The Port of Refuge is the name of the harbour on the Island of Vava'u in the Kingdom of Tonga. On this very secure harbour is the town of Neiafu. This is the centre of the northern most islands of the Kingdom. This is where most of the yachts travelling across the south Pacific visit. At 18 degrees south latitude it is perfectly on the "coconut run" from the Panama Canal to Australia or New Zealand. The Moorings charter company has a large fleet of bareboats, mono and catamaran.
It's easy to see why the yachts congregate here. The many islands surrounding Vava'u are as lovely as the Gulf Islands, except covered in coconut trees. There are many beaches, anchorages, and coves like the Gulf Islands, as well as coral gardens, good fishing, humpback whales, and small villages scattered throughout. The Pacific swell generated by the Southeast Trades are spent on the outer reef so the cruising is done in millpond conditions. The sailing is excellent, the Southeast Trades blow across the archipelago, about 10 to 25 knots most days of the Austral Winter. The temperature is excellent; although the Tongans might call it cold, Canadians call it perfect. There are lots of safe and deep passages through all the little islands, navigation is simple pilotage from good charts. Be careful of your electronic charts though, the charts were printed from surveys done in 1898 so the GPS and electronic charts do not line up exactly with the hard.
Neiafu is a bustling little town, catering to the tourists here for the diving, whale watching, fishing, snorkelling and sailing. The Port of Refuge is deep with many mooring balls for rent at about $9 (US) a night. The Port of Refuge has great sailing within, the water is deep, there are no reefs or rocks to worry about, and the southeast trades blow over the low Island of Vava'u for perfect sailing conditions. You can sail away from your mooring buoy, close reach into the southern reaches of the Port of Refuge, tack, broad reach back to the centre of town, all within 20 minutes. Some days the wind requires a reef in the main and the small genoa, other days it's a full press of sail, rail in the water and a spinnaker downwind to impress the waterfront bars.
Every Friday afternoon the Vava'u Yacht Club, a clever invention of the owner of the Mermaid Bar, sponsors a friendly yacht race. Volunteer crews, skippers and their dedicated crew come down to the waterfront bar around 4 PM. Skippers are encouraged to "pick up" the volunteer crew, usually newbies who have never been on a sailboat before. The start line goes from the end of the dingy dock for the Mermaid Bar across the Port of Refuge. There are about 5 or 6 other waterfront bars clustered around the Mermaid Bar, so anyone who wants a tropical drink and fresh seafood while watching an exciting yacht race start is well served. The start is always exciting, as many as eight yachts from 17 feet to 55 feet all aiming for that one spot close to the windward end of the start line, and they all want to be in that one spot at the last second before the starting gun goes off. Let the race begin, some boats with crew well seasoned, yelling "Rail, Rail!! Starboard Tack, Starboard Tack!! Harden the sheets, Hard Hard!!!" and others crewed with excited tourists laughing "Is this boat gonna roll over???" "Watch out, yer gonna hit that other boat!!! Watch out, that boats gonna hit us!!!!". Round the mark down at the south of the bay and then the beam reach back to the waterfront bars for the second turn, which is the innermost moored yacht, the one closest to the waterfront bar waterfront tables. It's a brave skipper that moors his boat there on a Friday afternoon, as all the fleet races down onto the whites of the bar patrons eyes and the whites of the moored skippers eyes, gybes around his boat and off across the Port of Refuge. After another mark the race finishes with an upwind leg back to the finish, once again between the innermost moored yacht and the waterfront tables. The upwind leg is where the race is finished and often decided, the larger more modern yachts walking away from any traditional yachts, smaller yachts or yachts with older sails.
After the race all gather back at the Mermaid Bar to re-live the glory and excitement. The race committee has collected prizes from the local businesses. The biggest and newest yachts always come first across the line, but there is good competition in the 30 to 40 foot class. The race committee, being the owner of the Mermaid Bar, awards the best prizes to the skipper who has drawn the best customers. That is why it always pays to be nice and "pick up" the newbie tourists who will come back to the bar after the race, excited, showing off their pictures, demonstrating how far they had to lean, buying exotic tropical drinks and excellent Tongan seafood and the T-shirts, for themselves and their skipper and then staying to dance and sing into the wee Saturday morning hours. That's how I won the two tank dive from Dolphin Diving, the all-you-can-eat barbeque, and the 12 free beer from three Friday afternoon races.
