SEA BEAR

I Ieft Bora Bora on Monday, it was about midday when I got away after a delay with clearance papers and a visit to the supermarket to spend my remaining Polynesian francs. In my muddle headed thoughts i was looking to arrive at Aitutaki before the weekend and catch the high tide on Fri about 11am thinking 485 miles should take 5 days so leave Mon arrive Fri. Wrong thats only 4 days travelling!
Wind and waves were a bit fiesty that first afternoon but forecast was to lessen so ok and anyway not so fiesty as to prevent me cooking a proper meal that first eve (couscous, fried veg and sauce, since you ask!)
The wind did ease off in the night but don’t you know it down to about 8 to 10 knots so was never going to make my 100 miles per day anyway. It stayed like that for 4 days, it is so easy to loose track of time and days, fairly calm conditions although since sailing almost directly downwind a little rolly at times.
One night I had a passenger aboard , just as it was getting dark a brown boobie was circling the boat determindely and after one abortive effort landed on the solar panel, whereupon began a thorough and vigorous preening session after which he settled down to roost with head tucked under wing. It stayed all night and left just after dawn next morning.

Overnight passenger

The light in the compass packed up but I managed to solder in a new bulb next morning. it is a little on the bright side now and i will have to try and get a led for it at some time rather than a normal bulb.
As you are not allowed to take any fruit or vegetables into the Cook islands with you, I set off low on these and soon had only some onions left. At least I have lots of tinned stuff so wont go hungry.

Before I reached Aitutaki we had a bit of a blow! The wind picked up Friday eve and blew strong for 3 days. I got to about 6 miles off the entrance to channel through reef at Aitutaki about 6 am Sun, but was blowing about 25 knots, grey overcast sky, drizzling and threatening black cloud so decide not to risk trying to get in. The entrance through the reef is long narrow and shallow and not much room once inside either. With no visibility I wasn’t even going to look and be tempted so a simple decision really to carry on. Shame to have to miss out the Cook Islands but thats the way it is.
Soon the wind really picked up to about 30 knots and more in gusts, I handed the main and just ran under staysail, sea was a bit boisterous.

Tues morning and still lots of wind, it hadn’t really let up since Fri, never known it to be so windy for so long. Still just running under staysail only which is pulling us along nicely. Weather has improved in that it has been sunny with some clouds but the constant movement of the boat makes life a little hard.
What a great invention is tinned french casoulet though, just have to heat it up and a complete meal, glad I bought a few tins.
It was too windy to call in at Palmerston, a great shame and if it continues will be too unsettled to stop at Niue either as no harbour there, just some moorings outside the reef. At least at Vava’u Tonga there is well protected harbour with a straightforward entrance so if it continues like this should be ok thats about 500 or so miles yet so a ways to go.

Thurs night (I think it was) was particularly bad with the boat movement, my normal bunk was untenable the other just as bad with the rolling and for a while I wedged myself in the quarter berth but had to scrunched up in the end to get wedged in so that wasn’t so good either so back to port berth with lee-cloth up. Glad to say wind and waves have been better since, wind has dropped a little and swell calmed down. Re-hoisted the main with 2 reefs and even got some yankee up.
Sighted Niue around 6 Fri night, glad to see it before it went dark so knew my course was ok and wasn’t going to run into it! It would have been possible to stop there as weather was ok but I thought it best to carry on whilst I had better sailing weather.
Sun morning I looked out of the hatch around 5 am and it was as black as the ace of spades, seems like the weather hadn’t done with me yet, it came on to blow and rain, 35 knots or more, thoroughly unpleasant, I handed the main and was just under staysail again, when I got it sorted and checked my course i was going NE as the wind had switched about 90 degrees from N to S so got that put right then retired to cabin dripping wet. it rained until the afternoon but stayed windy all day and night. The only saving grace was I had plenty of sea room, about 100 miles and there are no ships out here.
This area is the South Pacific Convergence Zone, noted for unstable weather. Its about 230 miles on to Vava’u Tonga from Niue. hopefully get there for Monday, only since it is the other side of the international date line it would be Tuesday, I loose a day and will be 1 day ahead of UK. Fair does my head in even if I use world clock on my iphone
Monday/ Tuesday eve
Approaching Toga I came around the north of the island and saw a humpback whale which was great, and then
down the West side of the island to the channel in. I was glad that it’s a fairly easy entrance though unmarked. I wasn’t helped by it blowing really strong, a head wind of course once I got to the entrance, but got far enough to pick up the lighted buoys before it was really dark, there was a full moon so should have been fine but it was very cloudy couldn’t see the moon so it was no help.
I got in to Neiafu , Vavau around 8pm and picked up a mooring, pleased and relieved to be in safely after a passage of 1275 nautical miles.

