Cruising Vava'u

We left this morning for our new lovely anchorage off of Nuapapu rather early so that we could explore and snorkel. We are now located off of a special reef called the Coral Garden, where we will snorkel tomorrow: S 18 43.403', W 174 06.039'  After late afternoon coffee and fruit with the European kids on Maui, and a great potluck on Whirlwind this evening with several friends we have met along the way, including A Cappella, it is now late again, but I will send tonight so you will at least know that I am thinking about you. First I will send what I wrote last night and then I will add a bit of today's incredible adventure.

Sunday, October 9

This morning as we slid across the glassy bay, the deep blue sky and bright sunshine brought forth vibrant hues of hillside greens and water blues, everything so clear after the huge thunder/lightning rainstorm last night. Tuke picked us up in his van and we were off to one of seven churches in the small village on Pangaimotu, stopping by his home at the top of the hill to pick up the rest of the family. The music was the best ever; all of the men in the pew behind us had incredible voices and they sang praises to the Lord with soulful commitment. Both David and I immediately felt the spiritual essence of the island and we knew how very fortunate we were to be touched by all. 


After the service, we drove back to the house Tuke built from scratch after the last hurricane in 2003 destroyed all they had, and this ongoing project of his, with much more to do, made David realize how much he could do for the people of Tonga, if he ever wanted to stay long enough to really be of help. They need so much, and, even though they work very hard everyday, money comes very slowly and everything is expensive. Collette and Tuke's number one priority is education for the kids and they work nonstop to make sure that happens. We ate on the floor of their two story block house with a wonderful view of the ocean beyond, and the food was delicious: lamb, corned beef, and fish sauted in coconut milk and wrapped in taro leaves, raw Mahi in coconut milk, lime, tomato and onions, baked breadfruit, and water melon. Their generosity and graciousness made us feel wonderfully special; they are so poor yet gave us so much. We left them a few gifts, along with a secret envelope with some money but it was apparant that they certainly just wanted to share their family and culture with us with no expectations from us. Once again, our journey is so much about the people we meet, much more than the place; of course, this island hopping is way cool as well, especially when the sun does shine.

Monday

It was a beautiful sunny day with huge white puffy clouds moving cross the blue sky as we motor-sailed to our next destination off of a reef named the Coral Garden next to a beautiful white, sandy beach, with palm trees gently blowing in the breeze on the island of Nuapapu. Since the Coral Garden can best be reached at high tide by way of dinghy and it was too late to go today, so we took Worm around a motu close by with a different reef and found the most incredible coral garden we have ever seen. What an amazing display of color, shapes, and sizes! It is so impossible to properly describe the experience of floating freely along a wall of such vibrant live plants; it is as if I were flying through hilly fields of flowers everywhere, each one different in so many ways. WOW !!!!!! And this is not the real Coral Gardens! Tomorrow (today for you) we will snorkel the actual Coral Garden Reef and take pictures, hopefully sharing the essence much more than my limited words can describe when we find the internet again. We are so so lucky.

Near Mala Motu

Even though the weather was rainy and stormy all day yesterday and last night, we had a fabulous time on s/v Visions of Johanna with Bill, Graham, and Johanna hosting a spaghetti dinner with the local family, Colletta and Tupe with their four beautiful kids, whom they have befriended this last month. Our friends from Simpatica, Louis and Jules, also joined us, and we all brought something to add to the dinner. Regardless of the thunder, lightning, and major rain, we all were comfortably nestled inside the 57 ft. custom East-coast sailboat designed by Graham and Johanna, and it was wonderful visiting with these special Tongans who have grown up here. They are both highly motivated people who believe that education is their first priority beyond survival. (Unfortunately, not usual for the Tongan local population who are so poor.) Their two oldest girls are in high school; Jasmine, the oldest, is about to graduate and is planning to go to the university in New Zealand if they can find the money. The entire family performs on Wednesday evenings in Neiafu at the Giggling Whale, and the money they earn is for education in the village; we did catch the show last week, and they invited us to come to their village tomorrow and go to church with them. Now that we know them more from our lovely evening on Visions, I think David will even go with me to be with them at their home and church. I look forward to learning more about them, and going to church will again give me a chance to soar with the angelic music of the local people. We are saying farewell to Simpatica and Visions, who are both on their way to New Zealand and are moving to the anchorage closest to the island village of Afo near Tapana Point tonight; hopefully the sun will come out for our journey. The anchorage with the surf close at hand is not too far from where we will be tonight. Hopefully when we return to Neiafu, I will have more pictures to share. Haven't tried internet at Mala yet and probably won't, so no skype. Love, Suzi

