15 July 2017 Once clear of the Avarua Harbour, Rarotonga and turned West we found ourselves in an uncomfortable and lumpy sea and just 5 knots of wind. Jenny, does not do confused and lumpy seas very well, first day out, especially should there be not enough wind to get good forward power. We were having to use the motor, with its lovely diesel smells, to retain any sort of honour as our watching friends needed to see that were actually sailing off romantically and disappearing towards horizons unknown to them. Jenny's inner ear did not react well to the conditions and she took on a strange pale hue. It seemed to me that her eyes had not lost any of their nuclear power and had taken on a hateful gaze that looked at me as if I must be the devil incarnate! After some 30 years I knew how to handle this situation, so I offered to make dinner. The eyes got no dimmer, not even when I turned up in the cockpit, not forgetting it was her birthday, carrying two chicken wings that were the sole remaining leftovers from lunch in the Harbour. I had found the conditions below decks to be even more uncomfortable than those above, so the man in the crew made a captain's call and decreed that it was obviously too dangerous to cook anything hot. A birthday glass of bubbles was not included in the menu. I was assured that this would be one birthday dinner that would not be forgotten anytime soon, like in the next ten years even! Well in my defence she had mentioned during passing that she did not actually feel like eating anything!
By the time night fell we, having cleared the lee of the Island, were enjoying a stiff breeze under full sail and romping along with a bone in our teeth, figuratively speaking. Night was mainly spent in the cockpit as watch times were on an as-needed routine.
16 July Next morning there was no sign astern of the high mountains of Rarotonga and so we had the sea all to ourselves once again. Sailing with full sail and sailing just a little above our layline as the wind was well forward, all was good with Elixir. Colour had returned to Jenny's cheeks and, when I dared to look, her eyes had become beautiful and caring and friendly once again. The bad Jenny eyes having been consigned to the locker, somewhere up behind her eyelids, where they could easily be retrieved, in an instant, should the conditions deteriorate again. A good breakfast was followed by a ship tidy which all went to make us feel that all was well with the world and that all we needed to do now was to contemplate our approach in a day or so to Beveridge Reef.
17 July early morning has us now nicely laying Beveridge in great sailing conditions. Wind vane Sylvia, handling the conditions with ease and not being at all truculent. Wind steering vanes are very susceptible to getting difficult if the counter weight is not positioned properly on the wind vane shaft. As the wind fluctuates so does the pressure applied on its directional sail that needs to be dampened by the counter weight. It is complicated so I will not bore you with the details of how it all works in unison with the water foil. Suffice to say that without it we would be relying only on an electrical system that has some, if not many, disadvantages. Good old Sylvia, I say.
Just after lunch we are alerted to the loud sound of expelling air. All around us arrived a big pod of very large whales. We were sailing at 7 knots and these creatures were majestically moving, seemingly, effortlessly, along on the same course as us. We could not take our eyes off them as this was a treat that we had not envisaged on this leg of our adventure. Seeing them surface and expel their air was exciting to say the least, even when one surfaced just to windward and forward and filled the air with a smelly aroma that I can only describe best as being like what a sardine factory may smell on a big day.
Our policy when encountering whales is to avoid sailing at, or through, them and just leave them to their own devices. On this occasion we found ourselves sailing unwittingly right in the middle of the bunch.
1500 hours. After a while we had settled down to the point of enjoying the pod's company but without taking too much further notice when from out of a wave some 100 metres behind us spouted a huge whale and it was steaming right up towards us. I called Jenny to hang on. It looked to me as if it was intent on ramming us. It appeared like it was coming at twice our speed and was quite capable of causing considerable damage. In fact it came right up to within a half a metre of our stern then it rolled on it's side and went right close by our cockpit. It seemed to be looking at us out of its huge eye, a sort of look that said "fooled you didn't I". We felt that we could have just reached out and touched it had we not been quite so shocked by the suddenness of it all. There were no further dramas and so we ended up sailing into the night with them all still alongside and even some could be spotted far off.
