Society Islands

Tahiti begins a stretch of islands known as the Society islands. They have in common a mountainous center island, surrounding reefs with one or more entrances or 'passes' for boats to enter, and many resort hotels. These islands are at the geological midpoint of their lives between the tall volcanic mountains that begin their life cycle, typified by the Marquesas, and the aged atolls of the Tuamotus, whose center islands have long ago sunk into the depths.

Tahiti offered a nice bit of civilization in the 'big city' of Papeete. And while Papeete lost its appeal after about a week as the number of cruising boats grew to nearly overflow the anchorages, it turned out a good thing that we were there as Karl suffered a kidney stone during our stay. The clinic that treated him was excellent, although it turned out that the stone passed on its own. We also appreciated the opportunity to see friends here that we had met previously and Ben and Cam enjoyed the fact that MacDonald's was once again within their reach. Soon after Karl was well we decided that we needed to get moving to, hopefully, get ahead of this bubble of about 100 boats that seemed to be flocking across the Pacific together and have a bit more space in the places we visited.

That meant on to Moorea for a brief visit with a couple of friends anchored there and then on west. Moorea is probably the most singularly majestic of the French Polynesian Islands, and this, combined with its proximity to Tahiti, makes it a very popular tourist destination. We only took advantage of the great peaks from a distance, but the beauty here was quite unique.

Our next stop was a less-traveled island called Huahine. It's a bit less spectacular than Tahiti or Bora Bora, but was a nice contrast to the crowds of tourists. We got out our bikes here and tooled around the coastline, stopping at small villages and shops along the way.

It was here that we met the crew of a boat that had just been lost on the reef outside the island. They were motoring towards the entrance through the reef, went below for too long a time and hit in the early morning hours. Unable to motor or kedge (pull the boat with anchors wedged into the reef) off the reef, they had to organize rescue tugs. This took a couple of days, because the rescue operation wouldn't start work until they had authorization from the insurance co. that the bill would be paid. During this waiting time the wind and seas built and the boat was pushed higher on the reef and bashed into the rocky coral. When the boat was finally pulled off, it floated momentarily then slowly sank into about 150 feet of water. The sad crew (a couple) was not seriously hurt and was able to recover many of their belongings but the event put an abrupt end to their cruising plans. This is the second sinking we have heard of so far here in the Pacific (the other was a boat that apparently hit something and took on water then sank some time after the crew was taken aboard another cruising boat). So far we have heard of no serious injuries or deaths, even from things like heart attacks and the like, which is pretty good considering that many of the cruisers are past 60.

West of Huahine, our sail brought us to perhaps the most popular cruising destination in the South Pacific - Bora Bora. The reason for its popularity seems to be that it 'has it all'. Tall beautiful peaks, protection from the seas in all directions by a full circle of reef which contains a large, clear lagoon teeming with coral, reef fishes, rays and eels. This has also made it a popular tourist destination, with about a dozen or so major resorts occupying the main island and some of the small islets or 'motus' that exist on the outskirts of the lagoon attached to the reef system. Fortunately the place is big enough that we were able to anchor by ourselves at a motu part of the time and enjoy this wonderful place as if it were ours alone. We also took advantage of the opportunity to see some of the traditional singing and firedancing organized for the tourists so for us Bora Bora seemed to have it all too.

Most often Bora Bora is the last stop for cruisers before heading off for the Cook islands, Samoa or Tonga. Our plan was to head straight for Tonga, skipping the Cooks and Samoa. Instead, we headed out into a 20 mph+ headwind (it's not supposed to blow from that direction!) and so decided to make a stop at Maupiti, which is Bora Bora's smaller sister island. It turned into a great, if short, stop, as the Maupitians gave us the warmest welcome of any place in the Societies. There are no hotels here and what did exist was wiped out by a hurricane a couple of years ago. The islanders have largely rebuilt their homes and small businesses, often using pre-fabricated houses no doubt provided for them by the French. There are also few cruisers here, in part because the entrance to the island is narrow and can be very wavy. In fact, when we left the pass, the wind was still in an unfavorable direction and a set of big waves started breaking in the pass when we were halfway through. Thank goodness for Moondance's twin engines - we'd never been through such steep waves before and though it was hard work with white knuckles, she handled it well.

