Bon Jour from Iles de Wallis 17th September
Mustang Sally Cruising
Mark Lawrence & Dianne Jackson
Sun 17 Sep 2017 01:30
After arriving from Samoa on the 8th sept we spent the weekend in a lovely anchorage at Ile Faioa. We entertained ourselves with plenty of snorkelling, and enjoyed the very healthy looking corals and numerous fishies, some beach walks along the white sandy beaches and were lucky to have a small pod of whales in the lagoon which we watched on Sunday afternoon as they cruised around not far fro the stern of the boat.
We were hoping that we might get to see a ship come in as the lagoon is fairly small with many tight and windy passages for the ships to negotiate. We were very surprised to see not one but two ships come in over the weekend, One with general cargo which went to the wharf of the main town of Mata Utu on the windward side and a fuel ship which unloads at Halalo on the leeward side of the island.
After a lovely weekend we motored up the anchorage off Mata Utu which is in the windward side so quite exposed to the prevailing. SE Winds and chop so a little bumpy. There is quite a good area for dinghies to tie up plus there is a boat ramp so we were able to deploy the dinghy wheels and take it up the ramp. We then proceeded to clear in by going to Customs (Doanes) and then to the Gendam for Immigration which all went very smoothly.
At the moment there are only two other cruising yachts in at Wallis both are French and we found out that we are boat number 67 for the year so not a common destination for cruising yachts.
We had a wander around town and managed to find all the essentials you would expect in a French Island including a caf'e and baguettes and also many Catholic Churches and cathedrals. There are also a couple of good supermarkets so also topped up on a couple of bottles of French wine as well.
There has just recently been a mobile phone network installed so we figured we would try and get some communications up and going apart from the sat phone. After quite some time in the post offices, followed by a quick trip to the only ATM on the island as the post office only accepts cash we had a SIM card installed into the IPad and some Internet. Despite it being called 4G we are finding it very limited but at least we can access weather information.
The rest of last week was spent exploring several of the anchorages in Wallis.
One at Ile Fungalei which is just off a couple of small islands very close to town and looks like a great spot to go for a kite board with lots of shallow sand so if we get a chance may get back there for some kiting before we head off.
We have also been to Gahi, which is considered one of the more protected anchorages, but with the winds very much in the East not the SE it gets pretty lumpy at high tide as the waves start coming in over the reef. Despite the lumps we stopped for a few nights as it is close to the main town plus most afternoons they have paddling practice in the out rigger canoes which provides some great entertainment for sundowners.
We hitch hiked into town a.couple of times to do a bit of provisioning and found the people fantastic. Even if they are not able to speak English they make a real effort to communicate and with out little bit of French we generally end up where we want to go even if it is out of their way. Most of the Wallisian's are Polynesian (mainly Tongan) with a bit of French thrown in. It seems like it is a good mix as they have been very friendly and made us feel welcome.
The wind has been up for the last couple of days so we have now moved to the much more protected leeward side of the island and are anchored near Halalo which is where the fuel ships unload. We are parked in a lovely little lagoon not far from the main wharf which is not a designated anchorage but is a great place to drop the pick. We have called if Halalo Lagoon and our position is currently 13:20.135S 176:13.381W and are completely surrounded by shallow sand and reef apart from the narrow entrance so feeling very sheltered and calm. Despite being anchored off the fuel depot it is quite a pretty spot with many small boats moored and is the hub of boating activity including some small dive operations. There is also fresh water here so a great opportunity to do a spot of laundry this morning as the sheets and towels definitely needed a freshen up.
The weather is looking like we might find something suitable later this week for our last main passage of the season back to Savusavu in Fiji so will hitch a ride town to complete the outwards clearance formalities and do a little more exploring before our departure.
As internet is still limited we will save the photos for when we get to Fiji.