Our sail from Nuie to Neiafu was fairly uneventful. We crossed the international dateline, but we never saw it. We had very little wind for the first 24 hours (much less than had been predicted) which we had to just wait out since we didn't want to put the engine in gear except for emergencies with our temporary cutlass bearing fix in place. But once the wind arrived we moved right along. As we approached Neiafu we were in radio contact with Honahlee, another boat that left Niue the same time we did and were nice enough to slow themselves down and wait for us at the entrance to Neiafu in case we needed help getting into the harbor. We really appreciated this, it's always nice to know somebody's got your back, but, despite the fact that this was NOT an easy harbor to sail into, we did manage to make it without any help. Of course we had to tack upwind into the harbor entrance, dodging various islands along the way. It was a lot like dinghy racing, but with a much higher penalty for hitting a mark. Fred steered, Jeff winched, and I manned the slack headsail sheet and would run up and walk the headsail around the cutter stay if it didn't go around on it's own. Jeff got a good work out and instructed us to remind him of all this winching later in the day if he began thinking he was having a heart attack from the chest pain he expected would come his way. Once we got ourselves inside the first bay, we needed to go down a skinny, winding channel into Neiafu harbor itself. This wasn't anything we wanted to attempt under sail alone, so we got ourselves to a fairly protected part of the bay and slowed the boat way down and I steered while Fred and Jeff assembled our inflatable dinghy, got it in the water and got the outboard engine onto it while we were still underway. We tied the dinghy to the side of the boat in the back and I got in and became part of the new auxilary engine. Luckily the outboard Fred has provides enough power to manuever the boat pretty well in calm sea conditions.
After all this drama getting into harbor we were all looking forward to dinner ashore to celebrate, but as we approached the customs dock we were waived off by our friends on Honahlee who then came on the radio and told us that normal check in hours end at 4:30, and since it was now later than that the customs guy said we would have to pay an extra $150 Tonga if we wanted to check in that night, otherwise we could check in in the morning, but we would need to remain on the boat until then. The current time was 4:37 - serious bummer. Fred got on the radio and we were directed to an available mooring ball, which was a big plus since trying to anchor under dinghy power was not that appealing. Then a few minutes later we found out from Honahlee that this was the last available mooring ball in the whole harbor. There wasn't one left for them (they had been at the customs dock finishing their paperwork while we moored, since they made it in right before the 4:30 deadline). The other big bonus was that the Honahlee crew came over for a few drinks and brought us a big piece of the Mahi Mahi they had caught on their way over, so at least Jeff had fresh fish which he made into a delicious dinner, despite the fact that he had really been looking forward to cooks night off.
The next morning, Tuesday, we had to push the boat back over to the customs dock to get ourselves checked into Tonga officially. Then we went back to the mooring ball, got the boat settled again and headed into shore. Our first stop was the Aquarium Cafe, which was to become our onshore home in Neiafu. The Aquarium has a nice dinghy dock, a great atmosphere, fast, cheap internet access, good food and coffee and very nice owners. What more could a sailor ask for?
I think all of us spent about 3 hours online that day. This was the first fast and cheap internet access we had had in quite some time. In most of the places we've had to pay about $7 - $10 USD per hour for an extremely slow connection. We mostly get on, painstakingly check our email and get off again as quickly as possible. Here it was 75 cents per hour and it was fast. We could actually surf around a bit and get caught up on news and sports - woohoo! The downside in Neiafu was that the phones are crazy expensive and the stores were very bare. We apparently timed our visit badly with respect to visits from the supply boat, but hey, you can't have everything.
One of the first things we checked on was the new cutlass bearing that was supposed to be arriving by mail from New Zealand. Turns out it hadn't been sent out yet but would be soon and we should have it sometime later in the week. Then we heard the bad news from the Aquarium Cafe owners that the parcel service to northern Tonga was a bit iffy. Apparently packages get to southern Tonga fine, but it's a crap shoot as to whether the delivery process goes smoothly from that point on. Great. We crossed our fingers and hoped that we had earned some karmic mail credits during our ordeal in the Marquesas where we had already been through one seriously delayed package experience.
Our first week in Neiafu is a bit of a blur. It's quite a social whirlwind in Neiafu in general, but at the Aquarium in particular. They have outdoor tables on a breezy upstairs veranda, and everyone wanders in and out on their way to and from their dinghys. You find lots of groups with one person on the internet and the rest hanging out enjoying a cool drink, or some ice cream, and chatting with all the other folks who are doing the same. Neiafu is a big gathering point at this time of year for cruisers who are headed to New Zealand for the cyclone season, so there are lots of reunions amongst boats that had been together before and now have caught up with one another again. We were particularly happy to see the crew from Seabright again. They had left the Marquesas before we did and we hadn't seen them since, so we promptly invited them over for dinner one night. We also got to meet a lot of boats that we had heard previoiusly on the Anzac net, but hadn't ever been in the same harbor with. It really was amazing how many boats were actually there. Everyone kept saying the harbor looked more like someplace in the Caribbean than the South Pacific.
We also went for a dive with the local dive shop during our fist week in Neiafu, and we really enjoyed the two they took us to. The coral here is excellent. We saw a few kinds we'd never seen before. One of which looks very much like fiddle head ferns, and another soft one that changes colors when you touch it. The dive guides were all Tongan, which was nice also. Everywhere else we've been the guides have all been European, and although we've really enjoyed the company of most of them, it was nice to see the locals getting involved and nice to chat with them on the boat also. The Honahlee gang came also, and they took the underwater photos shown here (well they will be shown here later - internet connection today is not allowing me to upload them). We went on two scuba dives and then the guides brought us around to Mariner's Cave which we snorkeled into. To get in you have to dive down about 6 feet and then swim about 12 feet horizontally through the cave opening to surface inside the cave itself. We all made it in, but I had to keep reminding myself that I could NOT breathe underwater, since we had just been scuba diving where I could. Swimming in was a bit scary because you swim from the bright sunlight outdoors into the darker cave, but once you're in and your eyes adjust there is a nice glow from below, sort of like being in a swimming pool with the light on at night, and on the way out is lit up beautifully.
After the dive, which was on Friday, we found that the part still hadn't arrived. I headed out to the boat for a nap, but Jeff and Fred decided to cheer themselves up by getting on another boat for the Friday night races. This is a weekly event put on by the local yacht club with a course laid out and prizes and everything. They guys went with Manix and Hannah on Ino and they had a great time despite the fact that they finished DFL - Dead F'ing Last. Apparently, Ino's anchor was stuck, and Ino does not have an electric winch, so Jeff and Fred were on the bow manhandling it up while all the other boats were crossing the starting line. They did eventually get underway and did go around the course, but didn't manage to catch anyone along the way, but apparently a good time was still had by all. An even better time seems to have been had later, at the yacht club, during, and after the award celebrations. Jeff and Fred closed the bar down along with the crew from Skylax, Ramproset and Peggy West, who they very much enjoyed hanging out with. I had a very nice, very quiet night on the boat (which I needed after all the socializing we'd already done all week), and then also enjoyed a very quiet morning on the boat the next day while the boys recuperated.
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