Chapter Two

As we settled down on board the plane and consumed breakfast, Jamie and I had the opportunity to get to know Frank and he us. Frank had limited sailing experience through chartering and sailing on friends boats and had become hooked. When Frank saw the advertisement in the "Herald" calling for tenders for Tranquillo, he made inquiries as to the suitability of the H28 as a first boat. After receiving confirmation that they are a good safe cruising yacht, he felt that the time was right to acquire one of his own and enjoy fully the sailing scene.

In my opinion it takes a lot of "intestinal fortitude", to buy a boat and then go and pick it up in a port 1300nm away and sail it home with two relatively unknown characters, even if between the two of them they have 60 or 70 years sailing experience. Of course as we all know the H28 is a great sea boat and Tranquillo has certainly proven herself many times over the years on ocean crossings so there was a certain level of comfort in that alone.

Flying out over the Pacific the weather was clear blue skies and flat seas. About an hour into the flight we saw our first trade wind cloud formations below and the subsequent change in the sea state with the typical cresting trade swells. Descending into Niue 2 3/4 hours after leaving Auckland we saw several cruising yachts at anchor off the town and found ourselves back in Sunday due to crossing the international date line. The air temperature was a humid 32 degrees Celsius which sent everyone, who was "transiting", heading off to the terminal for cold drinks. We decided to get a photo taken at Niue to record the start of our "adventure". The first problem was Frank’s camera decided to play up with the shutter jamming open, so no photo. As we got back on the plane, there was a click and the lens shut. The cause: a flat battery. While we winged our way to Nukalofa we had a young boy several rows in front playing "now you see me now you don't ‘ and we were to meet "Max" and his parents two days later in Vava'u.

Arriving at the international airport in Tongatapu at 1.00 pm (Monday again) we proceeded to customs and immigration. Now to avoid any complications with immigration we had return airline tickets, so this part went well, but when we got to customs they looked at us sideways because of all the gear. After checking through our bags the only item that caused any problem was the 2 kg's of frozen fillet steak. This, it turned out, was dutiable, so as the purchase price in NZ$ was on the label, pocket calculators were out and fingers flying. The end result: a T$3.70 import duty being charged. The irony is that if we had taken up 20 kg of steak it would have been duty free. Big is certainly beautiful in Tonga!

The next challenge was to get seats on the domestic flight at 2.30 pm from Tongatapu to Vava'u. We had been told in Auckland that the two flights were fully booked, however when Frank spoke with the check in counter he was advised that there could be a slight possibility of seats if some passengers did not turn up and therefore to keep asking. We quickly settled on a strategy of leaving our tickets on the desk in front of the clerk and taking turns every 10 mins to ask for an update. After 40 minutes and presumably to get rid of us he issued tickets for the direct 2.30pm flight. On boarding the aircraft (an old Hawker Sidley from Mt Cook Air ) it became apparent that the plane was only 60% full, so either people do not bother to turn up or there was a lot of freight to carry.

Landing in Vava'u 50 minutes later after flying over the Ha'apai island group, where incidentally I spotted a female whale and calf below in the water, we gathered up all our baggage and negotiated a ride into Neiafu town on a bus.

Now the driver and his side kick were as hard case as the bus. Need a place to stay? No problem we will take you to the "Paradise Hotel" only 15 minutes walk from the Moorings base. This sounded great as "Anna's Cafe" by the Moorings facility was the agreed meeting point with Trevor and Tranquillo on Tuesday at 1 pm. We climbed aboard the bus and cunningly seated ourselves under the air conditioner at the back, but the joke was on us because as we headed off on the journey into town it quickly became apparent that the R12 gas in the unit had long ago departed to wreak havoc in the upper atmosphere.

The view outside was fairly typical of the islands with coconut palms, taro and plantain planted underneath, banana, citrus, papaya and mango trees and occasionally pineapples. In the Kingdom of Tonga, each family is allocated a plot of land and has to tend it. If they don't they lose this right and have to work for others, so these plots are vital to their well being. The houses are mostly built out of concrete block, wood or corrugated iron and the yards outside are full of pigs, dogs and chickens. No need for lawn mowers here! Mind you when we were there we did not see any lawns except at the Hotel.

Arriving at the Paradise Hotel the driver arranged our check-in, while the staff found an extra bed for the room (it only had two) and after putting our gear away, we changed and cooled off in the pool outside. Next on the agenda was a cold beer at which point it was decided to head into town, locate Anna's cafe and see what was available in the way of supplies in the various shops. During the 15 minute walk into town it became evident that Frank was pretty excited seeing his new boat for the first time and also that he wasn't totally sure what an H28 looked like. Of course as Jamie and I are such a "nice and sincere" couple of guys we took full advantage of the situation and proceeded to tell poor Frank that the 32ft derelict yacht that was anchored in the bay down below was Tranquillo. Frank’s face took on a look that had to be seen to be believed and he asked somewhat hesitantly "Do you think it will be OK to go to sea in? I mean it's got a piece of canvas over the hatchway! At this point both Jamie and I were having a hard time containing ourselves and burst out laughing. Frank called into question our parentage and then, greatly relieved that it wasn't Tranquillo, joined in the mirth.