Neiafu harbour

Having an end of passage beer with Dan who I met in the Marquesas

New country, the first job is to complete formalities. Arriving  in the dark as I had I had picked up a mooring buoy. Next morning I had to move over to the dockside flying  a yellow quarantine flag. The first official to visit was the quarantine officer, to check that you are not bringing any banned products like fruit and veg in with you or carrying bugs on the boat. Into town then, to the bank,  work out the exchange rate and to get some local currency to pay the fees. Next to customs office to fill in a great wadge of forms, always a trifle irksome because you have the repeat the same information ie boat name, your name, ships registration, length of boat etc etc over and over again. Lastly the health officer to see if you are healthy and not bringing disease with you . The fee for this goes to the local hospital.

Then it was back to a mooring buoy.

The next few days were spent here in Neiafu, a few jobs to do on the boat first. The major one was to overhaul the wind vane steering as a bush had gone on passage. To replace this I first had to take the self steering gear of the back of the boat so I could diss-assemble it in the cockpit. Stripped down and cleaned up I replaced the bush and bearings, thankful that I had the spares on hand, reassembled and refitted. Last item a bit tricky because its a weighty beast and a dinghy not the most stable platform to work from.

There was some time for socialising, Dan on “My Dream” was here and Thom on “Fathom” and John & Oceana on “Danika” turned up a few days later.

Mainstreet Neiafu

Neiafu is a small place and doesn’t take much exploring but there is a good market for fruit and vegetables and the place comes alive on Saturdays when people gather and hang about in the streets.

Veg market

the market

In between other jobs I took a walk over to the boatyard on the other side of the island for a look see and also went up Mt Talau. Well its stretching it a bit to call it a mountain, at 310 m hardly a lofty eminence but it is the highest point in Vava’u and is a fine viewpoint to look out over the many islands and inlets that comprise the Vava’u group.

View from Mt Talau

In French Polynesia it was chickens and roosters that were everywhere, here in Tonga it is pigs that roam about.

Apart from the odd day the weather had not been great, grey skies and lots of rain but when it improved it was time to head out to enjoy some of the other anchorages that are here. First stop was to anchor of the tiny island of Nuku, memorable for its fine white sandy spit at one end.

Nuku

On then to Vakaeitau Island, winding a way between small islands and reefs to cross the reef guarding the delightful bay where I anchored. Anchored her were Ken & Tracy who I had last seen in Portobello Panama, good to catch up over a bottle of wine in the cockpit.

Vakaeitu Island

There is just one family lives on the island, like all Togan island heavily wooded. They held a Tongan feast for the cruisers anchored here, roast pig, chicken curry, raw fish marinated in coconut milk  and a melange of different vegetable dishes. Two of the little girls dressed in the traditional bark cloth costumes did some Tongan dancing and there was a big fire burning under a huge banyan tree.

feast on the beach

After some days I was out of bread, booze and fresh veg so I headed back to Neiafu to restock.

I had a pleasant sail back  the long way around as it were passing first north of Lape island and then south of Langito’o island, out towards Foeta island up past Luakmoko island past Kitu island and so back to Neiafu. Jan & Richard of “Morpheus” were here now so I joined them for happy hour at the bar.