One of the most secure anchorages in the Vava'u Group is Vakaeitu. I went down there one sunny afternoon, a 3 hour sail in great tradewinds all the way. You anchor in the bay formed by 3 islands, in 35 feet of clear water, in coral sand. Excellent holding. The anchorage has interesting hikes on the surrounding islands to beautiful sandy beaches, an abandoned resort, great snorkelling at a coral garden (so named because of the bonsai tree like coral) and a small village on the Island of Lape. I had tried fishing, without much luck, and so at the village I asked if there was anyone who would come on my boat and go fishing with me. A man named Alpha said he would come fishing with me.
Next week, with a full load of ice and bait, we left early in the morning. The fishing started great, we caught two small tuna. After the tuna we saw three humpback whales. Alpha was driving my boat by then so he steered over to the whales and we watched the 3 males breaching and playing on the surface. I had thought that I might swim with the whales, but watching the three guys roughhousing, I thought no. Alpha obviously had not read the whale watching guidelines and he got quite close to the whales. They left and we continued fishing. We were no longer in the Island group, but due south in a region full of reefs. There were no islands close by so eyeball navigation was impossible for me. The GPS was of some use but not really accurate. I set the depth sounder alarm at 100 feet and when it went off I said to Alpha, you are too close to some reef and so don't get so close that the alarm goes off again. OK he said, and thereafter, he steered around the reefs that I couldn't see.
We caught a nice mahi mahi on my rod, it was a lot of fun to bring in. What a spectacular fish, great colours. By then we had reached the southern fishing grounds and Alpha got to bottom fishing. He set down two hooks baited with small reef fish, and when that bait was gone, one of the small tuna was cut up. The bottom fish loved that tuna and he caught alot of fish. I was kept very busy cleaning and filleting. My icebox was small and I didn't want the room taken up with whole fish. I was also busy keeping Alpha in coffee with sweetened condensed milk, he liked that a lot. And fresh fried rockfish and tuna. Finally, around 10 PM, quite a few hours after dark, I said, Alpha the icebox is full, it won't take another fish. He caught one more, I'm pretty sure he was expecting me to clean it and squeeze it in, but I didn't, it had to sit outside and so he got the hint.
We lay ahull at 19 degrees south latitude on the GPS, with an east wind and a west setting current. We weren't alone out there, two other village boats were there as well. A village boat is not very big, just a 18 foot wooden boat with a bit of a cabin and a 25 horse outboard. On board are 2 men in the cockpit and a boy on the bow. Alpha drove my boat over to each village boat to talk with the guys aboard, I don't speak Tongan, but I heard Alpha bragging. I'm not sure if Alpha has ever seen a bar of soap, certainly during the day he was cutting bait, catching fish, rolling cigarettes, all without seeing soap. But at bedtime, he carefully washed the cockpit with seawater, and himself as well and prepared to turn in. I had a bed down below for him, but he took a small fender for a pillow and went to sleep in the cockpit. Every hour I got up to check the GPS, we stayed on 19 degrees south and drifted west just a little. Sometime in the night Alpha moved inside and was asleep on the galley floor by morning.
Around 5 AM, with it just getting light, I made sail and set off on a fine beam reach to the north. Alpha woke up and took over the helm. He actually could sail this boat, I was surprised. Not everyone can sail, and I'm not sure where he would have learned it, but he did a good job. He really like the fact that we were moving without spending a cent on gas, I didn't have the heart to tell him about the cost of sails, ropes, maintenance etc etc and etc. When we got back to his village, I kept my mahi mahi and Alpha gave me a nice big snapper for the boat. Alpha took a huge load of fish up to the village, I also gave him all my cans of corned beef and $40.00. He seemed happy and so was I. The next week he was in town for some reason and I took him to the tackle shop to buy hooks and swivels lost during the fishing and a fresh pouch of tobacco.
There is a local distillery in Neiafu. "Pirates Rum", "Pirates Whisky", "Pirates Navy Rum" start at $10.20 US if you bring you own 1 litre bottle, or $13.20 if you need a bottle, or $15.60 if you need a bottle with a "Pirates" label on it. Canadians being Canadians, myself and a couple from Whitehorse had to try it out and so we invested in three bottles complete with labels, ice and mix. The tasting began and the taste was quite acceptable. We did vision tests throughout the tasting to check for impending blindness, and the Whitehorse lady was even able to make hors-d'oeuvres. Then, in an instant, the full moon popped out from behind the trees and with the warm strong breeze, caused the mooring line to slip. Soon enough Island Prism was under full sail, in the full moon, starboard rail under, Whitehorsies howling at the moon and the Nanoosie singing MacLean and MacLean songs full volume. Island Prism wove her way through alot of expensive boats to blow her horn at the waterfront bars and find her mooring ball once again. It was quite clear in the morning that the greatest hazards to a successful circumnavigation might not be wind waves or reefs, but cheap booze in moonlit tropical bays.
