Rarotonga
02 August 2009
Roger
Rarotonga loomed out of the grey and spray in the early morning light of Friday, July 24th. The wind stayed at 30 to 35 knots and the swells very close together and steep. The pass is quite narrow and the wind was blowing at right angles to our path so it took some work to maintain course but by 7am we were tied to the large concrete ship wharf. There is a sea wall at the head of the tiny harbor and there were about 10 boats med tied to it --- that is, they had backed towards the wall, dropped their anchors, and then tied off stern to the wall. Needless to say, there was no room for us at the inn. The harbormaster (John, an Australian) turned up a little after 8pm and we checked in. He stamped the passports, did the customs forms, and told us to keep our yellow "Q" flag up until the customs inspector has visited the boat. There is a separate office in the Ports building that houses four very friendly women---they gave us bathroom and shower keys, arranged for laundry pickup and delivery, and generally made the whole process very pleasant. We decided to anchor in the western part of the harbor, where we had to tie two very long stern lines to shore. Our passage of 558 nautical miles took a few hours under 4 days, so we averaged slightly more than 5.8 knots.
Over the next four to five days, the wind gradually backed through north, then west, and finally back to the south east. As it passed through north, the swells came straight into the harbor and the boats at the sea wall all pitched wildly day and night, giving their crews very little sleep. The main problem is that their sterns are just a few feet from a vertical wall, so the waves coming in reflect off the wall, effectively doubling the wave height. A small boat, Complicity, that arrived after us on Friday, chose to stay at the wharf and had a miserable night, ripping out two cleats, crunching a stanchion, and sawing through several docklines. Several other boats arrived after us and had problems finding a spot. One just anchored in the middle of the harbor for two days. Although we thought we were getting the worst of the bargain having to anchor away from the wall, it turned out we had very little movement and very comfortable nights.
Tata, the customs inspector, arrived on the dock and waved to us, requesting a ride out to the boat. He turned out to be a very pleasant fellow, and didn't seem to mind being stuck on the boat for some time while I took our dinghy to help one boat reset its anchor and another new arrival to anchor. We asked him about taxis to the airport at 5am on Monday morning for Sal, and he said he would arrange for it. Sal asked what would happen if he couldn't arrange for a taxi --- for example, how would we know. He said he was always around, and if he couldn't arrange at taxi, he'd take her to the airport. Sure enough, at 5am on Monday morning, he turned up in his little van with his wife, which seems far above and beyond the call of duty. We've noticed since that if a Rarotongan says he or she will do something for you, they will. They are very friendly, welcoming, and generous. This is the first time Sal has ever left the boat, and only the second time she's not been with me (the first time was the initial passage. She flew to Melbourne to visit an old friend, then to Tasmania to attend her 40th school reunion. At the time I'm writing this, she should be a day or two away from visting my mother in Hobart.
This is really only the second country we've visited since leaving Ecuador, and it's quite a contrast to French Polynesia. They all speak with Kiwi (New Zealand) accents, use the Kiwi dollar, and have Kiwi passports so that it really feels a lot like New Zealand. Although the prices are fairly high, they're generally about half those of French Polynesia. Everything seems geared for less well-heeled tourists, and almost all of the tourists seem to be Kiwis. We've heard that changes at other times of the year. Here you can rent road or mountain bikes, scooters, and cars. The island has a fringing reef, and there is lagoon in only some areas. We rented two scooters for the duration and on Sunday, Sal, Tane and I (Sal on the back of Tane's bike) toured the island. In some areas there are sandy beaches fronting the lagoon, and in the south, there is a real lagoon with motus (coconut palm covered islands) on the reef. It's very green, with the usual volcanic mountains.
It struck me the other day that, apart from the initial passage from San Francisco to San Carlos in Mexico, we've been in non-English speaking countries with Kena since April 2001. It's quite a treat to hear all of the radio communications with boats here in Kiwi accented English.
On Saturday, there is a large market in town, with great displays of fresh fruits and vegetables, a gazebo with island dancing and drums, and stalls of all kinds. We spent quite some time talking to a fellow who packages Noni juice from the island. He told us that the Chinese and Japanese are both quite actively donating money for police stations, hospitals etc. in order to win the country's vote in the UN. I have no way of verifying this, but it's certainly true that the Japanese have, in the past, bribed small island nations in the Caribbean this way to get UN votes to continue whaling. If so, there are several small island nations in the pacific that would be targets.
On our tour of the island, we met a retired New Zealand high court judge who spends a month or two at a time in Rarotonga, several times a year, working as a judge here on the island. We had observed that we were the only people wearing helmets (you must stay below 40 kph if you have no helmet, and with a helmet you can go up to 50 kph). He made a special effort to applaud us for wearing helmets, as he says he deals with many cases of people with severe head injuries who would have been much better, if not unharmed, had they being wearing helmets.
Here, you get diesel fuel delivered in a tanker truck. Almost all of the boats here needed fuel, so we all got together and ordered the fuel truck which then spent several hours delivering. Propane (actually butane, I believe) is available just a short walk from the dock.
