |
