Niue and leaving for Tonga
Nickanddenisesailing
Fri 22 Sep 2017 21:55
COG 277, wind 5knts, speed 5knts under motor, seas calm, Niue time 10am.
Hello everyone!
Appologies for the general lack of contact over the last few days, we really have been enjoying every minute on Niue and the time has been flying! So brace yourself for an essay of all the 'Niue' news!
So Niue has been a popular place and the avaliability of moorings was a bit tricky for us at the beginning. We anchored for the first night (Sunday) just off the warf in the one small sandy spot that we could find (everywhere else was coral) and hoped to get onto a mooring the next day. We went ashore in the morning to check in and met a few new sailors and got a chance to check out a bit of the town.
So getting ashore in Niue is no mean feat. As its normally quite rough there they have a crane to lift the boats in and out. So you approach the dock slowly in the dinghy, time it carefully to drop one person off at the dock - being very mindful of the surging water. They then run up the steps swing the crane out over the water and lower the large strop with hook down to the rocking and rolling dinghy which by this time is bouncing off the warf. The 'onshore person' then presses the button to lower the crane hook, while the person in the dinghy cuts the engine, tilts it up and prepares the birdle to hoist the dinghy. Once attached, the 'onshore person' then presses the up button (making sure the waves havent bounced the bridle out of the crane hook) to get the tension on the dinghy to haul it up. The 'on the dinghy person' then grabs a long black rope thats by the warf to 'tarzan style' swing themselves onto the dock as the dinghy is being hauled up. Once clear of the waves a
nd the
dock the crane is swung onto the shore where a little trolly helps you to wheel your boat into a dinghy parking lot. This is where your dinghy stays for the day until you decide to undertake the re-launching later in the day...... Just spare a thought next time you are parking your car haha :)
After our check in and a quick supermarket trip (very exciting as it was all kiwi food stuff!) we headed back to the boat to hope that a mooring would come avaliable. We managed to do a bit of snorkeling around the boat, got our first taste of the friendly sea snakes that populate the islands waters and just generally enjoyed the incredible visability. In the evening a mooring came free - by this time there were a few boats all waiting for one. After being very Bristish about the whole thing and offering it up to the others first we went to make our move. But as we had expected (from seeing it on our snorkel) the anchor was stuck right around a coral head. So we relaxed into the evening and planned an early morning dive to free it.
Once we were happily on a moorning we headed ashore to meet Sophie and Lawernce (our dutch mates) who had arranged a hire car. Post dinghy parking palava we headed off for adventures with the crazy dutchies.
We first stopped at a place with a large chasm with deep fresh and salt water mixing in it. Lawerence the ever seeking adrenaline junkie convinced Nick to climb up the sharp steep rock face to jump the 12 meters down. Sophie and I gave it a try and decided our lady feet were no match for the spikey foot holds. We then headed to an area with a large arch and interesting caves and rock formations. All of which are only accessible at low tide. So we walked along the top of the reef shelf and explored around before heading to some other caves before lunch. After a nice kiwi style lunch at a cafe things got serious at mini golf - apparently called 'midget golf' in Dutch.... An intense 18 hole game with beers through beautiful coral gardens saw Nick the overall looser and me the ultimate champion of the world! After a quick shower we were back on shore with some other 'young'uns' from another boat called Due West (an English girl with American boyfriend). We had a fantastic eveni
ng at
the local indian resturant with lots of wine, beer and many laughs.
Sophie and Lawerence left to Tonga the next morning while Nick and I helped Kieth out from the yacht club checking all the moorings. Around lunch time we met up with Jenny and Paul from Due West who miracuolously had found a car to hire. We headed off for some more island exploring. Niue has so many amazing caves, chasms, walks and swimming spots. They are all really well sign posted and each place has fresh water showers and toilets. After a great day of adventures we finished off with a beautiful sunset over the water with some beers at a nice hotel.
So yesterday we organised to check out in the morning before more exploring with the car. A lovely English boat (a warram) had arrived in the night that we are friends with and it was nice to get some time to catch up with them while we checked out and they checked in. Jenny, Paul, Nick and I then headed off to some amazing turquoise water pools with swimthroughs under arches and sea snakes for a nice morning snorkel. We managed to squeeze in some more cave exploring before dropping the car off. We then had a lovely relaxed afternoon of $5 delicious rotis from the indian place, $1 beers from the bottle shops, lovely chats with lovely boaty friends and the best most friendly dogs for cuddles.
After a relaxed evening we managed to head off early this morning, Nick very kindly let me have a nice lie in while he released us from our mooring and headed us out to sea again. So we are on the move and will send daily updates as normal. Next stop Tonga - then after that NZ!! Its all happening quickly!
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