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We finally left Tahiti at the beginning of September after a week of sea trials. We had been led to believe that September should be the best time to head west from French Polynesia, but nobody had told the weather gods! Apparently our weather pattern is being adversely affected by the unusual position of the South Pacific Convergence Zone. A high of 1040Mb stubbornly resisted dropping or moving from south of Fiji and winds of 25-45 knots for a week prevented us from leaving the shelter of Hameene Bay in Tahaa. The anchor held firm in sticky mud (which was just like the mud on the east coast of England), but it was too rough for any trips to shore for six days. Even after our delay we had a rough passage onwards to Niue, with several days of winds of 30-45 knots, fortunately from behind. It made for a fast passage and we averaged nearly 150 miles per day, although it was one that Lesley would prefer to forget as she was seasick for the first time since the Bay of Biscay. To give an indication about the passage, we took green water into the cockpit several times which we have never done before! It was as well that we kept our washboards in place.
What a welcome as we moored in Niue. A female humpbacked whale had just given berth and was swimming amongst the mooring buoys. We were immediately taken in hand by Keith, the Nuie Yacht Club commodore, who told us all about Nuie and where to visit. In 2004 the clubhouse was demolished by Cyclone Heta but it is now hosted by a local ice cream parlour. We couldn't resist joining the only yacht club in the world where none of the committee mebers have a boat. The club membership almost exceeds the population of Nuie!
Nuie is a on a coral plateau 80 feet above sea level Our anchorage in Nuie (Tapestry is on the left)
Many parts of Niue were completely destroyed by Cyclone Heta in 2004. The population of Niue is now only 1700 and visitors are very obvious. We found the locals were all keen to get to know us and offer lots of advice about places to visit. We had planned a fairly brief stop but Nuie is a very different kind of island than others we have seen, so we stayed a little longer to explore the forest and caves.
Sundays are days for religion and everything closed apart from Washaway Cafe where we enjoyed a BBQ and sat watching the humpbacked whales swimming in the bay
Talava Arches Matapa Chasm The remains of the old Nuie YC
Togo Chasm Avaiki Pool Willi's BBQ at Washaway Cafe
On a forest walk we learnt to make fire and to catch and hold land crabs (Uga)
The onward passage to the Vavau Islands of Tonga were no better. Winds remained around 25-35 knots with a 2 knot beam swell of up to 4 metres. It was raining most of the time and we were permanently in foul weather gear. We were however faster than expected and entered the islands on a very black night in a continuous downpour. The charts show the land about 600 metres west of their GPS position which made for some interesting night pilotage by radar.
Niefau in Tonga is a hurricane hole, which means that boats will shelter here for the hurricane season with a reasonable chance of being safe if a hurricane passes through. Facilities are however limited and fairly basic.
The yacht club The slipway A Tongan houseboat!
We took a kart trip around the island to see some of the views.
Setting off around the island Views over the island
Local dress (worn very commonly) The market
Local boat transport A young girl in front of her home Graves are well cared for
We also visited some of the anchorages
Nuie and Tonga are on the humpbacked whales migration route and they stop to calf here. There are thought to be about 750 around Tonga at present. We went to see them and swim with them. This was undoubtedly the highlight of our stay in Tonga
We were not allowed to swim closer than 30 metres from them and I was not able to use flash which means that the quality of my pictures is certainly not perfect, but you can probably get an idea of what a wonderful experience we had.
The whales were too big for me to fit in one photograph!
A mother and calf below
And finally we were delighted to meet and share a few beers with Dennis and Janet Knight in Neiafu. Dennis was the commodore of Shotley Point Yacht Club when we started cruising in 1992. They are very experienced sailors and have sailed as far north as Alaska and are currently bound like us for New Zealand.
