Port Maurelle, Kapa Island, Tonga

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 20 Jun 2008 12:02
18:41.889S 174:01.880W

On Saturday, 6/14, we left Neiafu Harbor and Vava'u Island for a quieter
anchorage in Port Maurelle on Kapa Island.

A little bit about Tonga...
The Tonga archipelago is made up of four island groups laid out southwest
to northeast across the ocean with Niue and a few other islands to the
east and Fiji to the west. Of the four island groups, we are in the third
group counting up from the southwest. The Vava'u group of islands are
unusual in that there are more than fifty islands with a total land area
of 45 square miles, all within a very small area so the distance from
island to island is very short. This makes for some very protected waters
because there are many anchorages that are surrounded by several nearby
islands that block the wind and the waves. When we arrived, we purchased
a small chart of the Vava'u group of islands with all forty-two
recommended anchorages marked. We've only been here for ten days, but
could easily stay in this group of islands for a good two or three weeks
before moving on to the other three island groups. Once again, another
reason to come back next season to see the areas we've missed.

The Kingdom of Tonga became an independent state in the mid '70's and is
the only remaining Polynesian kingdom. There really is a king. We didn't
see him as he lives on an island in one of the other island groups - but
his face is on every single currency denomination. Yes, every single coin
and bill from the 1 Tongan cent coin to the 50 Tongan dollar bill. Since
we basically had to pay cash for everything here (the one ATM in town
became our close, personal friend) we saw a good bit of the Tongan king's
face. Especially today when we had to purchase duty free fuel with cash.
Four hundred liters at $2.32 Tongan per liter. That's a lot of His
Majesty King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV's faces!

The islands here are different than any we've encountered so far in that
they aren't flat coral atolls, they aren't majestic volcanic islands like
the Marquesas and they aren't slightly less majestic volcanic islands like
the Societies. They are more like Niue except that they aren't a raised
slab of limestone and they don't look like a coffee table. What they
really look like is a collection of button mushroom tops. I'm not sure
the Tongans would like that I'm comparing their pretty islands to
mushrooms, but that is what they look like. Palm tree topped mushrooms.
Some of the island coasts are sand beaches like that of Port Maurelle on
Kapa Island (picture 1), but many of the island coasts are ragged, with
many sea level caves and cracks and crevasses - more like Niue.

We had a very restful several days anchored in Port Maurelle. On Sunday
the 15th, we did absolutely nothing. Highly unusual for us, but we felt
we should support the local custom. In Tonga, all businesses except some
restaurants are closed, everyone goes to church at 10 am and no work, no
swimming, no fishing, no loud parties, etc. take place. Even contracts
signed on a Sunday are not valid. Everyone just quietly goes about their
business and even the boaters are encouraged not to cause a commotion or
swim or snorkel or work on the boat or do laundry. The day was rainy and
what's this? cool. So we decided it was a good day to comply with local
custom and stayed below with popcorn and a movie (we found one that we
hadn't seen before in the deep, dark confines of a storage locker). We
followed that up with an episode of Voyager and capped that off with an
episode of Six Feet Under. After that parade of videos we were
sufficiently brain dead and went to bed. A fine day it was. Clouds and
all.

We didn't laze around the whole time we were in Port Maurelle and did go
snorkeling. The sights were not as exciting as Suwarrow (there were no
sharks, which is a good thing), but we did see our first electric blue
starfish. We didn't even know starfish could be blue. It seems anything
is possible under the water. We also had the pleasure of viewing another
one of those coral 'trees' that seem to spout little translucent blue fish
like bubbles. We hung around for a while and when Don clapped his hands
underwater, all the bubble fish went and hid in the coral tree. Then, a
short while later when they decided it was safe after all, they came
bubbling out again. Just amazing.

We didn't have to be in Port Maurelle long before one of those
less-reserved-than-a-typical-Tongan vendors showed up at the side of the
boat. This time it was fruit. We bought a giant paw-paw (papaya) and
later turned it into a pie that my mother would have been embarrassed to
serve to her children, let alone dinner guests. We took it to Lady Kay,
soggy crust and all and we all pretty much devoured it. It tasted kind of
like underdone, soggy peach pie - not bad. Picture 2 is the fruit boat (I
see now that the wife of the fruit vendor is wearing a decidedly
un-Tongan-like top, bare shoulder and all). Note the banana stalk on the
boat's deck. Also note that we did not buy the banana stalk. We are
still recovering from our banana overload in the Marquesas. I've sworn
off banana bread, but Don says he could still eat it. This fruit boat is
very typical of the local boats buzzing around the Vava'u islands. Well,
maybe not buzzing. Slogging around is maybe more like it. Some of them
are so low in the water we wonder how they manage to float. This one
doesn't look nearly as bad as some.

The next day we were visited again by another one of those
less-reserved-than-a-typical-Tongan vendors. This time it was baskets and
wood carvings. Having just purchased several baskets from the coffee
drinking Make, we turned this husband/wife and small child team down.
They were very pleasant and at the end of the conversation the wife asked
if we had any candy for her little boy. We don't have any candy on board
(and all the emergency chocolate from the Maloney Tahiti delivery is gone
already!) and we can see why they were asking us for some - the stores in
Neiafu have no chocolate and very little candy. I offered them some
homemade brownies and they seemed enthusiastic. I handed over one for
each of them and just after they pushed off I received the thumbs up from
the wife. 'Excellent!' she shouted as they slogged away in their boat.
Good thing we had eaten the soggy pie the night before because it would
have been embarrassing to offer that up.

Our last night in Port Maurelle brought a lovely sunset (picture 3). Note
the palm tree topped button mushroom islands in the background.

More on our next stop later.
Anne

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