Restocked with provisions, next day I dug out the bike and cycled down and across the causeway to Pangiamoto island and followed the roads first to  Hikakalea Beach then back tracking across to Utangake island until the road ran out overlooking Mala island. Although the islands are fairly low lying there were enough hills to make it hard work at times.

I had another bike ride on Vava’u to enable me to see more of the island, this up to Hila ki Tapana lookout to the north of the island, up a steep dirt track past plenty of Taro fields, hot hard work but worthwhile.

road to Hila ki Tapana lookout

I decided to stay on in Neiafu  for the Vava’u Blue Water Festival, some of its attraction was that representatives from New Zealand Customs, Opua marina and Whangerai Marine came over to give us cruisers the lowdown on NewZealand, which was very useful.  They seem determined to try and make it as easy as possible for yachties to visit NZ and we seemed assured of a good welcome there. There are some restrictions on what you can take to NZ, for example no fruit or vegetables and no plants. They take their biosecurity seriously, they don’t have fruit flies in NZ for instance. I had to so goodbye to my Aloe Vera plant that had been with me since the Canaries, which was a bit of a wrench, but I found a good home for it at the Aquarium cafe.

Goodbye Aloe Vera

The festival kicked of with a sausage sizzle at the boatyard, who laid on free sausages and beer.  The official opening on the Monday we had a Tongan brass band playing for us- just like a colliery band back home although here the boys and men in the band all wear skirts and then an eve meal. Subsequent days there was a breakfast hosted by Whangarei marine, we visited a primary school where the children put on a show of dancing for us and a Tongan buffet was laid on by the parents, there was a barbecue and party at the Basque tavern, a humpback whale talk and pizza and finally a last night meal .

Festival over, time to move on the the Ha’apai group about 70 miles south so I left early afternoon to be clear of the islands and reefs of the Vava’u group before dark and then an overnight passage to arrive just after first light. There are about 60 islands in this group only about 17 being inhabited, it is not much visited and has very little tourism. I skirted the first islands and anchored at Pangai the main settlement on the island of Lifuka. It is a sleepy little place, not much there and not much going on although it must have been hit by a cyclone in the past so some rebuilding was underway.

It had been my intention to visit a few more of the islands and anchorages here but in the end I decided to give this a miss and head straight for Nuku’alofa on Tongatapu. All the pilot guides suggest you need  someone to keep watch on the bow and I think I was feeling the strain of navigating through all the unmarked reefs a bit much on my own.

It was about 107 mile to Nuku’alofa so I left at midday and sailed westwards to clear the islands and reefs before turning south for another overnight passage. I had sort of company for this in the form of another yacht who followed me out, eventually overtook me, but I kept them in sight all night and through the next morning when I eventually lost sight of them in poor visibility and rain of a very grey and cloudy morning when the wind headed me. The entrance to Nuku’alofa is long and although wide encumbered by shallows and reefs but with a distinct lack of markers to help you in. I didn’t enjoy it. I was surprised to pass Dan in “My Dream” on his way out to NZ. I commented that it wasn’t a nice day to be heading out (it was blowing about 20 knots, grey and rainy) but he said he hoped it would get better.

I eventually got in and dropped anchor off the beach of Pangaimotu island. There were  a few other boats here that I had seen from time to time on my travels across the Pacific.

Ashore is a beach bar – Big Momma’s Yacht Club which offers a warm welcome.

Big Mamas Pangaimotu island

There is a little ferry to cross to Nuku’alofa itself so I went across for supplies and a look around. It is a bustling busy place lots of shop lots of stalls quite a contrast to Neiafu.

I will stop here a while until there is a suitable weather window to procede to NZ

A lot of talk amongst the cruisers at Nuku’alofa is around a suitable weather window for the passage to New Zealand. It seems to be a passage that many are concerned about. I studied the weather and waited for the strong southerlies we were experiencing to pass before deciding on a departure date.

