December 1997 Nelson, New Zealand
ALVEI NEWSLETTER NEW ZEALAND December 1997
Half a Circumanvigation.
We have sailed about as far from Portugal as possible without leaving the planet. The last newsletter finished while we were in Bora Bora. Since them we have had a continual change of crew while visiting the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and New Zealand. We will sail for Nelson in the South Island to make repairs, improvements and plans for the coming year.
El Nino.
All across the Pacific we have had trade winds, anti-trade winds, calms and cyclones out of season. The passage from Bora Bora to Suvarov atoll in the Cook Islands was no exception to the exception. We were headed, rained on, becalmed and hasd a record days run of 148 miles. All crammed into 9 delightful days of sail handling and standing in the rain watching your feet and fingers resemble bleached prunes
Suvarov.
Preparing for this out of the way stop was interesting. There are no charts of the Atoll bigger than your thumbnail, but a cruising guide has a palm sized, hand drawn sketch of the 7 by 8 mile atoll and another sketch of the coral reef studded channel into the lagoon. The Sailing Directions stress that the pass should be attempted only in normal trade wind conditions and becomes untenable with northerly wind or storms. There have been numerous yachts and commercial vessels lost here. The derelict hulks of a few are still to be seen scattered along the reef. Also to be found here is clear water and excellent diving. This is the sort of place the divers consider wonderful and the sailors feel uneasy.
Caretakers
Tom and Margaret and their 3 kids spend 8 months of the year here and are the atoll's only human inhabitants. When I checked in Margaret mentioned the supply boat was late and they were in need of soy sauce and toilet paper. After several months in French Polynesia, with its high cost of living we were low on food but had an excess of toilet paper and soy sauce, plus a box of paperback books that wouldn't fit into our extensive library. We were happy to give them what we had. In return they hosted a pot luck on the beach with fresh fish and coconut crab. Suvarov is noted for an abundance of marine life, in particular it's aggressive sharks. our crew split up into tide pool wanderers and divers. Tom took people diving and fish hunting. Monitoring the weather during our stay, there were severe gales to the south in Rarotonga and a tropical disturbance forming to the west of us near Fiji, after 5 days it was time to go.
Pago Pago, American Samoa.
We arrived in the deep natural bay in the drizzling rain with misty grey skies shrouding the mountain tops around the harbour. The yacht dock was too small to accomodate us and the officials would not come out to the boat. We were confined to the ship till the next day. Several of the crew were standing on deck in their foul weather gear staring at the shore and mumbling things about cheeseburgers. So, I got on the VHF and managed to talk our friends Jim & Kathy on "Tumbleweed" into making an emergency cheeseburger run. The next morning we tied up at the dock to check in, then go back out and reanchor. The next several days, were lost to wandering about and indulging in the creature comforts of modern culture. After that we did some serious comparison shopping for food and hardware. Two of our Swedes found a supply of $4 bottles of rum and some yachties toldus about $11 cases of beer, both of which tend to smooth and enliven the social scene. A week or two into our stay I used the morning radio net to invite all the people in the anchorage to a pot luck social on Alvei. We attracted about 70 people and a buffet that covered both galley tables with a mouth-watering array of food. We took on food stores, hardware and fuel at the best prices between L.A. and Auckland. Marianne jumped ship to go sailing with Ken on "Hornpipe".
Watches in Port.
Everyone is assigned to one of three watches, Fore, Main or Mizzen. One day on and two off, in this way work and play time is divided. In port the watch is on duty for 24 hours from 0800 and is in charge of cooking and cleaning the galley and head. A shore boat schedule is set and the whole watch puts in a full 8 hour work day on various items on the work list. Our comparitively modest crew fee covers needed monetary expenses and a bit of hard work keeps maintenance up to date.
Watches at Sea.
Each of the 3 watches stands 4 hours on and 8 hours off. The steering, lookout and standby times are divided equally according to the number of people on each watch. Setting furling and trimming sails is also included, along with an hourly walk through the ship and making hot coffee and tea for the next watch. All hands are called for leaving or entering port and for reefing. Working aloft is voluntary.
Apia, Upolu. Western Samoa.
