Kenutu, anchorage no. 30
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Tonga: Vava'U and Haapai 3.9. - 7.10.2002
updates: 3.9. 9.9. 15.9. 23.9. 30.9. 7.10.
3.9.2002 Vava'U, Tonga
Pule'anga Fakatu'i'o Tonga, as
the name is in Tongan, is the only Pacific kingdom. Captain Cook visited the
islands in 1773 and 1777 naming them the Friendly Islands. The 170 islands of
Tonga are divided into five archipelagos of which the main are Vava'U, Haapai
and Tongatapu. The capital Nukualofa is located on
the southernmost islandgroup Tongatapu. Tonga has approximately 100.000
inhabitants of whom the majority (98 %) are tongans. Besides Tongan language
English is also spoken and taught at school. In 1900 Tonga came under the
British protection but retained its autonomy. The full independence was gained
in 1970.
Tongan monarchy is old. Local tradition has preserved the names of the
sovereigns for thousand years. In the 1300th century the power was extended as far
as to Hawaii, Fidzi and Niue. In the 1900th century three branches of royal
family were fighting about the crown. The western missionaries influenced on the
result, because the king claimant they had converted in Christianity, became the
ruler of Tonga in 1845 taking the name King George Tupou I. At the
same time Christianity began to spread. The present king, Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, got in power in 1965. His son was nominated
as a prime minister in 2000.
Tonga is still very religious and conservative country. The power is in the
hands of the king and the nobility. Tongan parliament has 30 members of which
only 9 are elected, 9 are nominated by the noble families, 10 by the King, and
in addition there are two governors. The ministerposts nominated by the king are
lifelong. Marriages between the nobillity and people are not generally accepted.
The noble person is loosing his/her rank in a marriage with a commoner. On
Sundays, church days, is it not approved to work or do much other activities
either. Religion is controlling the dress code as well. Women are using an
ankle long skirt, men a knee long. To this traditional costume belongs a waist
"mat" woven of pandanus leefs called taovala. Instead of
taovala women sometimes use a decorated, long belt called kiekie.
The national dress is used on special occasions and in the church. In addition,
all the civil cervants on duty wear it.
The constitution guarantees to every tongan adult male a small piece of land to
cultivate. One can only guess how fair the land is divided by the nobility and
common people. Also women are earning money to the family for instance by
selling handicrafts.
We arrived to Neiafu, the capital of Vava'U archipelago, on Thursday 29.8. On our way from
Niue to Tonga we lost a day of our life, because Tonga lies on the other side
of the international date line. The time difference to Finland changed, now we
are 22 hours ahead. When it's seven in the morning here, it's
nine the previous evening in Finland. Confusing? Because of the increasing time
difference, we have changed our satellite phone time. Some weeks
already the alarm clock has gone at 4 am and either of us (usually Auli) has
gone up to turn the phone on. Now the phone is on
from 8 to 10 am Finnish time, i.e. 05-07 UTC, which is from six
to eight in evening here.
Neiafu has totally different atmosphere than French Polynesia or Niue. Houses
are rather ragged, chickens and pigs are running on the streets, digging on the
yards and even on the cemetery. Tongans are quite stout people and there is no rush.
At first the shabbyness and slugginess irritated us, even customs clearing
didn't take place at once, but soon we got into the rythm. We have no hurry!
There are about 50-60 boats in the bay, including yachts of two charter
companies. Almost everyone has a mooring buoy because the bay is deep. There are
a lot of familiar boats, since the differents routes across the Pacific end up
to these islands from where some continue to Australia some to New Zealand for
the hurricane season.
The weather has been annoying rainy many days and the forecast doesn't promise
any change. It doesn't bother as long we are here in the "city" or
work in the boat, but the Vava'U archipelago with humback whales
are waiting. Humback whales migrate up here from the gold waters to give birth.
