Diving for Dollars - Uoleva Island, Ha'apai, Tonga
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sun 7 Jun 2009 19:38
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19:50.715S 174:24.857W
On May 30th, we left 'Uiha Island, and motored a
short few miles north to Uoleva Island. The short few miles included an
interestingly narrow pass through a reef, but the good news is that the pass was
actually marked so my eyeball bow navigation skills were not really
needed. The other good news was that we had a beautiful sunny day so all
underwater obstacles could easily be seen.
Uoleva is another one of those flat coral islands
covered in palm trees and edged with a perfect beach. Another beautiful
anchorage. This island also houses not one, but two 'resorts'.
While Don rested what we are now pretty sure is a broken toe, John, Sue and
I went for a walk along the beach.
Picture 1 - The Captain Cook Resort. To be
fair, Uoleva Island was hit by a cyclone in April and many trees were
damaged. It's possible the resort was damaged as well - we just
couldn't really tell. We met the resort owner. He was chopping up
fallen trees. Not easy with only one arm. He seemed happy
enough and was extremely friendly. His attitude was admirable
given the number of fallen trees yet to be cleaned up with only one
arm. This along with the obvious lack of resort guests would make anyone
grumpy. Not so with this guy. He chatted with us a bit and in the
end offered to allow us to have a bonfire on the beach that night. We
opted for dinner on Harmonie instead, but we appreciated his
hospitality.
Picture 2 - This, believe it or not, is the
bathroom facility for the resort. Look closely at the writing on the green
door to the far right. It seems this is the door to choose if
you need to do something more than pee.
While John, Sue and I were off gawking at the
Captain Cook resort, Don decided to be industrious and fix our grill. The
grill was brand new when we left home almost two years ago, but after heavy use
and plenty of exposure to salty air, the thing is nearly dead.
Don bought replacement parts when we were in New Zealand, so his task was simply
to replace the decrepit rusty parts with new ones. Piece of
cake. Or so you would think. An hour later, after
trying unsuccessfully to get the nearly dead grill apart, Don
decided to dump all the rusted bits laying inside the grill
overboard. To do this, he took the whole grill and turned it upside
down. The rusty bits fell into the water. Then the entire
burner assembly fell into the water. I have to admit I'm glad I wasn't on
board when this happened.
After a choice expletive or two, Don donned his
snorkel gear and with boat hook in hand, jumped in the water to rescue
the burner assembly. We were anchored in eight meters of water, ~24
feet. Not an easy depth to free dive. Don briefly thought about
getting out his scuba gear, but the thought of suiting up just to
retrieve a stupid grill part seemed ridiculous. Instead he
opted to free dive as deep as he could, and then use the
boat hook to snatch the burner assembly off the bottom. Try #1:
deep dive, boat hook deployed, almost, almost, almost...shit! dropped
the burner assembly. Up for air and a two minute rest. Try #2:
deep dive, boat hook deployed, almost, almost, almost, got the burner
assembly flipped over...shit! dropped it. Up for air, wait a minute,
where's the air? Oops, that's the dinghy - give it a big shove - ahhh,
finally, air! Three minute rest. Try #3: deep dive, boat hook
deployed, almost, almost, almost.....got it! Up for air, wait a minute,
what's the dinghy doing over there? Bang! Head hitting the bottom of
the boat. Shit! Get out from under the boat! Ahhhh, finally,
air! Duty done, Don climbed back on the boat with his prize.
The grill is still not fixed, but John and Sue have
some friends meeting them in Fiji who might be able to bring the additional
parts we now need to fix the thing (grill parts are not something that can be
found in Tonga where outdoor cooking is done in an earth oven). In the
meantime, our small, sometimes abnormal-acting stove is working
overtime.
The next day Don was getting into the dinghy with a
load of stuff to take to Storyteller when the bag of stuff overturned and one of
the items fell into the water. Remember those giant cans of tomato sauce
we bought in New Zealand that turned out to be ketchup? Well, Sue and John
like the meatloaf recipe we have so well that they agreed to take one of
the giant ketchup cans off our hands. It was a nice idea until the giant
can went overboard. After a choice expletive or two, Don decided the giant
ketchup can was not worth diving for, but a little fishing expedition with a big
magnet wouldn't hurt. Out came the snorkel gear and in the water went
Don with his makeshift fishing line and magnet in hand. Ten minutes
later after several successful giant can/magnet meetings, followed quickly
by giant can tipping up off the bottom and just as quickly falling
back on the bottom, Don gave up. If anyone has a need for a giant can of
ketchup, we can direct you to one at the bottom of the South Pacific near the
interesting Captain Cook Resort on the lovely island of Uoleva.
All was not lost as we stayed in this anchorage for
three days, which gave us time to visit the other resort on the island (a step
up from Captain Cook's) and to go snorkeling. Below are our snorkeling
pictures:
Picture 3 - These brilliant blue starfish are
everywhere in Tongan waters and still amaze us every time we see
them.
Picture 4 - A whole family of blue starfish
lounging on the coral.
Picture 5 - Most of the coral that we've seen so
far in Tonga is green, brown or whitish. This was the first time we
saw the fabulous blue variety.
Picture 6 - This is Don performing what we fondly
refer to as the 'sack of potatoes dinghy re-entry method'. This
involves using your flippers to propel yourself up and out of the
water such that you can get your elbows into the dinghy. Once
you have achieved the elbow entry position, you simply roll like a sack of
potatoes into the bottom of the dinghy. As you can see, John and Sue are
admiring Don's demonstration of this dinghy re-entry method.
More on our last stop in the Ha'apai Group and our
sail to the Vava'u Group later.
Anne
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