Elin, from Sweden, a veteran of our Atlantic crossing, had been waiting for us in Apia. Andrea from Canada was due to join within the week a friendly California surfer named Lonnie and a quiet German furniture maker named Karsten joined. Just before sailing for Savai'i a young German student named Ulla, an apparent throwback from the hippie era, wearing tie-dyed dress and bare feet joined our crew. Also Christy decided to fly ahead, treated herself to hotel living for a while, and rejoined us in Tonga.
Samoan Culture.
The indigenous Samoan culture is still in place, village elders meet regularly to decide the method of punishment for a wrongful act or where a newly wed couple may build a Fale to live in. Construction workers may be seen wearing dirty, torn Lavalava and steel toed boots. Most of the crew experienced the same question when meeting Samoan females, "are you married, where is your wife?" Marrying a comparatively wealthy American or European is a popular preoccupation.
Savai'i.
After New Zealand this is the largest of the South Pacific islands, resembling the volcanic island of San Cristobal in the Galapagos. We put in the small, rural harbor at Asau to buy wood from the saw mill. Tied up to the dock while waiting for the wood to be milled we had numerous local visitors. There were also hiking expeditions to see the lava flows and of course diving on the reef. I was onshore one afternoon when a 1500 ton tanker arrived and demanded all the dock space. Knud got to be captain for 10 minutes while he and Stina started the engine, cast off dock lines and and re-anchored. Finally the wood arrived, we covered the saloon deck with a half meter stack of wood wedged in between the saloon tables and sailed for Tonga the next day.
The Friendly Islands.
Three hundred miles hard on the wind and five days later, we sailed into Neiafu, the main port on Vava'u in the northern Tonga group. When I visited here in 1980 there were a half dozen boats in the harbor, now there were 60. However it is still a beautiful place to visit and had excellent diving. Rick, from Beluga diving, took most of the crew here and we were joined be americans Dana & David and Herman from Sweden.
The Haapai Group.
The central Tonga group of islands is seldom visited by yachts. It offers small, out of the way villages, deserted islands and good diving spots. However the weather can change quickly and blow furiously from the opposite direction. This being an El Nino year we had the wind back around the compass rose from near calm to near gale strength during our 3 day stay at Ofolanga. Nearly everyone on board had a chance to spend a night camping out on an uninhabited island. The second night, they were wakened by and earthquake!
Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu.
New crew Jonathan and Lorna had already been here 3 weeks working with Tongan school children in a cultural and environmental
Half a Circumanvigation.
We have sailed about as far from Portugal as possible without leaving the planet. The last newsletter finished while we were in Bora Bora. Since them we have had a continual change of crew while visiting the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and New Zealand. We will sail for Nelson in the South Island to make repairs, improvements and plans for the coming year.
El Nino.
All across the Pacific we have had trade winds, anti-trade winds, calms and cyclones out of season. The passage from Bora Bora to Suvarov atoll in the Cook Islands was no exception to the exception. We were headed, rained on, becalmed and hasd a record days run of 148 miles. All crammed into 9 delightful days of sail handling and standing in the rain watching your feet and fingers resemble bleached prunes
Suvarov.
Preparing for this out of the way stop was interesting. There are no charts of the Atoll bigger than your thumbnail, but a cruising guide has a palm sized, hand drawn sketch of the 7 by 8 mile atoll and another sketch of the coral reef studded channel into the lagoon. The Sailing Directions stress that the pass should be attempted only in normal trade wind conditions and becomes untenable with northerly wind or storms. There have been numerous yachts and commercial vessels lost here. The derelict hulks of a few are still to be seen scattered along the reef. Also to be found here is clear water and excellent diving. This is the sort of place the divers consider wonderful and the sailors feel uneasy.
Caretakers
Tom and Margaret and their 3 kids spend 8 months of the year here and are the atoll's only human inhabitants. When I checked in Margaret mentioned the supply boat was late and they were in need of soy sauce and toilet paper. After several months in French Polynesia, with its high cost of living we were low on food but had an excess of toilet paper and soy sauce, plus a box of paperback books that wouldn't fit into our extensive library. We were happy to give them what we had. In return they hosted a pot luck on the beach with fresh fish and coconut crab. Suvarov is noted for an abundance of marine life, in particular it's aggressive sharks. our crew split up into tide pool wanderers and divers. Tom took people diving and fish hunting. Monitoring the weather during our stay, there were severe gales to the south in Rarotonga and a tropical disturbance forming to the west of us near Fiji, after 5 days it was time to go.
Pago Pago, American Samoa.