We saw two whales when we came, they jumped up and splashed the water with their
big fins. There is an opportunity to see whales real close, because a couple of
companies offer snorkling/swimming tours with the whales. If we cannot see the
whales of our own, we will join one of the tours.
The humback whale belongs to same family as the blue whale, and both are baleen
whales. Humback whale is easy to regonise because of its white underneath and
long, partly white pectoral fins. They are big, 13-16 meters long, and weight
25-30 tons. The humback whales are the long distance travelers of the sea, every
year they migrate between the gold, rich-nutrious feeding grounds and the warm
waters, a distance of half earth.
On Monday Auli joined a basket weaving workshop with four other sailor women.
Our teacher was 37 years old Fineau, who sells her baskets and
teaches all the way up in Samoa. Every island have their own style, Niuean,
Tongan and Samoan baskets differ from each other. Three hours we tied strips of
pandanus leefs around palm stalks, but none of us got bigger thing than a coffee
plate ready, not to mention of getting any brims done. Slow work. Panadus tree
looks little like a yucca palm and has sharp, narrow leefs. The leefs are boiled
before they are hang to dry. Light coloured and soft leefs are cut to strips,
which are tied around palm stalks. Figures are made using brown and black
strips. Besides learning the basket technic, it was very interesting to hear
Fineau telling about the life in Tonga. She has eight children of whom five are
her own, her husband is a carpenter, and they lived on American Samoa for a
while. They moved back to Tonga to be near Fineau's 68 year old mother and 71
year old father. There are no old homes in Tonga, the family takes care of each
other.
9.9.2002 Vava'U, Tonga
At last the sky cleared up and we moved out to the islands. The first
anchorage, Port Maurelle, got
its name after the first European on Vava'U, Spaniard Francisco
Antonio Maurelle, who visited the island group briefly in 1781. Although
Maurelle was the first European in Vava'U, some Dutchmen had visited other
Tongan islands already in the 1700th century, among a couple of others, Abel
Tasman in 1643. Captain Cook never visited Vava'U, although he was in
Tonga twice. Cook was told that there are no good anchorages on Vava'U, which
was a big lie, since Vava'U has the best and most sheltered anchorages in Tonga.
The story doesn't tell why Finau, the chief of Haapai group islands, lied
to Cook. The story behind the name Cook gave to Tonga, the Friendly Islands, is
also less friendly. On his other visit to Tonga in 1777 Cook and his men got
very friendly welcome and a feast was arranged for them. But the purpose was to
get the Englishmen together and kill them, so that the treasures of the two
ships, Resolution and Discovery, could be overtaken. Chief Finau
and the noble disagreed whether the attack should be taken place during the
night or day. The chief was so angry about the disobedience of his subservience,
that he cancelled the whole thing. Cook and his men were rescued without knowing how
close it was. Maybe they would have ended into umu, the Tongan earth
oven, because cannibalism was practised until 1900th century.
But back to present. Port Maurelle is a beautiful, sheltered bay, and there were
about ten other boats. In the evening some active Australians and Americans
arranged a beach party with barbecue. We didn't have anything to grill, but a
fish catch of one boat was big enough to everyone. And there was a lot to talk
about.
Next day we took a dinghy ride to a cave one mile away. It can be reached only
by dinghy - or by swimming. The cave is about 20 meters deep and wide. Some day
light cames through an opening high on the ceiling helping to admire the
greenish-yellow colors of the walls as well as the stalacites. Near the water
coral had coloured the walls red. You could see 18 meters down to the bottom. We
were not temptated to swim, at least not after seeing a blue-black striped sea
snake sneaking into a rock whole.
On our way back we stopped on a small, white sandy beach to snorkel. Corals were
colorful, even there weren't plenty of them. But we saw a lot of fishes, blue
star-fishes and fat sea cucumbers.
The archipelago of Vava'U is full of yachts, both cruisers and charter boaters.
