Three Villages on Niuatoputapu

Our walk to the Western Union Bank is entertaining. First we have to power the dingy over to the main wharf (a long dirt embankment extending out into the lagoon) and find a parking spot. This simple task is complicated by the fact that the much awaited supply boat has finally arrived (three weeks late) and most of the island's inhabitants are on the wharf helping to unload the much needed everyday essentials, mail and donated construction materials. There is a baker on the island, but he has been unable to make any bread for the last week as he has not had any flour! This island is isolated! Anyway, we manage to find a rock to tie up to and head out for the bank. We have been told that it is in the last village, we are currently in the first village, then there is the middle village and the bank is in the third village. The villages of course all have names, but they are finger twisters (tongue twisters too) and the locals mostly refer to them as 1,2,3 to "palangi" (white people) like us. The hard packed white sand road is very busy with traffic today, but all vehicles are piled with goods or people. Finally one truck stops and offers us a ride which we gratefully accept as it is beastly hot out. Two seconds later he drops us off at two little white buildings that look like any number of other little white buildings scattered over the island and says the second one is the bank and the first one is customs. Now the bank does have a computer and there is a desk/counter, but they do not do cash advances on credit cards/debit cards, however they will convert U.S. dollars to the local currency. Very luckily for us we happen to have some of that stuff in our wallet (US $). Cash in hand, we pay our entrance fee to customs then wait for the health officer to collect us to go over to the makeshift hospital (old Methodist church) to pay the health fee. She thankfully gives us a ride back to the wharf with a side stop at the "store" (very loose term for small building with not much in it) for some water, which they are just unpacking from the ship. I say all of this in detail, boring as it is, to show that this simple task that we take so for granted in Canada, has taken us the better part of the day. We get back to the boat in time for me to prepare a "dish to share" for the pot luck dinner being held for the boaters at Sia and Nico's place tonight. Not their house, that was washed away in the tsunami, they have two small garden shed like buildings to sleep in. One has been built by the Red Cross and the other Nico has built from the roof of his old shop which he miraculously found intact in the bushes after the tsunami and other bits and pieces that he was able to scrounge from the litter that was once the lives of the people who live on this island. This tsunami happened at 7:30 am on Sept 30, 2009, the anniversary is this week, and just about everybody lost everything. We've seen "before pictures" of a very orderly and picturesque village and stare in disbelief at the shanty town it is today. But Nico and Sia and their three boys are generous to a fault. We all enjoy a lovely evening eating and visiting with them and the people from two other boats, learning of their lives and their ways. The family sings a beautifully harmonized song for us to end the evening.

We do our normal tourist activities here, go diving one day, go for a walk through the coconut plantation to the beaches another (stunning secluded beaches). Our friend Michele arrives in his sail boat from Samoa and we have him over for dinner on the boat. He is Italian and we have fun trying to understand what each other is trying to say, we have no shortage of conversation. Sunday we go to church and are happy when Sia and Nico invite us to go with them. The service is in their language, so we don't really get much out of that, but the singing......, Oh the singing. How I wish that we had a recording device with us. No instrumental accompaniment, only the finest strongest voices in all vocal levels - Perfect! Then we join the family for a traditional Sunday lunch of delicious local dishes under their "breadfruit tree". But the morning was not without a bit of excitement as our dingy decided to free itself as we were halfway through our walk to the church. Nico had to rush back and rescue it with his own boat as it seems all of the "yachties" were still sleeping and not answering their VHF radios.

Sia's boys picked and cleaned some fresh coconuts for us which we wanted to pay for, but they would rather trade for useful items like, flour, sugar, perfume, fishing lure etc. as these items are hard to come by here. WE also traded them a dinner on the boat in return for their generous sharing with us. The boys got the biggest thrill out of watching one of Glen's old racing videos. Things that we take so for granted, they are so in need of.
Our time here has been full and rewarding. We have made some more new friends.

We packed up bright and early today and are headed to Vava'u, the next island group in Tonga. The day is sunny and the water is relatively smooth.