Friday morning saw me taking the ferry across from Pangiamoto island to Nuka’alofa to get my clearance papers to leave. Harbours dues paid in one office then to Customs for clearance. Shopping for a few provisions and that back to the boat on the ferry.

Provisioning for this trip is a little difficult as New Zealand restrictions are strict on what you can take in, for example no fruit or vegetables, dried pulses popcorn etc etc so you need to stock up on just what you need but no more, tricky when the passage could take from 10 to 15 days depending on winds and weather.

Back at the boat I quickly readied for sailing and left by 2.30, just enough time to exit Tongapatu by the Elgia channel and be clear of all he reefs before sunset. The Elgia channel has a distinct lack of markers of any kind so its eyeball pilotage assisted by electronic charts on the ipad. The electronic charts have to be treated with caution as along with most of the Pacific islands they can be as much as 300 metres out in position.

It was just then a question of settling down to the routine of a long passage. For the first days the winds were light with some calms so progress slow and my first noon to noon run a disappointing 71 miles, but gradually we got  better winds in both strength and direction.

Strange stuff in the sea

Had a bit of disaster on the night of the 5th day. I had been running under light winds of about 8 knots with a pooled out yankee and main. At sunset despite the light winds as a precaution as I normally do I had put a reef in the main and taken a few rolls in the yankee. Just before midnight as I was taking a short nap I awoke with the boat heeled well over, the wind shrieking and torrential rain, It were a wild and stormy night. Turning out I  rolled away the yankee with a struggle and reefed the main down to the third reef, By the time I was done I was soaked through.

Next morning I discovered that the yankee had ripped which was a blow but I could swop it out for the working jib that I carried and in the event that was a good choice of sail for the wind for the rest of the passage .

On the 8th day , a lovely sunny day with a good wind and pretty flat seas, I spotted a sail astern and it turned out to be my friends Jan & Richard on Morpheus so we were able to chat on the vhf for a while before they overtook me. My daily runs were improving, 99 miles, 107 miles, 134 miles and now I was about 70 miles from the Bay of Island. By sunset I was doing over 5 knots and just 43 miles off so I slowed the boat down by reefing the main more and finally dropping the staysail as I didn’t want to arrive in the dark. By dawn I was 10 miles off and although I could see the flesh of the light on Cape Brett the coast was coyly hidden in cloud and murk.

Bay of Islands landfall

The weather though gradually cleared and the coast revealed as I entered the Bay of Islands and made my way into Opua. There were lots of boats about. Midmorning saw me alongside the customs pontoon  to await customs clearance and quarantine. No problem with this, and then to a berth in the marina.  A bit tricky this with a wind astern and some tide too but berthing successfully accomplished without hitting anything.

Safe in the marina

Great I had done it – an 11 day passage of 1034 n miles which means I had sailed 7478 miles across the Pacific to arrive in New Zealand. A beer or two is in order tonight I think.

Opua totem

Moon light marina

It was nice to relax and spend a little time socialising, chilling out and doing a few boat chores. I did have a couple of trips out, shopping to Pahai, a couple of trips to Kerikeri, to see the Stone Store  which is New Zealand oldest stone building

Stone store

and to visit to the Puketi forest for a short walk to see the Kauri trees. Puketi forest is a remnant (a pretty big remnant) of native forest which once covered almost all of Northland before massive clearance by loggers mainly for the huge Kauri trees. These trees are quite something, massive trunks rising so straight and tall, it is no wonder they were prized by loggers.

Kauri tree

I also ordered some new sails for Sea Bear, a new yankee and and a new main. I strongly suspect that the main is the original so it hasn’t done badly but now its a bit baggy and showing signs of wear and for much of the Pacific crossing I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would last.

After a couple of weeks I thought it time to head down to Whangarei (It is a Maori name as many are in NZ and Wh by the way is pronounced F). Opua was a good marina with a good collection of marine businesses and in a beautiful area for sailing but otherwise a bit out in the sticks with the nearest town (and not much of a town at that) 5 km away so not good access to shops, cafes, restaurants and bars. I plan to return later to cruise in the area.

