All good things must come to an end...
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Wed 11 Aug 2010 02:57
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Wednesday 11th August 1255 Local 2355 UTC (Tuesday
10th)
21:08.11S 175:11.10W
On Saturday night we worked our way nervously into
a stunning anchorage at the island of Kelefesia. Like many other locations we
have been in Tonga and the Pacific in general, this was another case of
feeling our way along, as we were off the chart. There were big rollers on
either side as the surf crashed across the coral reefs, but we knew from a pilot
book that beyond this and by dodging the large mushroom type coral head at
the entrance was a safe anchorage - if a little tight! The coral, which came
directly up from 8 metres inside the anchorage, surrounded a flat area of
sand which was about 100m in diameter. Unfortunately the flat area of sand was
studded with coral heads rising from the sandy bottom. This made it difficult to
get a slot to get our chain down and to find a safe patch where these coral
heads would allow us to swing round on our anchor without knocking the top
off them or the bottom off our boat. We did though - find a safe patch that
is.
For our efforts we were rewarded with one of
the most stunning anchorages we have found (among the incredible amount of
stunning anchorages we have visited). The white sandy beach and turquise waters
behind the reef were breathtaking in their almost surreal beauty and we
spent Sunday afternoon having a picnic and messing around on the beach. Craig
and I, at Trish's demand for one of my coconut fish curries for
dinner, snorkelled round the circular reef we were anchored in,
sharing our one operating spear gun. We got four fish for dinner
which we curried with Papaya and coconut. Mmmmm..... Roast beef and Yorkshire
puddings it is not, but it made a damn fine Sunday dinner anyway.
Our fishing gear is now depleted and though we have
caught a lot of fish, the fish ( and that completely unreasonable octopus) have
also taken a lot of gear. After a Wahoo burst our reel and the alarm
mechanism was "blown" off it we tried to re -rig it with no alarm. This was a
stupid idea as while being distracted by whales on the passage down to Kelefesia
something big took the whole lot. I tell you, I am going to land one of these
things soon. I have now got the 200lb line and more gear so I am going to deploy
our winches now and see if I can get one in. In the meantime I have to
buy another reel somewhere as the rod is out of action - maybe Fiji. Anybody
reading this and planning to do this trip, I would advise to get the
heaviest gear you can lay your hands on. If this next gear rig does not
work I am going for 200 metres of trawl warp with a gaff hook rigged off my
primary winch!
We stayed two nights in Kelefesia and left on
Monday morning for Nuku Alofa in Tongatapu. We had another incredible
display of Humpbacks performing. At one point we had one group to Port, one
just ahead, one or two to Starboard and a pilot whale swimming a few metres
from the boat to Starboard. The whales have been awesome in their displays and
way beyond what we could ever have dreamt of seeing. Trish had really wanted to
see a whale on our trip and I was starting the very long process of persuading
her that a trip to the Antarctic would be the best thing to see whales, when
the extravagant displays of the Humpbacks in Tonga blew my argument
apart!
In Tongatapu after the crew had a final
wakeboarding extravaganza, we went out for a bit of a celebration dinner
which Amy very knidly treated us to.
The next day and the final day the kids were with
us we took an island tour seeing the kings palace, the three headed coconut
tree, the flying foxes, the Tonga museam but most impressively the blow holes on
the south side of the island. They really were impressive. The coral has
been raised up out of the sea to form a shelf of impressive pools along the
shore 10 metres below the new raised up level of the land. The sea has over the
centuries undercut the coral and has eroded holes up to the pool and
waterfall formations. As each wave comes in it blasts up and through these blow
holes to form an incredible hissing, crashing and blasting display as the sea is
blown high in to the air through the wave, which crashes over the top. Almost as
impressive is the waterfalls from the coral pools as the back wash captures the
energy to merge with the next wave for the subsequent onslaught on the
shore!
None of this however could compensate for the
sadness we felt as the time for the kids to depart drew near. We have had the
most amazing time together and we could not have had a better guest than Amy who
now is going home to Ireland regain her sanity. We hope to see Craig and
Rhiann again soon and as I know Trish was deeply affected by seeing the kids
depart again (or perhaps being left alone with me! ) I have told her I will try
to arrange a very short trip home for her from Australia while I get a refit for
the boat in Mackay.
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