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Niuatoputapu, Tonga

Our 24 hour, overnight trip from Samoa to the first tiny island in the country of Tonga, Niuatoputapu, went relatively smoothly under the light of a full moon. We arrived in the anchorage at 9:30 am. But the tricky part is that Tonga is the first country of the world to begin a new day, so we left Samoa on Tues and traveled our 24 hours and arrived in Tonga on Thursday. We lost the whole of Wed. Sept 22! But the good thing is that when we come home we will get another day back, so our lives aren't shorter by a day, whew! There is a wonderful "yachtmen's" ambassador on shore, named Sia. She saw us entering the area, contacted us on the VHF radio in perfect English and asked if we would like her to contact the customs officials to come down to our boat. Well that certainly beats the 2 km walk into the village to find the appropriate building for customs, health, etc. (no buildings have signs yet due to fresh re-builds from the tsunami) and then walk back to the dock and dingy back to the boat. We told her "Yes, Thank you." About 12:30 we hear the van honking on the dock and set out to pick up the 5 officials. We are beginning to understand how this part of the world operates and after sandwiches and cold soft drinks and lots of chatter, we have all of our paper work done and have delivered everybody back to the dock, with the promise that when the bank opens tomorrow, we will get the correct amount of "pa'anga" (Tonga dollars, approx $1.00 CDN to $1.80 Tonga). The balance of the day is spent cleaning the boat up and catching an early night to make up for lost sleep in our travels.

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More Samoa

We have found a beautiful, brand newly completed, high end resort on the tsunami damaged south side of the island. The Sinalea Reef Resort is back in business, better than ever. We were touring the island again in the company of our friends off of the boat "Ammonite" and we stopped there for lunch. So for those of us whose bones creak at the thought of sleeping on a mat in an open air "fale" (beach house), there is an alternative vacation destination.

We have met a delightful Italian couple off of a small sailing boat here in the marina and have spent several evenings being entertained by their animated ways. They met only 8 months ago when she was looking for a job on a boat and he was heading out of Panama single handing his sail boat. What small spaces will bring together!!

We went to church at the Cathedral on Sunday. Believe it or not, this is listed as a "must do" while in Samoa as these people love to sing, especially in church. We were not disappointed, the choir was fantastic. It was also refreshing to have the Mass performed in English. There are many different Christian denominations here so a person could pick any one they wished to attend services with.

Just a short story about our encounter with how Samoan culture can work. Solomon is one of the Port Authorities. He has befriended us after his heroic effort to get our boat into the marina. (remember the beer bride?) Anyway, we are minding our own business on the boat one day when Solomon appears at the side door (which means he has already invited himself onto the boat) and says "Can I come in out of the rain?" (as he is now also letting himself in through the side door), well yes I guess that is O.K. as I call Glen to come and take over. We've just come back from getting some groceries so while I put things away, Glen offers Solomon a Pepsi which is happily accepted. I am now finished my putting away and have shined the galley counters so I head down below to do some other errands while Glen chats with Solomon and waits for the rain to end. Next thing I know Glen is hollering down for me to come and make him a sandwich, ham no less. Now I'm steamed! But I can't go into "B...." mode with Solomon there. So I go mess up my recently cleaned galley and make Glen a ham sandwich and one for Solomon too which is only fair. They eat, the rain finishes, Solomon thanks us very much and leaves. Before I can "go off the deep end" Glen says to me, "I can't believe it, he actually asked if we had anything to eat! Can you (believe it)?" So now I get it and Glen doesn't have to die today. We marveled about this to some of the other boaters and found that many others had had a similar experience. So for the rest of our time at the dock, we kept our side door to the dock closed and the side door to the cabin closed so as not to leave and "open" invitation to anybody else.

