TONGA

We left Raiatea in a brisk wind and were very quickly doing 8kt. with reefed sails.

A rain squall hit us and suddenly we had horizontally driven, icy cold  rain hitting us in the cockpit.  We were soaked through, shivering with cold and tacking back and forth to stay on course.  Suddenly, during one tack, the boat stopped dead.  It felt as if we were anchored.  Nothing we could do would make the boat turn to one or other side and we drifted like that for about fifteen minutes trying to decide what to do.  We realized that we must have been snagged by a fisherman’s lost net. We could not switch on our engine for fear of our propeller snagging the net and making things worse and were discussing the unsavoury prospect of  diving to cut ourselves loose.  We tried one last manoeuvre to bring ourselves round, facing 180 degrees back to Raiatea, when suddenly we started moving again.  We were loose and on our way again!

All was well and we had some brisk sailing for the first 300nm.  One morning, just after we had set a reefed main and staysail, we heard a bang and one of our lower shrouds on the port side came tumbling down to the deck. Our mast was now compromised so we quickly tacked to the opposite side and took our sails down.  We were afraid to sail with the decreased support to our mast so we ended up motoring the remaining 1,000nm. to Tonga.

We  arrived at the island of Tongatapu  early in the morning and were greeted by two humpback whales frolicking close to the mouth of the passage through the reef.  We took this as a good omen.

There are no riggers in Tonga and we would have to wait for new shrouds to be sent from New Zealand or Australia.  This would mean a delay of two weeks by FedEx or two months by ship.  We decided that the best way to handle the situation was for Arti to fly home to Sydney with the broken shroud and return in a few days.

We anchored inside the reef at Pangaimotu Island,in front of the Big Mama Yacht Club. This is a yacht club in name only. There is a small restaurant on the shore and there used to be mooring buoys in front of it but these have been destroyed by hurricanes. Nearby was the hulk of a sunken ship, destroyed by a hurricane.  Tourists arrive at the island by ferry boat, for a meal, a frolic in the sea and a climb on board the hulk.

Floating dock which one pulls in to get to the beach.

Customs, Immigration and Health officials

We were told by fellow yachtsmen anchored nearby that we had to take our boat into the little harbour in the town, Nukualofa.  When we went to pick up our anchor, our windlass decided not to work. It is impossible to pick up 50m. of heavy chain by hand so we could not move the boat before fixing the windlass.  We looked for our replacement solenoid for the windlass to no avail so eventually took the dinghy across the bay into town and went to customs.  They wanted to see the boat so the customs, immigration and health officers joined us on the Pangaimotu ferry, back to the boat. All they wanted to see was our last track to ascertain that we had indeed come directly from the Society Islands and not stopped at any of the outlying Tongan Islands.

At four a.m. the next morning, we took the dinghy back to Nukualofa to meet Rachael, the taxi driver who had agreed to take Arti to the airport for a 7am. flight.

While Arti was in Sydney, Dimitri found and replaced the anchor solenoid, serviced the engine and genset and saw the pleasant capital. The Tongans were friendly, many (including all government employees) still wearing traditional skirts, with a shorter grass mat waistband, long skirt for men, usually shorter for women.

Tongan couple

Arti arrived with new shrouds at 2.30 am, we had some sleep and the next morning installed them. We then crossed the harbour and went alongside the stone dock to clear customs and get fuel. Clearance was uneventfull, and despite promising us fuel by noon, in true Tongan time the “Total” driver arrived at 4pm with a tank of fuel. By 5 pm we were ready to leave, and used the last of the daylight to clear all the reefs and head into a beautiful orange sunset sky, bound for Sydney, 1,950 miles away.