Category Archives: Cruising Guide

Information for other cruising boats. Our experiences finding places to anchor, dealing with officials, provisions, etc.

Fools Feast

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continued — While we were waiting for the immigration officer, an older man came by in a small boat with an outboard motor. His name is Alofi and he was selling jewelry. He invited us to a feast he was putting on this evening. We had read about Tongan Feasts and a cruising guide advised us to never turn one down. He promised lots of food and was very pushy about us attending. We were tired from the passage, and said we’d go before we found out the price, which was $30 each USD. It seemed high, but he was so pushy and promised so much that we didn’t bargain on price. He asked for some coke and invited himself inside. He told us he would meet us at the dinghy dock at 17:00. Continue reading →

Welcome to Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga

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18-39 S by 174-00 W The independent nation of Tonga is a Kingdom that consists of 171 islands over an area of 700,000 square kilometers. Tonga is one of the few places in the South Pacific that was never colonialized by Europe, so the locals tend to live a more traditional lifestyle than the islands infiltrated by the Europeans. Tonga is a monarchy, but they have a judicial and legislative process modeled after the west. While colonial powers were rejected, the missionaries were readily accepted. Tonga is a very Christian nation, with all the major sects represented. The local laws require all businesses to close on Sundays and modest dress. Wearing immodest clothing will get you a hefty fine. Continue reading →

Chimney Dive and Niue Departure

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On Sunday we had Keith from the yacht club and his wife, Sue, over for lunch. We had a nice visit with them. They brought us a batch of pineapple muffins, which we were excited about. Muffins make good passage food.

After lunch we went SCUBA diving with Eric and Gisela at a spot Keith told us about. When he first told us about it, we knew we couldn’t go. It is a more advanced dive to 100 feet, through a cave, and totally out of our league. However, Eric and Gisela are certified rescue divers, so when they arrived in port, we asked them to go with us. They also have a nice underwater diver camera. The dive is called “the chimney”. There is a sheer cliff that drops from 30 to 100 feet. Inside the cliff is a vertical cave, which opens up at the bottom. As you go in the cave, you look up a narrow opening 70 feet tall. From the surface, the opening looks like nothing more than a crack in the surface. The mouth of the cave isn’t visible from the surface, but just outside the mouth of the cave is an old jeep that was washed into the water during Heta. Continue reading →

Snake Gully Dive in Niue

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Niue is a popular dive destination because of the incredible water clarity. The island is made of limestone, which is porous. Rain water simply seeps through the rock into the ocean, rather than forming streams and rivers. It is the water running through the limestone that has carved out all the amazing caves around the island. Since there are no rivers, there is no soil run off to cloud the ocean water. There are neat caves and gullies to explore. There also used to be a lot of beautiful coral, as well, but Cyclone Heta destroyed a lot of it.

Eric had signed up to go on two dives. They only allow certified divers, so they wouldn’t let Christi dive. The dive shop gave Eric a $20 discount for being a yacht club member, so the membership has already paid for itself. Continue reading →

Jenna’s Niuan Buffet

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It rained all morning, so we weren’t in a big hurry to go out. We love it when it rains right after we arrive from a passage. Then we don’t have to wash all the salt off the boat. We left around noon when the rain seemed to have stopped. Destination number one was food. We tried another café. The entire menu was: Hawaiian pizza slices, sausage rolls, quiche slices, chicken sandwich, ham sandwich. Christi opted for the chicken sandwich. It was huge, with lettuce, sprouts and grated carrot. Eric got some quiche and a sausage roll. Both were good. We commented on how good the food was and the chef said she made everything herself that morning, including the bread. This particular place is only open Mon thru Fri for lunch. Continue reading →