This morning, we were up early and out of our dock slip by 7:00 am to take advantage of the high tide as the depth in the marina basin is very shallow. It would be very embarrassing to be stuck in the mud as we try to leave. Before heading out for Tonga, which is our next destination, we need to re-fuel, so we deploy our great big (exercise ball size)fenders (proper name, Scotchmen - not sure of the spelling) and belly up to the commercial wharf to wait for a fuel truck to come and dispense our diesel fix. Amazingly he arrives on time which is a pleasant surprise for us as "Ammonite" had to wait many uncomfortable hours for their fuel to arrive because of a number of "issues". We pleasure boats are tiny little ants compared to the container ships that regularly tie up to the wharf, kind of like a small child trying to peak over the edge of a table. We learned a new bit of nautical etiquette during this whole process. The harbor master radioed down while we were fueling and asked me to put up our "Tango" flag. What flag????? Don't we have "alphabet" flags? No! They must have excused us at this point as they didn't come back to me on the radio. But now my curiosity has been aroused, what the heck were they talking about? A quick reference to our proper seaman's book shows that the flag symbolizing "T" also serves as a one flag message saying "stay clear of me", to be used in times of taking on fuel and I suppose other dangerous situations too. So now, much smarter and full of fuel, we are headed for Tonga. We will be there in 24 hours.

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Apia, Samoa

We arrived O.K. to the Apia Harbor in Western Samoa at 9:00 am. They didn't have room for us in the marina, so we anchored in the bay. No big deal as we had 4.5 days of soot and smoke to scrape off of the boat (the engines are smoking big - Detroit's deal - and we had a following wind the whole way). So in the only sunny day that we will see for awhile, we get the boat sparkling again. We can't go ashore as this is Sunday and the customs officials do not work on Sunday so we can't get cleared into the country until Monday. Monday, it is raining heavily on and off and we begin the frustrating process of trying to get into the marina and to have our boat and us cleared into Samoa. Finally after a bribe of 6 Canadian beer, we get a spot in the marina (we reserved a spot 1 week earlier - God knows with who!). Then even though we have an agent hired to expedite the clearing process, we have 5 - very friendly - customs officials parade through our boat, each lounging while the other asks us to fill out the same pieces of paper that the person before him did. So by 2:00 pm we are now legally admitted to the country. Our friend boat Ammonite is still parked in the bay and their nose is a bit out of joint. But most of the sail boats that we met in Suwarrow are here. Finally dinner out, and pretty good food too. Tuesday is another rainy day but we have a car rented and head out to tour the island. Well we know why it has rain forests, this is the "dry season" and we've probably had 2 feet of rain in the last two days! And because of the high rainfall, and the temperatures of 30 plus degrees C, the humidity is extremely high - we dry little prairie people are suffering. It is like being in a "hot Yoga class" all day (and night) long. Which leads to the type of houses that the majority of the people in the country side live in - a roof, supported by posts over a raised concrete floor. The fancier ones have a low wooden railing around the pad and some type of chairs, but mostly they are empty with the occupants rolling out sleeping mats and pillows for the night and rolling them up again during the day. Wow, how do they get any privacy? They do have a custom that being "tribal" everything belongs to everybody so I guess that the less you have the less you have to share. That being said, everybody we have met is extremely friendly without a hidden agenda and they all for the most part speak very good English. Things are very inexpensive which is a pleasant change from French Polynesia and the market has plenty of vegetables and fruits and the grocery stores have a very good variety of anything else that you would need. On our tour, we come to the south side of the island, this is where all of the really nice beaches are found. Exactly one year ago, this island was hit with a tsunami that wiped out the south and west sides of the island. All of the little beach "fale" (roofs over platforms) were wiped out. They are slowly being re-built. It is still very pretty, the accommodations are going in exactly the same - a central reception area with a restaurant/bar and clusters of these beach fale. The rest rooms are a block of shared facilities, toilets and showers. For $90.00 tala per person per day (roughly $36.00 Cdn) you get breakfast and dinner, a sleeping mat and mosquitoe net and your fale (open room with roof on stilts) ON THE BEACH. This is extremely popular. Some of the places are putting in private "fale" with ensuite bathroom but all are still under construction. The few 4 and 5 star hotels are all found on the north side of the island in the city of Apia (not too large) and by the airport. But they don't have the beach! So we have seen the beach and we have tromped through the rain forest and seen some massive trees and stunning waterfalls and walked all over the town markets/craft stores/churches. We joined a bunch of the other boaters and went to an historic hotel here for a traditional "fiafia" evening, which is their version of Polynesian dance and some of the local food (tourist friendly) and it was a very nice affair. We've done our usual boat community socializing and all in all are very much enjoying our stay here.