Moorings has published a guide of the anchorages and the numbers in it have
taken the place of names, such as "We are now at the no. six, going to no.
ten for the next night". We didn't expect to find any lonely islands, but
one of the outer islands, Kenutu, lying behind a mazing route of coral reefs, was empty. One day we enjoyed the solitude, also local
people kept away because it was Sunday. Kenutu is a multifold and splendid
island. Ocean is roaring on the other side, we are sheltered in front of a white
sandy beach. We walked through the island full of pandanus trees, coconut palms
and pine looking needle trees to the other side to look at the waves. The tide is
about 1,5 meters, so the reefs close the island dry and uncover the interesting
small creatures life.
Kenutu, anchorage no. 30
Kenutu has more beautiful shells
than we have seen elsewhere, maybe because they have been collected from the
more popular places. The only hinder to collect the shells are the small crabs,
who hold the shells as their homes. This species has a soft body, but the shell
gives a solid protection. When the crab grows, it moves to a new house. The
opening is closed with the scissors and so the cover is perfect. When the little
creature feels that it's safe outside, it peeps out. Blue eyes in the end of
sticks gives a 360 degree view. Even a smallest odd movement makes the crab
quickly draw into the shell again. It is unpossible to make the crab to leave
it's home, so I quess that the fine shell may stay on the island.
We had only a couple of hours whale watching tour on our way to Kenutu. We saw
two humback whales, maybe a mother and a baby. A couple of time they were near
the boat, then one, 8 minute long dive took them far from us.
15.9.2002 Vava'U, Tonga
We spent a week in the archipelago and motored back to Neaifu on Friday to
buy some food. There we saw the Swedish 6 meters long plywood boat Peter
Pan, who had called us outside of Raiatea a month ago (see the 17.8.
log). Peter Pan is SMALL, hard to believe it a 21-footer. Nils has built the
boat himself and it has a sail canoe rig without shrouds. The mainsail is 5
squaremeters, mizzen 3. The masts looked like matches (sorry Nils) among the
numerous tall masts in the harbour. On the side is mounted an outboad of 4 hp.
We went to say hello, and heard that Nils had sailed back to Raiatea, where he
bought a new autopilot. Of the two broken he was able to fix one functioning. We
invited him to Kristiina and had an interesting evening listening to 73-year old
Nils telling about his 12 years at sea. Peter Pan was the one who decided where
to take its skipper. He even had Tingeling, the radar alarm, and Wendy,
the dinghy, with him. A year ago, after Galápagos Islands Peter Pan had lost
its main mast and Nils sailed 3000 miles with the three square mizzen sail. It
took him 31 days, not bad! Peter Pan has been faster than a Nordic
"folkbĺt", Nils boasted. He built a new mast on the Marquesas, but
the tree was of bad quality, and at last he went back to Sweden to build a mast.
Peter Pan has a centreboard, draught 0,65 m - 1,35 m
On Saturday we left Neaifu and
motored to the already familiar anchorage of Port Maurelle. The next bay is a
site for a Tongan Feist every Saturday, which is an evening with
traditional Tongan food, music and dancing, arranged for tourists. Fish,
chicken, octopus and roots were packed in banana leefs and cooked in umu,
the earth oven. Beside umu two small pigs were roasted above an open fire, also
a traditional Tongan course. In addition, there were salad and fruits served
from big shells. There was also kava, the intoxicating drink made of the
roots of a kava plant. The muddy liquid that was drinken from one and same
coconut cup got a very meagre interest among the papalangis, us whities.
Kava was mainly for the musicians, who sat around the carved tree-bowl. We, the
sailors, were about 20, and there were more or less the same number of hosts
including the children running around and the giggling teenagers. The dinner was
accompanied by two gitars and an ukulele. With the darkening evening more boys
were joining the singing group. Music was the task of men, dancing, that took
place after the meal, was taken care of women and girls. The skin of the dancer
is oiled so that audience can stick notes on her. There were several dancers,
beginning with four shy 7-year old girls. The dance was much more subdued than
the vivid action we saw in French Polynesia. Dancers stay on same footsteps,
legs together, knees slightly bend, and the main movement happens by hands and
head. The performers were school girls from the village, in Tahiti we saw
semi-professional adults - maybe this also effected to the different character
of the two shows.
