Neiafu, Tonga

21 JULY - 31 JULY 2011


LOST DAY

The sail from Samoa to Tonga was rougher than we would have liked for the first day, but after that it was quite nice. We did run out of butane (cooking fuel) one morning while I was cooking breakfast, which was a bit of a nuisance, but we had a small back-up bottle that Jim was able to hook up. (Fortunately this incident occurred on one of the calm days.)
The sail from Asau on Savaii, Samoa to Neiafu on Vava'u, Tonga took the expected three days. However, we left on a Sunday, July 17, and arrived four days later on the Thursday, July 21.

HOW CAN THAT BE??? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR TUESDAY???

What happened is that we crossed the International Dateline, which has been redrawn to put Tonga on the east side of the dateline even though it is actually west of the 180° meridian. So now, even though we may still be a dollar short, at least we won't be a day late!


BEAUTY SURROUNDS US

As we neared the island of Vava'u, we passed through some fabulously scenic waters with bright green islands scattered all around, some with lovely coves and mysterious caves. We even saw two humpback whales swimming together (it is the whale watching time of year here in Tonga). Once we got close to Neiafu Harbor, the number of sailboats within sight grew dramatically. These islands are truly a sailor's paradise, offering plenty of day-trip possibilities and quiet, picturesque harbors in which to anchor. We highly recommend it as a MUST STOP to cruisers on their way across the South Pacific.


MEET LAFI

As we approached the main docks in Neiafu Harbor, a man came out to the seawall and waved to us, indicating that we should dock next to a couple of other sailboats at the wharf north of where the ship containers are unloaded. We pulled in where the man indicated, and he caught the bow line for us and introduced himself as Lafi.

Then he launched into a litany of all the things he was going to do for us: bring us fresh bread hot from the oven and flags for Tonga, Fiji, and Vanuatu that his daughter had made as well as necklaces that he himself had made. Meanwhile, just hand him our laundry and he would take it to his daughter to launder.

"Whoa," we said. "Lafi, we haven't even cleared in yet. And we just touched shore; we don't have our laundry together yet." He said okay, he would return in an hour or so with some bread and a selection of flags, and he would also bring us some nice necklaces. And we could give him our laundry then.

Well, we didn't go back to the boat right away after clearing in. In fact, we went into town for a bit and then had dinner with friends at one of the local restaurants and so didn't get back till well into the evening.

Lafi showed up again the next morning. He was not happy with us. He said he had returned to our boat and waited till 5:00 p.m. for us. Meanwhile, he brought us three loaves of bread (it had been taking us a week to get through one loaf, and I still had a full loaf in the fridge), several flags to show us, and two necklaces.

Two of the loaves of bread were regular white bread ( the same type they sell in the grocery store here) and the other was a nice round rustic loaf. I took the rustic loaf and gave him back the other two. (It never occurred to me he would bring more than one loaf!) The courtesy flags looked nice, but they were 30 pa'anga each (approaching $20 U.S.), we already had a Tonga courtesy flag, and we weren't even sure which countries we would be visiting next, so we said we would wait on that. And, of course, the necklaces he brought us also were for sale. We decided to go ahead and buy them, even though we were probably overpaying, thinking that at least we knew the artist and they would be nice mementos of Tonga. As for the laundry, I still wasn't organized enough to have that ready for him.

Well, the lovely rustic bread was covered in mold the next day, we were informed by locals that Lafe didn't make the necklaces himself, and it turned out that the place he told us to tie up was the wrong place, and so we had to pay dockage.

Fast forward a week or so: Jim, who now has a serious case of bronchitis, has dinghied into town and is about to return when he sees Lafi, who signals urgently to him and asks him to go tell the people on another boat in the anchorage that he has their courtesy flags for them. Jim explains that the boat to which Lafi is referring is way on the other side of the harbor, far from our boat, but Lafi is insistent that it is imperative that the boaters get these flags that they have ordered, so Jim agrees to dinghy out to their boat and give them the message.

When Jim gets to the other boat, the people on board inform him that they never ordered any flags. And so Jim begins the long dinghy ride back to our boat when the motor quits (due to water in the fuel he bought here). And so he has to row against a strong, cold wind and winds up with pneumonia.

And so when it comes to Lafi, our advice to fellow cruisers is to meet Lafi, greet Lafi, and RUN!


DAY OF ARRIVAL: THURSDAY, JULY 21 (TONGA TIME)

We arrived at the dock in Neiafu Harbor at about 1:30 p.m. After concluding our initial negotiations with Lafe, we walked over to the customs warehouse, just a little ways down the wharf, to clear in. We had to wait about ten minutes, then it was our turn to approach the desks on the left of the open, mostly vacant, warehouse where the health and quarantine officials were seated. We explained to them that we were there to clear in and were informed in a rather stern tone that we should have waited on the boat for them. We offered to return to the boat and await them there, but they said never mind; since we were already in their presence, we could go ahead and proceed with the clearing in process.