Heading South

We are leaving today to go out to the southeast side of Vava'u to look for some surf and then we will work our way back to some cool snorkeling areas; we will be gone for about 5 days and then come back in to reprovision and check out officially. Sailmail will be our true blue friend once again until we return. I bought airline tickets on Air Pacific yesterday, leaving on Nov. 11 ( I think it is a Thursday) and it arrives at 12:05 PM on Nov 11, I think. I do not have the confirmation in my hands so I will let you know the details later. Love, Suzi

Photos

Pictures are from fun times at the Perfect Reef with Apee in Suwarrow and yesterday in Tonga. 

The first picture is saying good-bye to our wonderful camp counselors at Suwarrow, James and Apee. What incredible Cook Islanders they are!   Our days in Niue were really special with Ondrea, Karolina, and Maggi from sv Maui (Czech Rep, Poland, Slovakia), and Brandy and Marc from Restless. What great caving adventures we did have!

Swimming w/ Humpbacks

Today was a very special day swimming with these incredible creatures of the deep blue waters. The humpback whales come here to mate and to have their offspring, as well as to enjoy the warmer waters during this time of the year. They will be leaving for the south by the end of this month, so we feel privileged to have met them here. Whale Discoveries is owned by a young couple, Dave and Trish and their two kids from Australia, who are very environmentally conscious and care deeply for the whales. They are sensitive to when the whales are disturbed by the presence of human company, and they keep a fair distance away from them when following. We had eight people aboard the large zodiac, and four were allowed to go at a time, to match the whale comfort zone. It was so special being close to such marvelous mammals who seem so gentle as they gracefully cruise the ocean waters; the pictures we took do not even come close to capturing the essence of our experiences. I will send pictures when I have the time to recap all that we have done over this past month. What an amazing trip this is! Love to all,  Suzi and David

Serene Sunday in Nieafu

In Tonga, because it is Sunday, there is no activity except singing in church or walking to church. I did just that this morning and thoroughly enjoyed the hour of the spiritual musical chanting-type Catholic mass Tongan style; my soul did soar as the singing filled the village. 


David stayed on Sidewinder and found the internet connection we needed and when I returned, he was writing to all of his facebook friends who made contact with him. We did go for a dinghy ride and took Jock and Eureko from sv Scotch Bonnet, the couple from San Francisco we befriended in Bora Bora, out to Swallows Cave, with incredibly intense deep blue water, and we just returned. I will plan to Skype you tomorrow afternoon, while David is watching Sunday Night Football at the Aquarium Cafe nearby. 
Love to all, me

Vava'u Landing

Land ahoy! We are motoring in our last 5 miles to civilization and should be there in about 1/2 hour. It is Friday here and we have heard many yachts with names we recognize on the VHF talking and look forward to saying hi to them all. Had a nice gentle sail all night long with enough wind to get us here for check-in. As we turned into the entrance to the first bay, a mama humpback and her baby greeted us so close to Sidewinder that I needed to turn away a bit to avoid a collision. Several others were following and it was so cool to see them up close. This is going to be great fun here!   


So here we are the next morning and I just got back from the morning market with wonderful fresh vegetables and eggs. The little town is very poor and the "supermarkets" are very marginal little markets, at least the two I have been in, but there are some fabulous restaurants and bars with reasonable prices and it will fun to check them out. At sunset, we had cocktails on s/v Visions of Johanna with Bill, Graham, and Johanna, whom we had not seen since Ecuador. It was great fun catching up with them, as they are leaving today for some of the outer anchorages to go diving and then are making their way south on their way to New Zealand. While sipping our tequilas David mentioned our refer/freezer problems and Bill asked him what motor we had, and lo and behold it was the same one he had for his refer and they had some spare brushes! So today David tore it all apart again and exchanged the brushes and we now have cold beer again! We still want the brushes Marc is getting for us as it's always good to have spares. If we would've had a spare set already we wouldn't have had all this headache.

Cornelia and I are making dinner tonight on A Capella using the fresh clams we just found this morning, and we haven't seen them since the Marquesas. So, as you can see, Tonga will be about seeing lots of friends we have made over the last couple of years and that is a wonderful part of sailing. We also look forward to finding some pretty anchorages and great snorkeling; the water is supposed to be really clear and the coral reefs alive and beautiful. Later today I will venture out to find an internet connection and finally send you some pictures.