Our host told about the Falevai village, which currently has 200
inhabitants left of the 500 there were some years ago. Australia, New Zealand
and USA temptate to emigrate. Village has a primary school and three churches of
three various religions. The only noble family of the village has got its member
to the Parliament, which was told with a pride.
Paanga notes stick to dancer's oily skin
Talking and tasting kava
for first time, is a good place to tell a bit more about this typical drink of
the Pacific Islands. Kava belongs to the pepper species. The drink is not
alcohol, even it has a dazing effect. It is made of grinned kava roots mixed
with water. Kava is not only a drink, but also a traditional ceremony and an
essential part of certain occasions. Kava ceremony is like a handshake, it seals
important agreements and honors a guest. A Tongan marriage is not valid
before the bride has drinken a cup of kava handed out by the groom. Usually,
only men gather around the three-leg, wooden kava-bowl. Each of them drinks in
turn, of the same coconut-shell cup. Friday evening kava rings are social
meetings, often including singing and guitar playing.
To Auli the kava not only looked like mud, it also tasted mud, but Hannu found
some more sophisticated flavours (pepper?). The first effect is a slightly numb
tongue, but nothing else was noticed, not even by Hannu after his second cup.
23.9.2002
Haapai, Tonga
After the Tongan Feist (15.9.)
bad weather kept us in Port Maurelle for five days. It was rainy, windy and
chilly. Fortunately we have time, so waiting and being inside didn't bother us.
Between the showers we took long walks criss-cross the island. We found
mandarin trees with some fruits, and they tasted so good after a long time. We
became acquainted with Andy and Lisa from Alaska, who's 36-foot
steel sloop has a very difficult name, at least for Finns: Indefatigable,
but fortunately we can use Indy, otherwise there wouldn't be many VHF-calls.
(Once more we noticed how easy and international Kristiina is.)
When the weather turned better, we motored the third and last time to Neiafu to
get water, do our laundry and clear-out. Even we will continue in the same
country, we had to see both immigration and customs.
The only thing left in Vava'U was the long and thoroughly considered whale-tour. The temptation is snorkeling near the whales, but no guarantee is
given, not even for seeing the whales, for the 95 paangas (50 euros) trip. But
the rare possibility to see humpback whales under the water made it, we decided
to take the risk.
Friday morning was cloudy, but dry. At ten o'clock we were heading out in a big
aluminium boat with six other tourists and two guides. There are seven companies
running whale charters in Vava'U, which is much more than the demand, and
usually only a few customers are seen in these boats. Around one whale
can be two-three boats, which was one of the reasons for our own unsuccesful
whale-watch trips. Only one boat can get as close as 100 m, others must remain
beyond 300 m. Only one boat at the time can put swimmers into the water, and
only five at the time.
We made exactly two groups of five, including the guides. Soon we saw the first
blow. (When a whale comes to surface to breath it blows a shower into the air,
which is easiest to discover.) It was a mother and a calf, which is the most
usual combination in Tongan waters, where the humpbacks come to breed and nurse
until the calf is big enough to take the long trip to cold southern waters. We
got closer and the first snorkeling group was ready. A couple of times they went
into the water, but the whales were too far away. We left this couple and went
for another. Now it was our turn to get into the water. First I didn't see
anything else than the blue deepness (there is over 100 m deep between the
islands), but then I could distinguish a massive creature under me, the mother
whale. It was still, and so deep that I barely could see it. Then the calf
became to come up to the surface. An adult humpback can remain under water as
long as 15 minutes, but a calf has to breath more often. The calf
took air, and went down again, beneath its mother. Then both of them came up and
started to swim horizontally in about two meters depth. It was amazing, like a
movie, but here you were a part of it, a drop water in your mask, a bit chilly and
more anxious than ever! We followed them for a few minutes, then they turned and disappeared.