18 July and we were closing on Beveridge fast. I became very cautious as the wind had got up and we were now reefed to our second reef in our sails and the sea had got an angry look to it. We did not have a chart of Beveridge Reef and on arrival we were going to have to rely on number one eyeball for approach and entry. I was convinced that this was not a good plan in these conditions as with just the two of us on board, if anything at all went amiss then we would be in a very risky position indeed. We do not do risky! So scratch going to Beveridge and make for Niue instead.
I had no idea until the decision was made not to call at Beveridge just how heavily it had been weighing on my mind about the consequences of something going wrong. Happiness settled on Elixir and we now look forward to getting into Niue tomorrow.
19 July. 1900 The powers that be, in their wisdom, have provided mooring buoys in the Niue anchorage off the main wharf at Alofi for visiting yachts. It being too deep to anchor, it was now the drawcard to get visitors to the island in small craft. Other visitors come by Island trader or by plane.
Getting ashore was another treat. One takes one's inflatable into the big wharf, that by the way is subject to a big rise and fall of the tide, and there is provided an electric crane to lift the tender, outboard and all, up onto the wharf where there is a small hand trailer on which to park it out of the way while going up town. Brilliant!
Up town is not your New Zealand type of town, here things are definitely island style, very small and very friendly with a good supply of essentials but not much else. That is except for the people, what a friendly and helpful set of locals who go out of their way to see that you are wanting for nothing.
The biggest treat during the two nights that we stayed there was the presence of two whales inside the anchorage, that and Jenny finding a hairdresser and getting a new haircut. Perhaps forgiveness is in the wind for the birthday dinner as happy hour tonight would be with a salon prepared model. Hmm I thinkest not, it may take a bit more than just that to appease.. As to the two whales the mother Whale was some 40 feet long and her calf, half the size and they were slapping and swimming amongst the moored vessels as if we were not there. Astounding that this sort of adventure is freely available without there being any loaded, fast tourist, vessels tearing up the bay and laying an obstacle path for the whales , consiting of all those tourists that pay a lot of money to swim with the whales. Such behaviour is seen in Vava'u but not here, thank heavens.
20 July at the end of the day we paid our mooring fees and returned to Elixir for a last happy hour with the whales and with us being happily attached to a very safe mooring. Sleep the sleep of the just
21 July 0800, Drop our mooring line, hoist sails and head West for Vava'u, a route of 250 miles.
It does not take very long to drop Niue back over the horizon and continue on our own towards where the sun sets. Sailing like this in hot conditions with a good breeze, we are very happy campers. Of note we sail right over the Capricorn Seamount where the mountain rises from 5000 metres under the sea to just 227 metres under the surface. When one ponders the amount of water moving along with the currents caused by the earths rotation one wonders if there will be some disturbance at sea level as it hits this massive obstacle on it's way. However if there was a disturbance then I slept right through it and Sylvia did not complain.
23 July 0800 Land Ahoy Vava'u northern clifftops on the horizon. We would however have to sail right around the North end of the group, close under the great volcanic cliffs, in order to reach the well charted and wide pass into the islands. To try to enter from the Eastern side, where we were sailing from, would be dangerous to say the least as I did not have a detailed enough chart of that area. As the large ocean swell that has come unhindered all the way from South America and charged by the prevailing trade winds suddenly finds an impediment in its relentless Westarly movement so it piles up into great waves on the Eastern side and crashes over and through the reefs. We are not going even close to those.
24 July 0900 checked in at Vava'u at the town of Neiafu. Neiafu is some miles inside the group of reefs and small islands so that there the water is flat and easy. After coming in from the ocean one first notices a pod of Whales in the middle of the entrance bay just doing their thing and lolling about. We moved quietly by about 300 metres off as we carried on into the haven. The last time I visited here was in 1979 on Seika with my family so it was familiar territory for me but for Jenny it was all new and exciting. Adding to the excitement was the anticipation of meeting up with our New Zealand friends Ross and Glenys Annear who were going to spend a week in Vava'u on Elixir before flying home. We were hoping that if we gave them a safe and wonderful time inside these magnificent cruising grounds then they would elect to stay with us for the sail over to Fiji. We will soon find out.