This process entailed giving information to health and customs officials and paying a total of 123 pa'anga (about $70 U.S.) for the health clearance fees. Since we had only U.S. dollars, we had to go to one of the banks (there are two downtown, which was only a couple of blocks away) to use the ATM to get Tongan pa'anga (officially denoted as TOP).

We returned to the customs warehouse, paid our money, and then headed back to town and the Immigration Department. We had to wait for awhile there but once it was our turn, the process was fairly simple. Another form to be filled out and filed, passports copied, and free one-month visas issued.

Next stop: Sunset Grill in town for something cold to drink. There we met two of the proprietors, Foster and Emily, and Emily's children John (8) and Josie (6). (Emily's husband Derek is the other owner, but he was away in Pago Pago at the time.) Foster and Emily are from the Seattle area, and we really enjoyed talking with them and the two children, who are outrageously charming and entertaining and who can easily hold their own against adults like us. We adored them immediately.

While we were sitting at the bar at the open air restaurant, which is just around the corner from the main street of town, whom should we see coming down the road with armloads of laundry but Natasha and Anatoli (Puppy), whom we had befriended in Pago Pago. I called out to Natasha, and they came into the Grill and we all sat down together and had a drink.

"We are meeting Don and Judy (WindRyder) for dinner at the Aquarium Café," Natasha said, and urged us to come with them, which we gladly did.

And so we wound up having a nice dinner with our friends from Pago Pago at the Aquarium, which is a delightful open air restaurant a short distance past town down by the water. Being Thursday evening, it was theme night at the Aquarium, and that night's menu theme was "Cajun." Jim and I shared a shrimp and rice dinner that was tasty but VERY mild; not the least bit Cajun, but still an enjoyable meal. Also on Thursday nights the Aquarium has a string (we are not talking violins here) band and a kava bowl, which guests are welcome to sample. I only took a sip, having heard that it was a really potent, lip-numbing, traditional drink of the South Pacific islands and that it had a taste that might not agree with us Americans. However, apparently the Aquarium doesn't want to be responsible for setting their guests on their duffs sans chair, so this kava was very weak, tasting a bit like used dishwater once the soap is mostly gone. Jim, being the more daring of us two, drank a whole cup, but his lips didn't get numb, either.

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our first day in the Kingdom of Tonga. (Yes, there is a king, and no, we haven't met him.)


LEARNING THE LAY OF THE LAND

We stayed at the dock (which Lafe had assured us was okay) the first night. The next morning, Friday, we were roused at 8:00 a.m. by a rather formidable Tongan lady who informed us that we were at the fishing boat pier, NOT where we were supposed to be. Jim tried to explain that we didn't know we were at the wrong place, that we thought we were at the customs pier and that we had been told that this was the wharf where we should tie up. She retorted that EVERYONE knows this is NOT the customs pier and that we needed to come to her office by the wharf pronto and pay dockage for the previous night's stay. Jim asked how EVERYONE - including people like us who had never been to Vava'u, were supposed to know where the customs pier was since there was no sign designating it, and furthermore, it was taken up by ships, so how were we supposed to dock there?

Well, let's just say that when she left dockside we were probably not at the top of her favorite people list, so Jim wrapped up some banana bread I had recently made and took it to her in an effort to make amends when he went up to pay the dockage. Upon his return, I asked if it helped, and he said he didn't think so; he had not had exact change for the dockage fee, and so she had just kept the extra.

We spent the morning doing errands. Jim took a taxi to the butane gas place and filled our 30-lb. propane tank. We also went to the Digicel office downtown and bought a SIM card and some minutes for our cell phone. And we bought ice.

Then we moved the boat out into the harbor and anchored on the far side away from town near Puppy (Anatoli & Natasha). From there we dinghied in to the Aquarium Café in the late afternoon and had drinks (and free popcorn) with Anatoli and Natasha. Don & Judy (NightRyder) and Hugo & Mateo (Hasta Manana) were all there as well, so it really was like old home week.

Saturday we came into town for more shopping. I bought groceries at the Chinese grocery while Jim took a taxi to a gas station to buy gasoline for the dinghy motor. We had lunch - a burger with kumala chips - at the Sunset Grill. The kumala is a locally grown sweet potato, and the chips (made like French fries) were delicious. While there we met Wim, an old (well, older than we are anyway) Dutchman who has been here for some years, and we had quite an interesting conversation with him. We also met Americans Paul, who had built the Sunset Grill, his wife Brenda, who had rescued a precious puppy (see photos), and their dog, Bear. It was only our second day on the island, and already the Grill was beginning to feel like home.