A must visit on the tourist trail in Tonga is Mariners Cave. It is named after William Mariner, a young Englishman who was taken alive by Tongans who overran his ship in 1806. He was kept alive by royal prerogative and became friend to the King. He kept an account of his time amongst the Tongans, much like John Jewitt did when captive of Chief Macquinna. It's a fascinating read, full of war, cannibalism, palace intrigue and swift royal justice.
Mariners Cave is on the steep rocky shores of the Island of Nuapapu. The entrance to the cave is 3 feet below the surface of the sea at low tide. You snorkel down to the cave entrance, through the cave for 15 feet or so, and then pop up into the cavern. There are some rock ledges and the sunlight filters in through the blue water in the entrance, filling the cave with an electric blue light. The Pacific swell comes into the cave and pressurizes the air inside, this causes an eerie blue fog every 10 seconds or so. There is no anchorage nearby, you enter the water from your yacht and leave a pilot onboard awaiting your return. The guidebook says that if you can swim under your yacht, side to side, you will make through Mariners Cave.
As reported by William Mariner many years ago, it has a very romantic legend. The King of Vava'u was a tyrant and one of his chiefs thought of treason, but the chief was betrayed and sentenced to death by drowning at sea. The tyrant also sentenced the chief's family to the same fate. The chief's daughter was especially lovely and she had been reserved for marriage to a certain high ranking chief. On the night just before the sentence was to be executed, a lesser chief's son, who had loved her from childhood even though she was never going to be his, crept to her house under cover of darkness. He asked her to trust him to save her and she agreed. The lesser chief's son had just discovered this cave and that's where he took the princess and hid her away from her families fate. He brought her food and mats to sleep on and she hid there for many weeks. During those weeks he told her about his love for her and the princess returned his love on account of his brave and generous exertions, at the risk of his own life. During those weeks he gathered his servants up to secretly provision and crew a large canoe bound for Fiji. "Won't you need a Tongan wife for your visit to Fiji" to which he replied "I will pick one up on the way". Indeed, he ordered the canoe to stop at the cave entrance, still known to only him and his princess. He dove off the far side of the canoe and swam into the cave to bring his princess to his canoe. His servants thought he had brought a Goddess to the canoe, such was her beauty and the magic of her appearance, then they recognized her as the princess drowned at sea with her family, and they thought their chief was a God bringing back the dead from the sea. Finally the story was told and they set out for Fiji. After two years the tyrant died so the young chief returned with his loving wife and they lived long in peace and happiness.
The Pacific Crossing Guide Book insists that cruisers attend the Polynesian Churches for the experience. I first attended the church in Atuona, Marquises, French Polynesia. It was recommended after all, and I had just spent 25 days at sea alone. Lord, your sea is so large, and I am so small.
The singing was phenomenal. That's what the recommendation was for and it was phenomenal. The entire Catholic service was sung by the congregation, save the short sermon and short reading. The singing was in Polynesian and the sermon in French so I really couldn't take issue with the Catholics that day. It was like going to church and being in the middle of the great choir, the singing was loud and clear and excellent.
Since then, almost every church along the way has been the same, with wonderful singing almost continuous through the service. Here in Tonga, I've been going to the Catholic Church again, kneeling, sitting, standing with all the congregation as they sing the service. The men sing, the women sing, they sing together, the children sing as well, everyone sings, except me and the other foreigners, and the Church is filled with Polynesian song. Here the readings and sermon are in Polynesian, so once again, I can't really take issue with the Catholics.
Of course, many foreign cruisers say why must the Church be so rich in a land so poor? Personally I don't think the Catholic Church is so rich, it seems modest enough. What will the Church do to stop the Tongan alcohol abuse, the coming of MTV to the children? Large questions indeed. But at least for an hour on Sunday, everyone is well dressed, well behaved, (myself as well) singing their faith to God and Jesus, and the singing is phenomenal.
But a sailor sails and this boat has been sailing downwind towards Fiji since the waning moon rose at 3 AM Friday morning in the Port of Refuge. The routine of sailing downwind in the Trades comes easy as this boat sails herself on windvane and a full press of sail. There is a nasty low pressure storm south of here, but the weatherfax charts show the high pressure up here in the tropical latitudes. Sure enough the conditions are warm, sunny, 10 to 15 knots of wind from the SE, backing to the NNW as the sun sets on my second day at sea. In a couple of more days of sailing, I'll be in Fiji, the next tropical paradise on the "coconut run".
Check out the pictures from the Kingdom of Tonga
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