The last sight was the huge, six meter wide tail of the mother whale.
On whale watch tour: two humpacks in sight
We swam two more times and both times it was as marvellous and breath-taking.
Seeing these enormous animals in their own environment gave a perspective unable to grasp
from the surface. Their movements were slow and gracious. When they came up, not a fin
was moving, maybe they used their lungs as a "lifting vest".
Especially the rise of the mother whale was spectacular. Its dark shape could
barely be discern in 25-30 meters depth. I was floting just above it again, a
little afraid. First I didn't realise that it rises, but the shape became more
distinctive until I saw it properly. Big, partly white pectoral fins, furrows in
the head, huge mouth and the other eye. Underneath were hanging small, white
suckfishes. The whale took a breath and went down again. The calf was more
interested in us than the mother, when it came up to breath, it came closer and
stayed near before returning to mother.
After our swimming tours, we also got a show: the calf was slapping its
tail, rolling around and jumping, and for a perfect ending, the mother jumped
entirely up from the water. It's easier to understand the size, if compared to
Kristiina: the whale came up to the level of our mast top, 14-15 meters. It
weights twice as much as Kristiina, about 20 tons, so the splash back to water
is enourmous. An adult humpback whale can weight 30-45 tons, but breeding and
especially nursing take the share. The newborn calf weights 2-3 tons and can put
up 25 kg in a day. The humpbacks don't eat in the Tongan waters, they use the
grease gained from the richly nutrious waters of Antarctica.
We were really pleased with the trip, it was the best experience with animals
and whales so far.
The calf is splashing his tail upside down
On Saturday we left Neiafu behind and motored in the sunny and calm weather to
one of the outer islands, from where it would be easy to start towards the
Haapai Islands. We stopped by an underwater cave called the
Mariner's Cave, and Hannu dived into the cave. There is no
anchorage, so Auli remained driving the boat.
Two stories are related to this cave. The date of the first is unknown to me,
but it is told, that once Vava'U had a very tyrannical chief. A plot was made to
depose him, but it was exposed. The chief ordered the conspirator and his family
to be killed. A young chief was in love with the beautiful daughter of the
conspirator and decided to save her. He took the girl into this cave, which has
opening only under water. The girl spent two weeks in the cave, and the boy
visited her every day bringing food, coconut oil and gifts. The girl fell in
love with the young man. To get the girl in more safe place, the young chief
announced that he will sail to Fidzi, to look for a wife. The canoes stopped by
the cave and the girl was taken along. The couple returned to Tonga after the
death of the tyrant.
The second story tells about 15-year old English boy, William
Mariner, who arrived to the Haapai Islands in 1806 with a privateer
ship. The crew got a friendly welcome, but behind was a plot to kill the
Englishmen. Some of the men suspected something, but the captain thought it was
imagination, and so they were an easy target for the Tongans. William was
away, and returning to the ship he found all the men killed. His end was
near as well, but just in time all the ship's gunpowder exploded because of the
fire the natives had set on the ship. It made them panic, and William was able
to negotiate for his life with a reasonable explanation for the big bang. By
time he got rather appreciated position, learned the language and travelled
around. He was allowed to follow the chiefs and join in ceremonies. He was also
shown the Vava'U secret cave. When the old chief of Haapai Islands died, his son
permitted him to sail away with a ship passing by. In England William Mariner
became a successfull stockbroker and a father for 12 children. He drowned in a
canal in 1853. Mariner wrote a book of his experiences named An
Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands.
At 3 am we hoisted the anchor in the moonlight. Following our old route with
GPS, we passed the reefs out to the sea. The 60 mile sailing to Haapai was
perfect, a smooth easterly wind gave us 6 knots and the sun was shining. As
usual, we trolled two Rapalas, and twice we got a snap. The third one we got
aboard and what a catch! It was a 12 kg, 130 cm long mahi-mahi, which is said to
be the best fish in the Pacific. This was our first. In the water it is sharp
blue with yellow tail, but when dying the colours fade.
