Roving Rear Commodore Report from the South Pacific
by Pamela MacBrayne & Denis Moonan 24 Mar 2023 01:00 UTC
Clouds over Home Reef volcano, SW of Vava'u, Tonga © Pamela MacBrayne and Denis Moonan
After nearly three years, Pamela and Denis are finally reunited with Glide and roving the South Pacific again.
When we left Glide in The Boatyard Vava'u in the Kingdom of Tonga on 5 December 2019, secured for cyclone season, we could never have imagined that our return would be delayed for so long. When Covid hit the rest of the world, Tonga wisely closed its borders immediately in an effort to cope with this disease in a country with very limited medical facilities or resources. Their strategy was extremely effective until the eruption of the HungaTonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano in January 2022 which brought relief workers to the country, thus unknowingly introducing Covid along with delivering food, water and other badly needed supplies. Hopes for the reopening of borders in 2022 were dashed and Tonga, which also lost most communications when the volcano destroyed the underwater cable connecting it to the rest of the world, remained closed.
Borders finally reopened in September 2022 and our return to Vava'u, in the north of the Tongan archipelago, turned out to be an adventure in itself. After a nine-hour bus ride to New York City from Maine, a five-hour flight to Los Angeles and a 13-hour flight to Fiji, we were still days away from our destination since there were no longer direct daily flights to Vava'u, due to the airport being decertified for international flights as a result of maintenance issues. We had an enjoyable layover in Fiji, staying in a little cabin at Vuda Marina, where we would be heading once Glide was back in the water and seaworthy again. In Tongatapu, we had another two-day layover awaiting the ferry. Tongatapu is just 61km from the volcano so our tour of the island by taxi included the not-to-be-believed destruction caused by the volcano and tsunami that followed. Have you ever seen a car wrapped around a tree? It was devastating to see but the Tongans are resilient and resourceful so we have great hopes for their future.
At 22:00, we boarded the ferry that carries freight and passengers north and south along the archipelago. Other than our destination, which is a proper harbour with docking facilities, there was only one other port with a dock. The remainder of our stops were just that, drifting off the encircling reefs where we were greeted by a small fleet of outboard-powered vessels that came alongside to receive the cargo and people they were awaiting. Finally, we arrived in familiar waters where a prearranged taxi took us to the boatyard just before midnight
Without going into all the details, it took us about three weeks of scrubbing, fixing and doing overdue maintenance to get ready to splash. We were not alone. Roughly eight other boats were in various stages of revival. We were extremely fortunate that OCC friends Deb and Phil Perfitt on Coastal Drifter had picked up a dehumidifier for us in 2019 while they were in American Samoa and brought it to Glide about a month after we had departed. That small investment saved us from the serious interior mould experienced by so many of the other boats. We had an uneventful relaunch and spent the following week getting things shipshape and visiting local friends we had met in the three months we cruised here in 2019. It was such a relief to find them all healthy and in good spirits. Vava'u is 261km north of the volcano so they did not suffer the same devastation as Tongatapu.
Compared to 2019, there were few boats in the harbour and very few tourists in town. As always, Greg Just was incredibly helpful with so many things that we needed (plus, his restaurant has the best coconut yoghurt which we ordered in advance to take with us on passage to Fiji). The restaurants and stores were all open but the people are still trying to recover from their borders being closed for so long. The market was full of fresh produce and wonderful people selling their crafts. We regretted that the approaching cyclone season was impelling us to move westwards.
Choosing a route to Fiji was an interesting exercise. Having flown over the reefs and atolls on our way to Tonga, we knew it would be challenging to weave our way through the southern Lau islands to the east of Fiji. After studying the charts, it appeared to us that heading for the northern Lau Group offered fewer reefs and low-lying atolls and was a better angle for ESE prevailing winds. However, with limited internet access, we couldn't find anything written by others who had chosen the northern route. Just a few days before we were to depart, we met a father and son from Australia who had come to Tonga from Fiji by that route. It was reassuring to find that the waypoints they had safely used were very close to the course we had plotted. They also recommended that we pick up a mooring at Waitui Marina, Savusavu
The four-day passage to Fiji was a motor sail with little wind until just after passing our first Fijian island. Dark clouds to our west promised we were going to get wet. And sure enough, for 30 minutes (which seemed like more) we experienced torrential rain... easily the heaviest downpour in our many years of sailing. But the skies brightened for long enough to put out the fishing line and bring in a 13kg wahoo before another heavy squall hit us from the opposite direction. After that, the clouds broke to our west and we had a pleasant sail to Savusavu where we cleared in with the friendly and efficient officials without any difficulty. Waitui Marina turned out to be a great recommendation. While it is a bit rustic in appearance, it offers full service where it counts: restaurant, bar, hot showers, laundry and 24-hour security. What we enjoyed most was that the restaurant was patronised by locals and afforded us an opportunity to visit and learn from these very friendly Fijians. And the young couple who runs the bar also runs a dive shop so they took Pam on a fabulous dive.
We soon discovered Vanua Levu has a charm all its own and is quite different from its bigger sister, Viti Levu to the south, which is more developed. Wandering into town we were able to find repair services for fixing our windlass motor, which did not benefit from its three-year vacation, as well as getting our Honda back-up generator going again. A fellow cruiser even helped get our refrigeration working again! Provisioning is easy in Savusavu and the local market is outstanding. We met a local history professor who works as a tour guide when he is not selling produce at the market. We spent an amazing day with him learning about the indigenous culture, hiking to a beautiful waterfall and touring the island with its many hot springs. As a happy bonus, we delayed our departure by a day when we learned of an annual cultural event that brought craftspeople from all over the island to town for a mix of activities: speeches, music, dancing, food, crafts and general socialising.
We departed for Vuda Marina along the south coast, mostly inside the reefs, using Navionics and waypoints from a fellow cruiser and sailing only during the day. Our second anchorage was adjacent to a very active commercial dock. Seeing ferries come and go was not unusual, but a barge that was being piled high with timber logs caught our attention. Day 3 found us crossing over to Viti Levu where we hailed another vessel heading the same way, which led to evening sundowners in our cockpit accompanied by some excellent appetisers - so bountiful were they that dinner was unnecessary. We spent the next two days hopping south, inside the reef. The next day we anchored outside Vuda Marina to begin prepping Glide for cyclone season. She is now securely tied down in a cyclone pit and in addition to the very capable marina crew, we have a fellow cruiser visiting regularly to make sure there is no mould, water infiltration or bugs!
This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.