Astra Blog: Ha'apai Group, Tonga 06.10.08 - 15.10.08

Astra Blog: Ha’apai Group, Monday
6th Zulu radioed in to
inform us that they were missing us so much that they were on their way from
Vava’u and would arrive around 1600.
Having received this information, we set about the job list with a
vengeance to get the bulk of it done before they arrived. George surprised almost everybody by suddenly changing
his travel plans and disembarking Astra. After a short stint ashore, which was
spent sampling the delights of Mariner’s Café, Zulu were kind enough to
sign him onto their crew for the final stretch to Both crews then met for drinks and dinner at Mariner’s
Café before returning to their respective yachts. Tuesday
7th All woke bright and early to finish the jobs and make
sure that Astra was looking her best
for the arrival of Ash’s parents.
Jeremy had the major headache of trying to repair and re-solder the cable
to the Furuno GPS receiver which had become saturated with sea water during the
sail down. After a couple of hours
of painstaking work we are pleased to report that the GPS is functioning once
more! At 1400 Ash departed to find the airport and meet his
parents off their flight. It was
wonderful to see them again, after 7 months; they had last been on board Astra in the BVIs. To celebrate the Rudds’ safe arrival, we
met up with Zulu for drinks at
Mariner’s Café then retreated to the sanctuary of Astra for tuna steaks and an early
night. Wednesday
8th Having sorted out the various crew changes with the
authorities, we left Pangai and headed north 8Nm to the After lunch Sally, Angie and Ash went for a bit of a
snorkel that turned into quite a major expedition as far as the outside of the
outer reef with tender support from John.
Having returned safely, we then ventured ashore to hire an extra dive
tank, thus bringing us up to four complete sets of dive gear for the week. Before dinner we managed to squeeze in a sundowner on Astra, during which time we met up with
Karl and Lilly from a neighboring yacht.
Karl was able to give us some invaluable advice about the weather fax/SSB
conundrum which will be essential in the run-up to the Dinner was a culinary triumph, Boris produced homemade
vegetable soup, followed by the best steak we have had since we last saw Joost,
delicious lobster and banana split with ice cream to finish off.
Thursday
9th On Karl’s recommendation, we threaded our way out of the
anchorage through the coral heads and motored the 3Nm north to Ha’ano Island to
look for a dive site. He had the
foresight to give us the GPS coordinates, so locating the reef was
straightforward. Ash and John were
sent in first while Sally covered them from the safety boat. The clarity was fantastic, the coral
plentiful and diverse and the variety of reef fish impressive, but a powerful
current meant that diving was a bit of a struggle, turning the whole thing into
a bit of a rock climbing session!
The others decided that they were not in the mood for this and opted
instead to tender ashore to see the flying-foxes (large bats) and go for a
snorkel. This accomplished, we
returned through the coral heads to our idyllic spot in Foa for a Tongan ‘feast’
at Matafonua Resort. The Tongan ‘feast’ although highly amusing was not a
feast (well unless you like plantain), there was a severe shortage of food and
most of what did turn up was slightly suspect. However, they made up for this with some
entertaining traditional dancing. Friday
10th On Friday morning we decided to leave the anchorage early
in order to head south to the next cluster of islands. The only problem with this was that we
were trying to thread between tightly clustered coral heads leaving Foa
anchorage and were unable to see where we were in relation to them. There were several uncomfortable moments
during which neither Ash (on the spreaders) nor Jeremy (at the helm) were able
to see anything at all because of the sun’s glare. Fortunately, inch by inch we were able
to con our way out but it was a bit nerve-racking. After a brief pit stop in
Pangai for supplies we set off on a south easterly course for Ha’afeva 30Nm
away. If we thought that the
longish stint of motoring was going to be a bit of a bore, we were in for a bit
of a shock. 10Nm out, Ash suddenly
got the urge to do some fishing. On
Sally’s insistence he raided the freezer for a sardine which he very
scientifically married up to “Jet Head 3’ before trolling the modified
lure. He had taken no more than
four steps before the line was being stripped from the reel. The crew leapt into action, the boat was
stopped, the fight began and cameras, knives and chopping boards were rushed to
the aft deck. Eventually after many false starts we got the beast
alongside, at first glance we thought we had hooked a shark but on closer
inspection it became clear that we had hooked our first wahoo! While Ash worked it alongside, Jeremy
managed to get a good strike with the gaff. At this the fish went berserk and did
its best to smash the side of the boat up.
A knife in its head seemed to do the trick and enabled us to get a rope
around its tail. Then Ash and
Jeremy together managed to flop it over the rail onto the aft deck where they
subdued the fish. It was a proper
fish; we measured it at five feet and estimated it at around 60lbs after it
maxed out our scales! We filled six
big freezer bags which equates to about 12 meals for five people!
The excitement did not
end there. About 8Nm from our
destination, we spotted two humpback whales: a mother and her calf. They were a pleasure to watch and we
motored gently along on a parallel course to them for an hour before resuming
our proper course.
Lunch was absolutely delicious; Angie prepared the
freshest catch of the day ever in the form of wahoo and mango cerviche on pieces
of toast. We had just about
finished digesting it when we arrived at Ha’afeva and had to pick our way
through another dodgy bit of reef.
