22 to 25 Jul 14

Port Morelle and Neiafu

We had planned to leave Port Morelle, and reprovision and clear from Neifu on the Tues 22 Jul. However, both of us were struck with a tummy bug. Suffice to say that we were not sure to sit on or kneel in front of the toilet! We therefore stayed in the very pleasant surroundings of Port Morelle with a particularly unpleasant illness. One bonus was that we had heavy rain over this period. As usual we let the rain clean the decks and then dammed the toerails near the water tank inlets. We got a lot of lovely clean drinking water. Indeed, not only did we fill our tanks literally to overflowing, we also filled several buckets and drink bottles. This spare water then allowed us to do a full wash whilst barely touching our main water tanks.
After a couple of days we had improved and so motored into Neiafu in dead calm weather. On the way in we only had a few items of clothing on the rails so the boat looked quite respectable. Of course, once we had moored out came all the other washing to dry; Chinese laundry again! Ah, well that is cruising!
In Neiafu we caught up on various jobs including buying groceries. The town was still quite quiet, so it was easy to move around and get what we wanted. We also caught up with a few other people socially. Of note we had a meal in Mango with Tim and Katie. One of the staff was, Lola, from the family we had had the pig roast with at Port Morelle. She recognised us immediately with a cry of delight (well, we think it was delight!). An excellent evening ensued. One wall has a sail on it with the names of the various visiting yachts on it. ‘Tai Mo Shan’ has pride of place with the phrase ‘Fk’mora mora’ – taught to Paul with much patience and laughter by the staff. Apparently it means ‘Excuse me’; well we hope it does!
Clearing form Tonga was a fairly simple process. First to the Port Captain to pay the port fees. These are calculated from gross tonnage and length of stay. We duly found the office at the Ministry of Infrastructure and handed over our boat papers. There then followed a flurry of activity on the desk top calculator. A pause, then a smile, then ‘that will be TOP6.20 (Tongan Paanga or dollars) please’. So about 5 New Zealand dollars. The cash handed over, receipt written, and we were done there. Next, Immigration in the large office above the bank. Again there was only one official and he was busy with another couple of people. Still a pleasant ‘I will be with you soon, please wait’ and so we waited. The office was large and had a number of free standing notice boards, often used to separate offices. These had statistics and project progress reports on them. The latest was dated about 2000. We suspect the office used to house the Ministry of Statistics, but they left about 2000. And the single Immigration Officer has occupied it since, keeping his desks tidy and the rest of the office as it was. Anyway, pretty soon the Immigration Officer called us over. As before he was extremely helpful and polite as we chatted whilst he completed a raft of forms. Passports stamped and all done, he wished us a pleasant voyage and hoped we would be back soon; so did we. Onto customs in the customs shed. Here there was a slight problem, well two. First we had to be alongside to clear and we had only taken the dinghy into town. No problem, come alongside tomorrow. Second we did not have our health practique which we should have paid 100TOP for in Niku’alofa. Again, have a look around the boat, and come back tomorrow. We duly returned to the boat, searched and could not find the paperwork or, indeed, recall paying the fee.
Friday morning saw us up early and motoring towards the customs wharf with a moderate wind pushing us onto the wharf. We came alongside and realised with some horror that the lip of the wharf was higher than the toerails of Tai Mo Shan, and so the hull would slip under the concrete lip to rest against the wharf support. We very quickly adjusted our fenders to hold us off correctly. Phew, only a scrape to the top of the toerail; that could have been nasty. Still, Helen went off to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables from the market whilst Paul kept an eye on Tai Mo Shan and chatted to Bruce and Christine from Freebird who were off to Fiji. On Helen’s return Paul went off to see customs. Boat papers presented, and the customs log was filled in. The medical, well that would cost 100TOP. Suspecting a bribe, Paul asked for a receipt. No receipt as the customs officer would pass the fee onto the medical officials. However, the payment was recorded in the customs log and on the departure forms. Paul felt a bit shabby for suspecting the official; as with all the officials we had met he was only trying to help and we have no doubt the money will end up in the right place. A smile and hope we had had a good time and customs were done. A word on Tonga officials here. We have only the highest praise for them. All the ones we met were polite, helpful and honest; if only all officials were as these!
We had been keeping an eye on the weather. Our next port, Pago Pago (pronounced Pango) in American Samoa was some 340 nm to the North East. The trade winds usually blow South East at Tonga, swinging Easterly as one goes North. So trade winds would give us a good beam reach start with a close reach (i.e. 45 degrees to the wind) to end. The ocean current is some ½ knot West to East. So trade winds are OK, but a little tight. Fortunately the weather systems around had conspired to put a fair bit of Southerly into the wind, giving us South to South East winds all the way. We therefore had a weather window for some 3 days or so. And the time for the passage. Well, we plan on 5 knots, so 340 nm is 68 hours (we like easy maths!), or 2 days 20 hours. So leaving at 1030 we should arrive at first light 3 days time. All good, let’s go!