Mahi-mahi has a long back-fin and a huge head
In the Haapai Islands there should
be less yachts than in Vava'U. At least we are alone here in our first anchorage
on the Haano Island. Also the constant chat on VHF has turned down
to couple of calls. We tend to spend a couple of weeks on these low coral
islands.
30.9.2002 Haapai, Tonga
Four days on Haano were pure Pacific paradise: sunny,
calm and peaceful. We had the beautiful little bay surrounded by magnificent
corals just for ourselves. The coral here was fabulous, most beautiful we had
seen, not even the nature park in Cuba was able to beat this colourfulness and
variety. Different colours, shapes and species were side by side, like in a
garden. The water was clear, but it had cooled to 23-25 C and felt chilly.
Usually people wear light 2-3 mm wetsuits when snorkeling, but we only have
Hannu's 7 mm suit, made for cold waters. Now we took it out from the closet, no
one would see us here using this "fur-suit". It has two
pieces, Auli took the overall (which made her look like a black michelin
creature) and Hannu was wearing the short-sleeved vest. We were warm enough, and
were spending hours in the water. Hannu was diving into the caves and chasms,
Auli was admiring the beauty from surface.
A photo picked from the video doesn't show
the
true colours. The flat coral is about two meters wide.
Our fantastic days were fullfilled
by two humpack whales, a mother and a calf, who came just outside the reef. We
got closer with the dinghy. They didn't get scared, the little one was splashing
around and the mother was lying still on the surface. Auli even got a glimpse of
them under the water before they moved away.
As pleasant animal experience wasn't the "ragged bird" as Hannu was
calling a crow-size bat before he really believed that it is a huge bat. And
there was not only one of them but a flock! At dusk tens of big bats were flying
to the trees on the beach. We already had some unpleasant imaginations of
blood-sucking monster-bats, until Auli found a leaflet telling about pekas,
Tongan flying foxes, which eat fruits. They also have an important task of
dispersing seeds and pollinating flowers. Peka is the only original
(endemic) mammal of Tonga, I wonder if related to bats in Galápagos Islands,
where one of the three original mammal species is the bat.
The wind increased and turned more south, which made us to leave Haano. We spent
two windy days on Foa, mostly inside reading and writing. The
turbid water and chilly wind didn't temptate to swim. After Foa we continued to Uoleva,
an unhabited island surrounded by white sandy beaches. There are two modest
resorts on the island, both consisting of 4-5 huts, outdoor toilet, and a basic
kitchen/eating hut. On Sunday we had dinner with the five guests of Captain Cook
Resort. The simple dinner was subtituted by a pleasant company.
We found a lot of mandarins on Uoleva, and helped us a whole bagpack. First then
we tasted one, yack, these were sour. We didn't want to throw them away, so it
was time for our first marmalade cooking. It succeeded well.
On Monday, the last of September, we motored in 30 knots wind the one-hour trip
to Lifuka, where Pangai, the biggest village on
Haapai with 3000 inhabitants is located. Haapai Islands have a total of 8000
inhabitants, Vava'U twice as much, and the total population of Tonga is about
100.000.
Along the Pangai main street are located two banks, a hardware store, croceries
and a lot of colourful small kiosks, that sell more or less the same than the
food shop: a variety of corner beef and some other cans, chicken franks, butter,
milk powder, makaroni and a lot of different cookies and chips. There are a
couple of guesthouses and one cafe, the Mariner's Cafe, which is a
hangout for tourists. We found out in the sailors' guestbook that s/y
Iiris from Kotka had been here exactly two years ago.
Women at one of the many kiosks of Pangai
7.10.2002 Haapai, Tonga
We have now visited seven islands in Haapai archipelago
(Haano, Foa, Uoleva, Lifuka, Haafeva, Oua, Nomuka) and the first, Haano,
turned out to be the best. We haven't seen other yachts during the whole two
weeks.