Tane's became a certified diver when he was 16, so his card was a Junior Open Water diver card. We decided he needed an upgrade, and booked him in for the advanced open water diver course with Dive Rarotonga on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. I went along for the first two dives. The visibility was as good as we've seen anywhere, especially given the wind and sea state, but we both got very cold. It's been considerably colder here than in French Polynesia as we're now at 21 degrees south. I think it makes things much worse if you've been in a warmer climate for some time beforehand. As the weather has cleared up more lately, it's warmed up, but we still get rain showers every few hours.
The boats we've seen here include Tender Spirit, Tauhara, Thumbs Up, Sidetrack, Complicity, Contrails, Loon III, Tystie, Qwyver, Julia Max, Chandreka, Santana, and Warrior. Michelle on Warrior (home port Launceston, Tasmania) had very sad news to report. Her husband Robin flew back to Australia from Tahiti, diagnosed with cancer. Michelle left Rarotonga a couple of days ago with one other crew member, with the goal of getting back to Australia as quickly as possible. We've really enjoyed meeting Hans and Jeanette on Tauhara (Dutch Kiwis who live in Opua, Bay of Islands) and the Canadians Ian and Ellie on Loon III.
Ian, on Loon III, found out about a whale head dissection on Friday, so we all went to the Whale Research Centre at 10 am. There we met Nan, the director of the Centre, Darlene, the visiting expert on cetacean ears from Woods Hole and Oceanographic Institute and Harvard Medical School, and several of the volunteers. The whale, a Cuvier's beaked whale weighing about a ton, had beached itself two years ago and had been kept in the Centre's freezer until now, waiting for Darlene. Darlene's main purpose was to teach the Centre personnel how to do dissections properly, so that preserved parts can be sent to various researchers in the future. The whole setup was like an outdoor operating theater, with all of the appropriate precautions --- apparently humans can contract diseases from whales, and in fact Nan had been the first human known to contract a particularly nasty disease that took a long time to cure. Cuvier's whales are interesting in that they are the deepest diving whale, going as far as two miles deep. By the end of the afternoon, Tane was operating as Darlene's assistant, and performed a significant part of the dissection. He returned the following day to help saw into the skull to remove the brain. He was thrilled to be included, and asked Darlene her advice about getting into marine biology. He was told to get a graduate degree in a specialty like genetics and then apply it to marine biology, rather enter a marine biology graduate program as the former approach is considerably more rigorous. A couple of days later, we had Nan, Darlene, and the two volunteers out to Kena for drinks and snacks.
On Friday, a large fuel freighter arrived at the harbor. It barely fit through the narrow entrance, and it dropped its anchor as it entered the pass. Normally, it would spin on the anchor with the aid of a tugboat so that it would be facing out to sea ready to leave. However, we heard the harbormaster on the radio saying he wanted the ship in right away, without turning, because 30 knot winds were expected soon, and he hadn't been able to get the sailboats to move. He meant us, Loon III, and Tystie, but we had never been asked! We were told we would have to move out of the harbor when the ship went to leave, as it would swing right into us as it turned around. At first we were told 7am on Sunday morning, then we were told 12 pm, and finally, 8am on Monday morning. All the while, it had been blowing quite hard, and additional sailboats had arrived to replace those that had left, so there was nowhere for us to go. The Monday morning time was very bad for us, as we were to pick up Tomas, Tane's friend who is joining us, at the airport at 6:30 am. As it turned out, Tomas' connection from Houston to Los Angeles was delayed, so he missed his Air New Zealand flight to Rarotonga. At first he was going to have to wait until the following Sunday, nearly a week, but then he was re-routed through Auckland to arrive 2:30 pm on Tuesday. At 6:00 am on Monday morning, the tanker blasted us with its powerful horn. We, and Loon III, decided we would let out more anchor chain and move in as close to shore as possible, while Tystie, more exposed, undid their stern lines, weighed anchor, and found a temporary spot at the fishing wharf. As it turned out, we were fine, and the tanker swung around well clear of us, but we essentially lost two days in having to stay on our boats ready to move, only to have the departure time changed several times.
Tane was off doing his final two dives on Tuesday afternoon when I picked Tomas up at the airport. We walked about the town, and ended up at Trader Jack's bar, looking out over the reef where Tane's dive boat was moored, so we were right there when he returned, now an advanced open water diver.
We spent this morning provisioning, paying the dock fees, returning the scooters, cleaning off the green growth from the long stern lines, and getting the boat ready for departure. We managed to get under way by 1:30 pm, and we're now on passage to Beveridge reef, about 450 miles distant. It is much like one of the Tuamoto atolls, except that there is no land above water --- we can enter a pass on the western side, and be well protected from the seas. Needless to say, there are no people or beverages available there. However, we've heard glowing reports about the lobster (crayfish, to New Zealanders), huge fish, and abundant sharks. It is a relatively short passage from there to Niue island.
The Lonely Planet guide says of Rarotonga that if you're fortunate enough to be there in the first week of August, you'll be treated to an amazing display of singing and dancing. However, there are World Junior games being held there in September, so all of the usual independence day celebrations have been put off to coincide with the games, so we saw very little.
We found Rarotonga a very pleasant place and the people very friendly. Yesterday I was walking to the station with a gasoline can when a man in a van with two children stopped, offered me a lift to the station, and then took me back to the boat. This sort of thing seems to happen here all of the time. We thoroughly recommend it, although if you come by boat, you must be prepared for the vagaries of the one very small harbor that must accommodate large ships coming and going.