We arrived in the deep natural bay in the drizzling rain with misty grey skies shrouding the mountain tops around the harbour. The yacht dock was too small to accomodate us and the officials would not come out to the boat. We were confined to the ship till the next day. Several of the crew were standing on deck in their foul weather gear staring at the shore and mumbling things about cheeseburgers. So, I got on the VHF and managed to talk our friends Jim & Kathy on "Tumbleweed" into making an emergency cheeseburger run. The next morning we tied up at the dock to check in, then go back out and reanchor. The next several days, were lost to wandering about and indulging in the creature comforts of modern culture. After that we did some serious comparison shopping for food and hardware. Two of our Swedes found a supply of $4 bottles of rum and some yachties toldus about $11 cases of beer, both of which tend to smooth and enliven the social scene. A week or two into our stay I used the morning radio net to invite all the people in the anchorage to a pot luck social on Alvei. We attracted about 70 people and a buffet that covered both galley tables with a mouth-watering array of food. We took on food stores, hardware and fuel at the best prices between L.A. and Auckland. Marianne jumped ship to go sailing with Ken on "Hornpipe".
Watches in Port.
Everyone is assigned to one of three watches, Fore, Main or Mizzen. One day on and two off, in this way work and play time is divided. In port the watch is on duty for 24 hours from 0800 and is in charge of cooking and cleaning the galley and head. A shore boat schedule is set and the whole watch puts in a full 8 hour work day on various items on the work list. Our comparitively modest crew fee covers needed monetary expenses and a bit of hard work keeps maintenance up to date.
Watches at Sea.
Each of the 3 watches stands 4 hours on and 8 hours off. The steering, lookout and standby times are divided equally according to the number of people on each watch. Setting furling and trimming sails is also included, along with an hourly walk through the ship and making hot coffee and tea for the next watch. All hands are called for leaving or entering port and for reefing. Working aloft is voluntary.
Apia, Upolu. Western Samoa.
Elin, from Sweden, a veteran of our Atlantic crossing, had been waiting for us in Apia. Andrea from Canada was due to join within the week a friendly California surfer named Lonnie and a quiet German furniture maker named Karsten joined. Just before sailing for Savai'i a young German student named Ulla, an apparent throwback from the hippie era, wearing tie-dyed dress and bare feet joined our crew. Also Christy decided to fly ahead, treated herself to hotel living for a while, and rejoined us in Tonga.
Samoan Culture.
The indigenous Samoan culture is still in place, village elders meet regularly to decide the method of punishment for a wrongful act or where a newly wed couple may build a Fale to live in. Construction workers may be seen wearing dirty, torn Lavalava and steel toed boots. Most of the crew experienced the same question when meeting Samoan females, "are you married, where is your wife?" Marrying a comparatively wealthy American or European is a popular preoccupation.
Savai'i.
After New Zealand this is the largest of the South Pacific islands, resembling the volcanic island of San Cristobal in the Galapagos. We put in the small, rural harbor at Asau to buy wood from the saw mill. Tied up to the dock while waiting for the wood to be milled we had numerous local visitors. There were also hiking expeditions to see the lava flows and of course diving on the reef. I was onshore one afternoon when a 1500 ton tanker arrived and demanded all the dock space. Knud got to be captain for 10 minutes while he and Stina started the engine, cast off dock lines and and re-anchored. Finally the wood arrived, we covered the saloon deck with a half meter stack of wood wedged in between the saloon tables and sailed for Tonga the next day.
The Friendly Islands.
Three hundred miles hard on the wind and five days later, we sailed into Neiafu, the main port on Vava'u in the northern Tonga group. When I visited here in 1980 there were a half dozen boats in the harbor, now there were 60. However it is still a beautiful place to visit and had excellent diving. Rick, from Beluga diving, took most of the crew here and we were joined be americans Dana & David and Herman from Sweden.
The Haapai Group.
The central Tonga group of islands is seldom visited by yachts. It offers small, out of the way villages, deserted islands and good diving spots. However the weather can change quickly and blow furiously from the opposite direction. This being an El Nino year we had the wind back around the compass rose from near calm to near gale strength during our 3 day stay at Ofolanga. Nearly everyone on board had a chance to spend a night camping out on an uninhabited island. The second night, they were wakened by and earthquake!
Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu.
New crew Jonathan and Lorna had already been here 3 weeks working with Tongan school children in a cultural and environmental