After the main island, Lifuka, we had a good tail-wind sailing to Haafeva.
We had just got anchor down, when two boys, about 20 years old, were already
swimming to the boat. They came aboard, got some coke and candies, and then the
fruit trade began again. These boys were professional, they didn't hesitate to
ask things they wanted: music tapes, video tapes, cd's, a cassette player,
t-shirts, cigarettes, alcohol, a Rapala lure, chocolate and - surprise - a cake
made by Auli. The result was three music tapes (ZZ Top, Dire Straits) for an
unclear number of papayas, and we agreed to meet them on the wharf next morning
at 9.30.
At 7 am boys were whissling on the wharf. Hannu was sleeping and Auli working,
so boys got to wait. At 8 Hannu went ashore with the cassettes, and took some
money and three lighters just in case. Suddenly, the tapes didn't do, but boys
had some own tapes they wanted to listen on the boat - while eating the cake!
Well, there was no cake and the time was not suitable for any visits, so Hannu
took the fruits, three papayas and some rather ripen bananas, and paid - after
some negotiation - four pangas (2 US dollars) and three lighters. (At the Neiafu
market papayas cost one panga each.)
After a couple of days in Haafeva, we motored to Oua, which is
surrounded by a large reef. We anchored quite a way out from the shore. In the
afternoon a man, who had been fishing nearby, paddled with his outrigger to us.
We invited him for coffee. He offered mandarins (the sour ones) and taro-root.
We gave him 50 meters of fishing line and some small lures. He promised to bring
the fruits next day.
With him came Vai, 6 years, and Ahi, 4 years. Again we made some
coffee and opened a new package of cookies after the one eaten yesterday.
Abraham had two taro-roots, a small bunch of bananas, one papaya and ten
mandarins for us. He started to ask for more exchage items: fishing gear, glue,
batteries. We gave him hooks, snells, a couple of lures, glue, a lighter, some
nail polish for his wife, candies and a teddy bear for the children. We had no
batteries left. Looking disappointed he paddled away with the children. We were
wondering if we were hard-hearted and stingy or were the locals lacking common
sense, how much they expected to get for the fruits.
From Oua we sailed 17 miles south, to Nomuka. We got a 9 kilo
"big-eye" tuna on our way. The one meter fish has 5 cm wide eyes. Meat
is rather dry, typical for the tuna species, and in this tuna it is white.
The anchorage is between the main island and Iki-Nomuka, i.e. the
small Nomuka. It is open for south-east winds, but the reefs protect from the
waves. However, it's not a very pleasant anchorage. We are close to Iki-Nomuka,
so far from the main Nomuka that it's an impossible ride in this wind by our
small dinghy. It doesn't matter, we are not looking for any more fruit trade.
Hannu took the other half of the tuna to local men who were anchored nearby.
Iki-Nomuka is a former prison island, where prisoners were cultivating their own
food. Nothing else is left of the houses than a toilet bowl. What a skilful
plumber! We helped ourselves with papayas, nothing else is left of the
plantation. Not a bad place for a prison, the island is surrounded by white
sand, and the centre is bushy and green. Pekas, the flying foxes or fruit
bats are flying around here. When we were walking around the island we saw a
big, dead sea snake on the beach and a small shark in the shallow waters.
Yesterday we motored to the north side of Nomuka, where the chart showed a small
bay. It was very beautiful place, a sheltered little spot in front of a small
beach, surrounded by reefs. But the bottom was full of coral patches, so it was
impossible to anchor. What a shame. We anchored a bit more out, behind the
reefs, and went snorkeling to this wonderful coral garden, and afterwards took a
walk on the beach. It wasn't a place to overnight so we sailed back to
Iki-Nomuka.
It is 60 miles to Nukualofa, the capital of Tonga, where we will
leave tomorrow - or day after.