Tonga

Passage from Niue was not fun. Big winds. Big rains. And rather cold. Blew a couple of holes in the Parasailor. No sleep. Glad it was a short one. Came in in the dark and I will never do that again. It was dark like the inside of an inkwell. And the anchoring was quite close to shore. A shoreline I could not even see. Got some damage in the anchor locker from overrunning the chain as it let out. My bad. That will cost some boat bucks!

Clearing in was the usual circus of sorts. 4 or 5 people from various departments. Nice people. Raining, cold, they traipsed all over the salon in their best boots. Then off to a mooring ball and exploration of Tonga.

Our friends on Nexus met an Australian couple on a Gunboat Cat who have been here for 2 months. They have a lot of local knowledge and that is like finding gold. Next day after clearing in we hit the market for fruit and vegies to last a week and set out, the three of us cats, to see some spots they had been to previously. Went to a cave along a cliff wall that you dive down to enter into. Drove Vivo up to about 75 feet from the cliff wall to drop off the divers. The water dropped straight down from the island. Quite something. Three catamarans sweeping by to drop off and pick up swimmers. So close to the wall you could hit it with a ham sandwich. Then off to a small anchorage where we are the only three boats.  Near a reef called the Coral Gardens. Had a fun potluck dinner on Nexus and got to know the owners of Kiapa and their two guests from Perth. Nice folks.

Sorry, I am sure you are getting tired of me saying this but…. Just when you least expect it someone or something comes along. This time in the form of a Tongan family who live on the island we are anchored off of. They are its only residents. We have seen them come and go in their family boat. The Ausies have been here a while and know the family a bit. They said that they would roast a pig on the beach for us if we were interested. Well, duh? Yeah were interested. Details please. They provide the roasted pig, we provide everything else. For a donation that amounts to about 10 bucks each. Were in. Heck Yeah. Vivo, Nexus and the Ausies.

So we load up a picnic and head out around the corner to a small beach. And by small I mean about 75 foot of beach in between some pretty awesome coral cliffs. We get there before the family arrives and start setting up and anchoring our dinks. Not mine. The friggin Honda has crapped out again. Bummed a ride with Nexus. The family, who we have not met yet, arrives in their somewhat dilapidated fiberglass panga loaded down with firewood, kids, (5 or 6) and a small pig that about an hour ago thought he/she was in a pretty good place in life. Sorry dude/dudet. You’re on the menu tonight. So they proceed to unload the boat as it runs aground on the beach. He didn’t seem to mind. He left the boys, ages about 8 or 9 to tend to the boat and set about getting the fire going. The boat is now beaching and scraping and banging away. We jump in to help and the kids just kind of stepped back and thought…. Heck if these idiots want to keep this boat off the reef who are we to get in the way. I think the Dad knew he had a 3 inch thick fiberglass hull and this was not going to do any damage but….  let the tourists play.

Fire woods ashore. Pig is ashore. Beach being prepped for a roast. All good. They build this big hot fire and toss the pig right on it. It’s been slit and bleed out but the rest is all there. Not gutted. All hair and all. So, burn off and scrape the hair. Smelled great. Slice it up the butt and get the guts. Smelled great. Stick the guts on a stick and set one of the boys to roasting it over the fire. Smelled great. Liver, heart, some smaller bits. All on a stick and over the fire.  Big long pole that Dad (David) chopped down from the tree line. In one end of little piggy and out the other.  And onto the spit.  Forked stick at one end of the fire and David turning the stick on the other end. This is no Weber rotisserie.  This is literally a pig on a stick on a fire. Hand held. We took turns turning the spit and after about an hour and a half you have a perfectly roasted pig. And some really good pix of us taking turns tuning the spit.  And you actually have to go rather fast. Probably three rotations a minute. Or the fat ignites and you get yelled at for burning the pig. The kid with the guts on the stick is catching the dripping fat and roasting the entrails in it. The liver was pretty good. The other parts. Not so much so. As it cooked the 9 year old would come around with the stick and a knife and cut you off pieces of the gut pile. Didn’t sell particularly well but we all try it. Well, most of us did. Unique presentation anyway. Little kid with a big smile, stick full of charred guts, medium sized sharp knife, here you go!

Cooking complete they pulled the pig off the stick and started to carve it up. It, along with the side dishes we had brought, made for a truly spectacular feast. Sight, sound, smells. We loaded up our plates and stood in the encroaching tide with the waves lapping at our feet. No kidding. We had the tide coming in and the beach was going away. We ate standing in the surf.  They have flying foxes here. Nice name for a giant fruit bat. They were circling the area. I think the fire attracting bugs maybe. Huge wingspan. Hope they just like fruit and not ARC cruisers.

Then David got out a guitar. I had seen it in the boat. No case. Just lying there. One of his kids was playing with it on the beach. Sand covered. Rusty strings. And he played for us while we ate. And the kids had some songs they did with their Dad. They were beautiful. We were speechless. This family, who by our standards, have virtually nothing, singing together, clearly enjoying each other’s company, and more strangely, ours! They were incredible. I would have to post about a hundred pictures to do justice to the evening. This family, this place, and this moment were something.

Lorenzo played and sang beautifully. I played and sang and dogs howled. Then we said goodnight to our wonderful hosts. On the tiny beach in Tonga, with the family and the little pig to roast. These are the experiences that we all came here for. This one was off the charts. We are trying to figure out what we can do to repay the kindness. They said they need tarps. Because of the damage from last years cyclones. I wish I had brought my old mainsail. Don’t know where I would have stashed it to get it here but holy cow what a tarp that thing would be. We gave them a large canvas sail bag, and some fishing gear. Wish I had a 20 x 40 blue tarp. It would make a difference in the quality of some ones life. Kind of puts things in perspective doesn’t it.

But anyway. That was a long way of saying…..   That was one unforgettable night.

Guts on a stick. Nothing better!

Virgin Islands Beer Club in Tonga!

So, current status of Vivo: Dinghy is dead. Friggin Honda will not run. POS. Hoping to replace it in Fiji. I will toss it overboard. It has 106 hours on it and it is &^%$#ed. We row and bum rides and tows wherever we go. But one boat was out of gas so I was able to give them enough to get by. They asked if it would leave me short? %%$## Dingy doesn’t run. The only reason I need gas is to torch the %$$#@ thing. That will only take a gallon or so, so the rest I can loan out.

Wrapped a line in the prop coming back into the mooring field. Totally my fault. I was dragging a filter to clean it out and forgot and left it in the water. Wrapped the line, blew up a line clutch, stalled out the port engine. What fun. All good though. All fixable. With parts that the next crew will fly in with.

Due to an anchoring in the dark mishap and resulting damage I have about one more anchor drop and retrieval before it is shot. I have to get to Fiji on a “sufferance clearance” and get to someplace to facilitate some repairs. I’m sure that will be cheap. Our day-to-day activities are extremely limited now due to the mechanical issues we have. And this is definitely not the place to get anything fixed. There is nothing here. I need an engine, hull repair, stainless welding, and a s$$^t load more wine or I am going to loose my mind. Past tense on that one maybe.

So its not all fun in the sun. Actually we have two days of rain in the forecast. So its not all fun in the rain. Feel sorry for me yet? No? Who gets to do this stuff?

It has been a very eventful couple of days. Fiji should get a nice boost $$$ from us arriving. We have some things to get done. If there is such a thing a Fiji stock. Buy some now before I give them the economic boost that Vivo will provide.

All for now. That was probably more than enough anyway.

M