MY LEFT FOOT

The next day was Sunday, and since we both had bronchitis and most businesses in Neiafu are closed on Sunday anyway, we just stayed aboard the boat and rested. Monday, however, was a different story:

We came into town midday to do more shopping. (Hey, we can only carry so much at a time, so shopping trips are necessary about three times a week.) I walked up to a bakery a few blocks from Sunset Grill at about 1:00 p.m., but by then they had sold out of most of their breads (including the doughnuts Judy had told us about). All they had left were hamburger buns, hotdog buns, and several enticing-looking round loaves of cheese bread. I bought a package of hotdog buns and one loaf of cheese bread, both of which tuned out to be quite good - and the buns lasted a long time, almost a month. They were tasty, too.

From there I stopped by the Chinese grocery for some tonic water and other groceries. On my way to the Sunset Grill, only a block and a half away, I couldn't resist stopping in at an office supply and bookstore on the main street. Here I became interested in a Tongan-English dictionary and set down the carton of tonic water in order to look up a few words. Unfortunately, the price of the dictionary was a bit beyond my budget, so I reluctantly replaced it on the shelf and headed on over to the Sunset Grill to meet Jim for lunch. He was already there, so I set down my backpack and grocery bag and then realized that I had left the tonic water in the bookstore.

This necessitated a trip back to the little store, which was just across the street, so no big deal, right? Well, so one would think, but you have to remember that one thing leads to another and one mistake often leads to several others, and this instance was no exception to that unfortunate rule of life.

And so it was that as I stepped off the curb by the steps leading up to the Grill, I somehow twisted my left ankle, fell on my butt and then over onto my right side. This all seemed to happen in slow motion, and the fall didn't hurt me at all, but my left ankle and foot were now screaming in pain and I knew I was in trouble. So I quickly hobbled across the street, retrieved the forgotten tonic water from the bookstore, then hobbled back to Sunset Grill and sat down at a table where I could prop my injured foot up on a chair. What I saw then, when I looked at my left foot, was a large, hard lump (picture half a golf ball sitting on the side of your foot) just in front of my ankle bone. And my entire foot was badly swollen.

"Foster!" I cried. "I need some ice. NOW!" And so he kindly hopped to and brought me a bag of ice, which I placed on my foot for the next hour or two, and that did help reduce the swelling. That, along with some aspirin and a rum and Coke, helped alleviate the pain as well. Jim and I shared a fish pita sandwich for lunch, then eventually walked (well, he walked; I limped) back to the dinghy. On the way we stopped by the local veggie market for some limes and by the Coconet Café for some ice before heading back to the boat. Once there, Jim informed me that I was grounded until I could walk again, which was fine with me and actually only took a couple of days (although, as I write this exactly two months later, my left foot still hurts when I walk).

Fortunately (since we had invited friends for dinner that night), I don't need my foot in order to cook. And so I made spaghetti sauce and we had Anatoli and Natasha over for a spaghetti dinner that night. They are always lovely guests, and we quite enjoyed their company.


Weather reports indicated that the wind was supposed to get quite rowdy, 30 knots or so, by Tuesday night or Wednesday, so Tuesday morning Puppy moved to a mooring, and then Anatoli assisted us in moving to a mooring as well. We took an Aquarium Café mooring and so are not too far from their dinghy dock, which comes in handy.

While I stayed on the boat for the next two or three days, Jim took advantage of some down time to take the continuing education credits necessary to renew his Arizona real estate broker's license. He took the eight 3-hour courses over the next week or so and got that out of the way.


PIGLET PARADE

On one of Jim's excursions into town he was standing near the intersection of the main street and the street that runs beside The Balcony when a mama pig and six little piglets came strolling down the hill. Right before the intersection of the two streets, the mama stopped and the babies scurried to huddle beneath her. She waited for the passing traffic to clear, then oinked and pointed with her snout at an opening in the shrubbery across the street. At this signal the piglets hurried out from under her and marched - in single file, no less - toward the opening and disappeared into the shrubbery, followed by mama pig.

Soon afterward we were at The Balcony and related this amazing tale to the proprietress Trish, who in turn told us an amazing pig tale of her own:

A couple of months previously Trish took in a tiny piglet and began to raise it as part of the household. The piglet grew bigger and soon was following Trish around. Then one day the young pig looked up at Trish, opened its mouth (which pigs normally do not do when they "oink") and bleated, "Maa-maa."

I mean, I've always heard that pigs are smart animals, but really!

And thus July came to an end with our first ten days in Tonga and we had made some good friends and found a few good places to hang out and were beginning to feel quite at home - pigs and all.

LONG LIVE THE KING!