08/27/2010
We have been back and forth to the Giggling Whale, where Sandy and his wife Cathy, the owners are fun and very entertaining if you are interested in some conversation regarding the islands, the foods, and the customs. Don't miss their hamburger and beer special at lunchtime. Sandy is also very yachtie friendly and will help with LP and fuel jug fills. My next favorite in Nieafu is Beluga Diving. We did a 2 stop scuba dive on our first Monday and the following Monday we went with them on a whale watching/snorkeling trip.
The whale watching, which inspired our "Sweetpea Fan Club" T-shirts, deserves a paragraph of it's own. Beluga dive took 14 visitors and 4 crew, including May a marine biologist. We were fortunate enough to find a very accomadating mother humpback and her baby to visit. Abiding by the rules which included only 4 customers with a guide in the water at a time, we were able to enjoy the snorkel of a lifetime. Slipping in as quietly as we could and swimming from the boat we became audience and entertaiment to a mother and her less-than-week old calf. Just to clarify, it's important to note this baby is over 6 feet long, more likely 10 feet and I cannot even guess its weight. Gordon was even a little intimated as well as awed when the baby swam at him approximately 6 feet away. Gratefully the guide was in close proximety assuring all that it was safe. We watched baby trail a pectoral fin along mama's back from tail to nose. We saw the baby, who we named Sweetpea, bump mamas belly to release milk and witnessed maternal instincts take over when mother cradled her infant in large pectoral fins. Not one person came out of the water, including the guides without a look of immense satisfaction and the uttering or "Aahs", "Wows", or "Amazing". There might have been a "Brilliant" or two from our good friends Trish and Steve on "Curious". I know that everyone was enchanted with this encounter and most likely all are ready to join in with others to protect these humpback whales.
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cont'd -- After being secured to the concrete wharf, praying we came out of this unscathed, the health inspector boarded. It was difficult even for him since we were sitting so low to the dock, but by standing on our stainless steel guardrails he was able to board somewhat gracefully. Later with equal success the agriculture and customs officials stepped onto Serenity. Cookies and drinks were graciously offered and politely accepted. Remember to stock up before arriving to Tonga, the goodies are a welcome treat for these helpful people.
I left Gordon on the boat with the officials while I dashed off to change US dollars for Tongan dollars in order to pay our fees. Friday was a busy day to attempt entering, and our friends, Michael and Gloria on Paikea Mist, rafted alongside us to do their paperwork. After they finished with all the formalities (including the cookie ceremony) we both left and grabbed moorings in the bay. Moorings belong to different groups -- Aquarium Cafe, Beluga Diving, the Moorings, etc -- so be sure to check that the tie up you use is okay for the taking. Fees vary from 12.50 to 15.00 Tongan dollars per night.
We have had great fun in these islands, but there must have been a bloom of jellyfish around our arrival in Nieafu Harbor. It was the most abundant at night, and we learned the hard way not to run our generator at night. Gordon cleaned our sea strainer twice removing jellyfish and parts of jellyfish. Fortunately we ran our watermaker only once in daylight and theses filters were miracously intact.
There are some wonderful places in Nieafu that I highly recommend and others I am sure are fantastic that I have yet to see. The Aquarium Cafe, owned and run by Mike and Lori has become like our second home. We have had delicious breakfasts, coffee breaks (fills my starbucks jones) , lunches, beer breaks and great dinners. You can sit looking out at the harbor and even bring your computer and use their internet access. And just a hop, skip, and a jump down the street is the Giggling Whale. Here we enjoyed a marvelous dinner while entertained by a group of local students and a delightful group of musicians. We listened to local Tongan music and enjoyed their rendition of "Roll out The Barrell."
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08/27/2010
Good bye Niue, it was fun. We left Alofi harbor at 0011 0n 08/04 planning to motor until daylight on a course of 264 degrees. As has been customary, Gordon and I stood 3 hour watches. We both were on the look out for a capsized catamaran "Anna" which was flipped and abandoned on her way to Niue. The two person crew had been rescued, but somewhere out there was this navigational hazard that was going to prove difficult to sight. We had a fairly calm trip, but motored most of the way prefering a rumb line approach rather than the constant tacking and cross swells. Fortunately, it was a safe trip and "Anna" was found and tied up upside down in Neiafu Harbor shortly after our arrival. We landed in Neiafu on Friday 08/06 at 1545. The date changes upon entry to Tonga so instead of arriving Thursday 08/05 it was the 6th.
I would like to point out that we find ourselves motoring more times than we expected. We just weigh our options carefully in determining our mode of travel. The wind has been on our nose more than not and when it is in another direction it is generally directly astern. We have also been careful not to raise our main too far, since we are limping along with a broken baton, one baton missing, and a tear in our mainsail. Excuses, excuses, you might say and I have to admit that besides our caution there might be a teensy bit of laziness on my part. You know it is just so hard to draw out and in the self-furling sails and in-boom furling main with those electric winches -- 100 lashes to me for even thinking of not using those sails.
Our arrival into the harbor was uneventful, but the checking into Tonga was a hoot. As per instructed, we pulled alongside the commercial wharf, which was already quite crowded. Along the sides of the concrete dock are some sort of black blocks, scarred with bottom paint from the cargo vessels that pull in here. Don't trust them as fenders. Our white fenders that were fending us off the wharf are now dyed with streaks of red that our cleaning and polishing compounds have failed to remove. Our timing wasn't great so we arrived at low tide making loading and off loading very difficult. Fortunately an extremely nice lady off "Ballena helped us tie off. To be continued......
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OK, this is the last photo of our diving trips at Niue. This is a ribbon eel--can you see it?
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I am sure this is where they got the idea for Tom Sawyer's Cave.
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We got to swim with the wild Spinner Dolphins.
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