While leaving French Polynesia meant leaving some of the most sought-after paradises, we were not sad to leave behind the high prices maintained by the heavy French subsidies and tourism. Some prices: box of cereal $8, broccoli $7.50/kilo ($3.50/lb), peanut butter, $5 for a jar so small I've never seen one like it in the US. Meal out at an ordinary restaurant, $20 or so per person. One boat we know spent $50 to have their laundry done.

Kingdom of Tonga

An 11 day passage took us across the date line and into Tonga. We were quite fortunate to have decent, if sometimes too-strong, winds for this trip, as some boats who left before us had no wind for days, and some boats traveling at the same time found themselves in the middle of a fast-forming low that packed 50+ knot winds. One boat broke a boom and another had damaged steering while on a third the skipper suffered cracked ribs and the crew (wife) had never handled the boat on her own before and needed radio assistance to giver her the confidence to do it. We saw maybe 40 knots maximum winds in this storm and really never had a problem. Another good test for our rig. While Moondance handles this type of condition well, it does get tedious to have the floor of your house rocking under you day after day when the big seas develop. Each movement needs to be choreographed with hands and feet placed with certainty - makes for an exhausting time and most effort is saved for the essential motions.

Tonga has shifted the date line to give them the edge in the 'ahead of time' game. They make a pretty big deal out of this, which seems strange in contrast to the the slow pace of island life. They do, however get up early and much of island life starts before sunrise. These islands have an entirely different reason for existence than French Polynesia, having been formed by uplifting of the tectonic plates in the area. The resulting island groups have a wedding cake or sombrero look to them, with steep cliffs and ledges.

But perhaps the neatest thing about the Kingdom of Tonga is that it is a kingdom of its own, complete with a lineage of kings and village chiefs and their unique customs. It's the only place around here that has never been the territory of a major world power, or anyone else for that matter. This, plus the fact that many Tongans speak at least some english as their 'international' language, gave us a welcome contrast to the Frenchified Polynesia.

We pulled up to the wharf in Neifu, Vava'u shortly after a supply ship had arrived. The entire place was lined with Tongans dressed in Sunday finery, waiting for some item to be unloaded. Another contrast to the loose dress codes of French Polynesia (especially the French tourists who seem to have abandoned bikini tops altogether) is the conservative 'shoulder to calf' dress in Tonga. Men and women alike wear dark solid colored skirts with white shirts as formal attire or uniform for school or work. Casual dress includes the more colorful parea or sulu (a rectangular cloth tied around the waist or underarms). Both sometimes include a woven mat around the waist, worn as a very wide belt or extra layer of skirt. This is a form of respect or deference to royalty, mostly seen on the older Tongans.

Relying on its own economy, Tonga is poorer that its Eastern cousins, however they have recently received much aid for public works projects such as roads and sewers. The bulldozers had quite a challenge coping with the heavy foot traffic of both the human and pork varieties. Pigs wander everywhere, from cute little piglets to huge momas.

Here is where we started meeting the many cruisers from New Zealand who come up to escape their winter. This combined with a fair number of expat kiwis running various restaurant hangouts and tourist businesses, provided a fun community of cruisers to hang out with too. They held Friday night fun races, in which Ben sailed his dinghy with the big boats, won the title of 'most potential' and a prize of two cheeseburgers. For Ben, it was the perfect award.

Tonga is also the winter home of humpback whales who come to have their calves. We sold a bunch of extra life jackets to a local whale-watching business and got invited out on their new boat - saw only a couple of whales since it was so early in the season. Tonga is supposedly the only place in the world where you can snorkel with the whales as they become more numerous and used to people by the end of their.

During our stay in Tonga we heard of another boat going up on a reef, this time in one of the Cooks islands. In contrast to the money-driven French Polynesians, the local people organized a tug within hours and pulled the boat off with only minor damage. It was another case of inattentive motoring, this time the skipper admitting he simply fell asleep on watch. While we'd like to think that this could never happen to us, the lesson seems to be to use every means necessary to know exactly where you are and stay alert when within several miles of any hazard. That means frequent chart plots and radar, plus sight verification since many charts are decades old and off a mile or two. And, for us, a kitchen timer set to go off every several minutes should we ever fall asleep when we don't intend to.