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Suwarrow to Samoa

We arrived bright and early to the pass at Suwarrow on Sept 7/10 after 4.5 days on the rolling ocean. Suwarrow is a tiny little atoll in the northern Cook Island group. It is basically a narrow perimeter of sand and coral rock around a 5 x 5 mile lagoon. In several places the sand raises high enough out of the ocean to support a few coconut trees. But from all accounts, this is the cruising destination of the whole south Pacific! All of the boats passing through here say that it is by far #1 on their list of the best places that they have been. Many stop for a few days and end up staying a couple of weeks. This place is not unlike many of the other places that we have stopped so far with regard to topography and lagoon, beautiful yes, but what makes this place special is the two fellows that are stationed here as the rangers/customs officers for the Cook Islands, James and Apii. They roll out the red carpet for the boaters coming to visit their corner of the world. Sure they check you in and out of the country with a smile, but they are also great social conveners. They organize coconut crab hunting parties and fishing trips, then host delicious pot luck dinners with crab, lobster or the catch of the day as the feature food items. After so long at sea with just yourself and your mate for company, all boaters jump at the chance for some face time with a bunch of like minded people, good food (even if it is 15 different pasta salads) and of course refreshments of choice. James and Apii also know where all of the good spots are in the lagoon for diving and snorkeling and set up group expeditions for this or private trips if you wish. It really is in their best interests to be such gracious hosts as their government basically drops them off for their 6 month posting with a small boat (no extra fuel) and a fishing rod. So the boaters return all of their good will with food items (not fish) and jerry cans of fuel. After the cold un-friendly attitudes of the French Polynesian islands, the warm fuzzy community that these guys create is truly refreshing. So we lucked out, the day we arrived was a crab pot luck dinner night with 16 other boats in the anchorage. We did our check in and out the next morning and arranged for Apii to man the surface boat for us to do a dive in the afternoon. We attempted to snorkel on the third day, but the winds were pretty stiff so it kept blowing us over the reef. We have been monitoring the weather everyday for the last week and know that there is a big system coming in so we have to leave for Samoa on our third day or stay for at least another week and chance that things will stay calm enough in the lagoon for our anchor to hold. We choose to head on to Samoa. So here we are again rolling along in 2.5 meter seas with 20 knots of wind, thankfully all on the rear. Our current position 13.20.498 lat. and 165.19.446 long. We will be in western Samoa the morning of Sept 12.

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Good-by French Polynesia, Hello Suwarrow

If only the good-bye/hello could be so quick as speaking it! For the Google Earth followers, we are at 15.52.427 lat and 153.56.858 long. We got back to Tahiti on the evening of Aug 30/10, arriving to a lovely warm 25 degrees C from an un-seasonally cool 14 degrees C in Calgary. Our boat was waiting patiently at the dock for our return. Our agent, Laurent, had done a good job of making sure everything continued working properly in our absence. His attention to this was not without peril though as we had dropped the general information to several of our boating friends along the dock that we would be away and to keep an eye out for suspicious activity on our boat. So it seems that Laurent was called upon several times to prove that his intentions were legitimate - our friend Yasmin threatening him with her mop! Our final days in Tahiti were busy, one day to wash the thick layer of grime off of the boat - life just feels better in a clean boat, one day to fill the pantry and freezers up again and our third day was topping up the fuel (ouch - that hurt) and departing for Suwarrow in the north Cook Islands. You can tell that you are getting to be a "dock potatoe" when you obsess for days about what the weather conditions are going to be over the duration of a passage. How quickly we forget what our little boat can handle. The weather forecasts were calling for 2.3 m waves at 7 second intervals with 17 knots of wind - that sounded pretty intimidating while we were tied up, but now we are happily splashing along in all of that and it really isn't too bad at all. We are actually getting a big push along our route as the waves are coming from behind. This trip's duration is 4.5 days and it is the first for Glen and I to do more than one overnight in a row. It is pretty lonely out here by ourselves as the majority of the other cruising boats did this trip in late July. "Oso Blanco" is already in Tonga and we won't be there until October.

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