It proved relatively straightforward and we arrived with enough time in
hand to go on a snorkeling and diving expedition to the wreck of a Korean
fishing vessel, the Ekiaki, which had
come to grief on the reef to the west of the anchorage. We rounded up a wonderful day with a few cocktails and a
cracking sunset before tucking into a very fresh wahoo and mango
curry! Saturday
11th Sally and Angie decided to take a turn ashore to try to
find the village on the far side of the island. A walk in paradise turned into a run for
their lives after a large bison-like creature emerged from the shrubbery
directly behind them! Luckily the
animal turned out to be friendly and not a killer bull. On arrival in the village they met a
young farmer who gave them a bit of a guided tour, told them his life story and
sold them the better half of a banana tree which to Ash’s frustration is now
hanging from Astra’s
backstay! Once all crew were back on board, we relocated a couple
of miles south in the lee of Lunch was quite a feast; we kept chipping away at the
wahoo with some first class sashimi and then moved on to rice salad with curried
chicken for the main course. Having
tidied away the dive gear and lunch, we set off for Oua (North anchorage) a more
suitable place to spend the night.
On the way we were treated to an encounter with three whales that were
crossing our path. Bringing Astra to a stop we turned off the
engine. The whales (we believe
mother, father and calf) altered course and did a tight circle past us coming
within 30 metres of Astra, after
several minutes, they lost interest in us and dived, showing their whole tail
fins as they did so. The largest of
the whales was probably the size of Astra. It was an awesome sight and we felt very
privileged. The anchorage although not terrible interesting, was
certainly well protected. We
anchored shallow amongst the coral heads which necessitated Ash and Angie going
for a bit of a snorkel in the murky water to check on the anchor and the
surrounding obstacles.
After such a big lunch, most were not terribly interested
in dinner (apart from Ash), so a few tins were produced and those who fancied it
were treated to steak and kidney, and chunky chicken in white
sauce! Sunday
12th We awoke bright and early keen to leave the night
anchorage and find somewhere to do some diving and snorkeling. Unfortunately, our first port of call,
Wickham Reef, which is supposedly the best dive location in the Ha’apai Group,
was deemed too dangerous to approach in the rough 25 knot conditions. After a quick discussion, the itinerary
was altered slightly and we headed for We anchored shallow in five metres tucked right in behind
a reef but the anchorage was still rather rocky due to the chop that the wind
had created. It was so chilly in
fact that some crew members even put on jumpers! It was decided to save venturing ashore
until the following morning and instead settle down to a game of scrabble before
dinner. It was at this point that
the watermaker decided to start spraying water at high pressure all over the
place, so Jeremy turned it off and we decided that that too would have to wait
till the morning.
Dinner was another mouth-watering recipe, this time it
was wahoo chowder on the menu…we have to think of about 8 more variations and
that might just do it! However, it
is such a delicious fish and we have waited so long to catch one that it is
unlikely that we will tire of seeing it on the menu every other
evening. Monday
13th Mercifully the wind had
abated during the night leaving blue sky and sunshine. This enabled Jeremy to dismantle the
water maker, locate the leak (a joint had corroded) and put together a temporary
repair. While this was happening
Ash, Angie and John tendered in to We threaded Astra out through the multitude of coral
heads and headed for Uonukuhihifo.
Lunch was consumed en-route and on arrival we were delighted by an
absolutely picture perfect anchorage, with fantastic shelter and crystal clear
water. Wasting no time, Sally,
Ash and John went for a dive on a reef 0.5Nm NE of the anchorage while Angie
provided safety cover from T/T Astra
while doing a spot of snorkelling.
The clarity was incredible and the beautiful coral was absolutely
pristine. Everybody worked up quite
an appetite so we had steaks for dinner. Tuesday
14th Tuesday morning saw the
crew in the water complete with dive gear to give Astra’s hull a much needed clean. Scrapers and scourers were the weapons
used but under the circumstances submersible lawnmowers would have been more
appropriate. Nevertheless, after
over an hours scrubbing, the hull was looking rather more
respectable. At 1230 we departed and
motored north back towards Pangai, Lifuka.
On arrival, the Rudds’ left Astra to move into accommodation ashore
and after a farewell dinner at Mariner’s Café, we all said our goodbyes and
returned to our respective bunks. Wednesday 15th Jeremy and Sally went ashore to the immigration office to
check out of Ha’apai and then paid a visit to the market to buy some
supplies. As soon as they rejoined
Astra, we weighed anchor and headed
south towards Kelefesia. In order
to cover the 55Nm before nightfall, we figured that we would have to do
something in the order of 8 knots.
To begin with it looked like we would have to motor the whole way as the
breeze was insufficient to meet our target speed. However, an hour and a half out, the
wind filled in and we were able to achieve 7 to 9 knots SOG the whole way. Dodging the reefs was made more
difficult by the overcast sky and the fact that some of the reefs were simply
not marked on the charts. Our first
warning of one such obstacle was a wave like a surf break suddenly rearing up on
our port bow! On nearing Kelefesia, we dropped the sails and approached
the anchorage under power. The
entrance was a daunting proposition to say the least. Huge breakers known as ‘blind rollers’
were heaped up on either side of the channel, as we motored gingerly through, we
had to dodge another shoal while surfing Astra in on the three metre swell, all
the time praying that we had not picked a big set to come in on! Some of the waves did seem like they
were on the verge of breaking but we made it and dropped the hook in 9 metres in
surprisingly calm water.
Fortunately, it was time for Happy Hour and a few G&Ts/rums soon
mended our slightly frayed nerves. |