The day I planned to leave, it had been a fine sunny morning but just before I left the heavens opened. I waited awhile for it to slacken off but then set out. Took me a long time to get out of the Bay of Islands to get to Cape Brett

Cape Brett – yes you go through that gap

and start going down the coast  and it ended with a bit of a race against the dark which I just made to anchor in Puriri bay, Whangaruru harbour at about 7.45, but a nice safe anchorage. Left next morning and continued down the coast, which is a lovely coast rocky with little sandy bays. Often times it looked like it was going to rain but it held off all day so I was thankful for that. Past the long sandy Ocean beach and I rounded Bream Head

Mouitaha island & Bream head

and went to anchor in Urquharts Bay at a more reasonable time quarter to 6. Next day after waiting for the tide it was along way up the river, broad at first and eventually narrowing in the upper reaches, supposed to be about 12 miles but it felt longer. There was a lifting bridge to negotiate before arriving in the town basin and the marina, just about in the middle of the town. It is the only city in Northland but really only a big town so there lots of marine facilities close at hand and a full array of shops,, cafes, bars and restaurants. It is in a lovely setting and there are also good walks hereabouts. It seems to be a good place to spend some time.

Town basin Whangarei

I thought that Sea Bear deserved a bit of TLC, it had been a hard 10 months since Panama. The area around the galley was looking a bit tatty so I decided to revarnish it. I scraped off the old and chipped varnish, sanded down and gave 4 coats of clear varnish and 2 top coats of Ephifanes rubbed effect. This gives a lovely satin finish and is a perfect match for the existing varnish work in the cabin. Of course once you started you realise that the top of the engine cover/companionway steps is looking tatty too as well as the teak strips bordering the cabin sole, the cabin sole itself and the saloon table. So soon there was no flooring the cabin and no steps either making clambering in and out of the cabin a trifle difficult, still all in a good cause. Days later I was thoroughly sick of varnishing but all was done and the cabin looking much better. Well when I say all done there were still some small areas untouched but they will have to wait.

Revarnished table

revarnishing sole boards

I had long been frustrated by the outside loops for the guard wires on the 2 sternmost stanchions as they had succeeded in doing was to put holes in the old spray dodgers. A stainless steel workshop just down the road had cut off the loops and drilled and sleeved holes in them for me, a smart and professional job.
Meanwhile I had taken the old ripped and tattered spray dodgers to Ronnie at Undercover canvas just down the road and he had made me up some new ones. Fitted they improved Sea Bears appearance.

New spray dodgers

It hadn’t been all work, I had been for a few nice walks. One up along the river through woods and a treetop walkway to Whangarie falls.

Whangarei Falls

Another short walk around Pataua, on the coast near Whangarie Heads

Pataua

and another up the Ross track

Water fall by the Ross track

to Mount Parihaka, (241m) an old volcanic cone, once a Maori stronghold, from where there was a great view out over Whangarei harbour.

View from Mt Parihaka

In the marina I was visited daily by a duck and her 6 little ducklings, at first no more than little balls of fluff they rapidly grew. If I wasn’t in the cockpit when they came a calling they would paddle around quacking till I appeared and fed them with my stale bread. Somehow I have a soft spot for ducks and mother duck would hop onto the pontoon and take the proffered bread from my fingers.

Ducks

With a view to taking in some of inland New Zealand I also bought a camper van. To pick this up I had cycled out to Parua Bay. One might have thought it would be relatively easy being a road that follows the harbour out towards Whangarie Heads, but they can be surprisingly hilly these coastal roads and this was no exception. I even had to get off and push at one stage, add the fact that it rained hard too and it wasn’t as pleasant as might have been. Still I rewarded myself by stopping of at Parau Bay Tavern in a lovely setting with a great view out over the estuary and had fish & chips and a beer.

Camper van