Perhaps our fondest memory of Tonga, though, was the evening we spent in the small village of Huoma, as guests of the village in a traditional feast and dance/song performance. The village organized the feast as part of a fund raising effort for their youth with the help of some Peace Corps workers. It was strange to sit down to a sumptuous feast with the village chief while practically the whole village sat and watched. They had never had such a feast before for palangi (white folks) and were nervous about it. The food, singing and dancing was clearly from the heart as they really wanted to put on a good show for us. It seemed that every kid over the age of 5 was there singing too. A strange but common practice is for dancers to oil their bodies so that the patrons of the show can place paper cash on their arms and shoulders - even the chief did it. Seemed tacky by our western standards, but we certainly joined in as we knew the money would go for a good purpose. As we drove off in the back of the pickup truck provided to get us to the village, nearly each of the 100 or so villagers insisted on shaking or hands and thanking us.

As we headed out of Tonga after a too-short stay, we knew it was a place we'd come back to again.

Fiji

In contrast to Tonga, which is still struggling to develop basic infrastructure, Fiji is quite a cosmopolitan place. The town of Suva, where we first entered the country, boasted a new 6-screen theater that had, unfortunately, just stopped showing "Star Wars Episode I". We stayed in Suva for a bit as guests of the friendly Royal Suva Yacht Club (warm showers!), enjoyed the cheap and delicious Indian and Chinese eats, and greeted our friend Nadine for a one week stay with us. We also saw our first theater movie since leaving the US (Wild Wild West).

With Nadine aboard, we headed out to the Astrolabe reef - known worldwide for its wonderful diving. We anchored just inside the reef and saw perhaps the best coral ever, with every color imaginable and elaborate formations as far as the eye could see. We did stop at one of the islands here, but found no village, only shells and a goat. We had come prepared to encounter a village by purchasing a Kilo of Kava or Yaqona, some of which would be presented to the chief as a gift for our visit.

After visits to the agricultural area of Sigatoka, where we viewed the traditional making of clay pottery in an outlying village, and some relaxation at one of the local resorts where we also were able to see a firewalking demonstration and hear a vocal group, we said goodbye to Nadine and headed north towards the smaller islands of the Mananuca group. But not before we took the bus up to Lautoka, where they were still showing Star Wars - at $1.50 per person ($1.25 for kids).

We next spent a few days at a perhaps the most popular cruiser stop in Fiji, Musket Cove. This resort island, founded by a former cruiser, offers beautiful island paradise with the added comfort amenities of a cruiser-friendly resort. Here we had our first minor encounter with a reef, resulting in a few scratches on one of our keels. Fiji is famous for ending many a voyage as boats frequently encounter uncharted or even charted reefs.

Our next stop was perhaps the only true marina in Fiji, where we had some welding work done to strengthen our mast at its base. We also took advantage of a local sailmaker to have a complete set of sails made for Moondance. It turned out to be a timely decision, as we encountered a sudden heavy squall during our next sail to the Yasawa islands, probably the strongest and most sudden wind blasts we'd seen (50kts). As a result, the edges of our jib finally gave up completely, and we ended up motoring in order to maintain good control in this reef-strewn area.

Having thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Namara village, we were nonetheless ready to set off for more solitude in some of the more remote Yasawas. Here we found islands offering private beauty, along with breadfruit, mangoes and coconut plus some of the best shelling we've encountered. After a few more days of this, we headed back to the main island to await our sails and get ready for our voyage west.

It was during this trip back, and only 100 yards from our anchoring spot, that we hit a coral head dead-on, going full speed. At first we were incredulous that an unmarked coral head could be present in such a well-traveled area, but later learned that this particular head is well known for getting in the way of yachts that travel through here. We anchored and Karl took a look (again taking advantage of our $5 Walmart waterproof headlamp!). The damage was significant, but the design of Moondance prevented any water leakage into the bilges. The next morning we headed back to the Vuda Point marina, where we decided to have Moondance hauled and have the bottom completed redone in addition to the repair work. This is something we were going to do in Australia anyway, and having it done in Fiji saved quite a bit of cost.

Having a catamaran like Moondance hauled turned out to be quite an operation. Two heavy duty cranes were brought in and many hands were needed to guide her hulls to the right spot. Repairs and bottom scraping took two weeks, but we left with a sound and beautifully clean hull, new sails, and high spirits. Despite the fact that Fiji might just be the friendliest place we'll ever visit, we were looking forward to re-entering the developed world in Australia.