At the Moorings base we introduced ourselves to Bill and Margaret Bailey the managers, who incidentally own a ketch rigged H28 called Noota which is featured in our web site. We arranged with them to store our steak in their freezer, the use of the fax machine, showers and to get the latest weather fax for the area prior to departure. Bill said that Trevor and Tranquillo had not returned from Ha'apai but were due in port tomorrow and we were to meet him as arranged. This organised it was down the steps to Anna's cafe for a quick (late) lunch of beer and fish & chips then to the shops where we discovered that here you could buy Bully beef in any size tin you want. Also available were treadle Singer sewing machines, camera batteries, and a limited range of canned and frozen goods, plus pots, pans, buckets, mosquito coils etc. Also there was a video store.

Next we located the open air fruit and vegetable market, and then it was back to Anna's cafe for another beer before heading on back to the hotel. On arrival at our room we found that the air conditioner had done its job and lowered the temperature from 32 to about 18 degrees c. Frank also discovered mosquitos in the bathroom and as he has an allergic reaction to them, he was off up to the reception for some spray. Securing a full can he returned and promptly emptied 3/4 of the contents. This in turn caused all of us to hurriedly evacuate the room, shut the door and retreat to the pool for another swim. Now I don't know what active ingredients were in that can but it sure had made us all cough when sprayed, and upon opening the door to our suite 30 minutes later not a living thing was to be seen. The building was concrete, with the ceiling covered in woven matting so we hoped that anything that died up there was well trapped and would not fall down on us during the night. After a quick call to NZ to confirm our safe arrival it was pizza for dinner, a movie for Frank and our beds for Jamie and me.

We awoke at 6am next morning to another "shitty day in paradise" clear blue skies and balmy breezes, had a swim, then a shower (which had no water flow or pressure) and fresh fruit, toast and coffee for breakfast.

Now the serious work began. We laid out all the food and equipment that we had taken up with us and checked it off against our lists. Then we added the items along with quantities that we still needed to buy and marked each with the shop(s) where we had seen them for sale. The first list was then compared to the meal/menu plan to check nothing had been missed out. All together there were 3 lists the second containing non food items such as toilet paper, teatowels, detergent, rubbish bags etc, and the third a full survey check for the yacht and its equipment. We planned for 20 days at sea. By now it was getting on for 11am and Frank had gone on into Nieafu to convert some money, meet us back at Anna's cafe at noon for lunch and await Trevor and Tranquillo's arrival. ( He was getting really excited by now). Jamie and I packed everything away and headed off to the cafe where we found Frank had met up with the crews of several cruising boats anchored in the bay. At about 1:15pm a small sail was sighted in the passage and soon Tranquillo sailed past and anchored.

Trevor arriving at Anna's Cafe Vaua'u to meet Frank

Trevor came ashore in the inflatable dinghy, briefly met Frank and ourselves then headed off for a shower before returning for lunch and a chat. His trip up from the Ha'apai group had been a bit rough hence the delay in arriving. It was decided that Trevor would take Frank out to Franks' new boat, while Jamie & I went back to the Hotel room and shifted our belongings down to the Hotel’s jetty. At 3:30pm they brought Tranquillo along side where we loaded all our gear aboard while Frank checked us out of the hotel. After moving off and anchoring, Trevor gave us a run down on the boat and its equipment and answered all our questions. He then collected his belongings and Frank took him in the dinghy over to a friend’s boat where he was staying the night. (I would imagine that it would be hard to sail your boat into port and 3 hours later hand it over to the new owner collect your things and leave!) As Trevor was moving to the Ha'apai group to open a café and start a new chapter in his life, this probably made it a little easier.

The first job on our agenda was to give the boat a clean from "stem to stern" (sorry Ian!) as Trevor had not had a chance to having just arrived. So while I went ashore and bought cleaning materials, Frank and Jamie went through the boat and recorded where all the equipment was stowed. Following my return we commenced cleaning. At about 7:30pm we all decided that it was time for a beer and dinner, so after fitting the V belt to the refrigeration compressor we hand started the Volvo and motored over nearer Anna's Cafe.

Tranquillo at anchor Neiafu Harbour

What's this hand start I hear you say! Well at some point in time someone had taken the dyna start off and fitted a second alternator in its place, hence the only way to start "Methusula" as the engine was soon nicknamed, was with the crank handle! (At times the engine had other names but they are unprintable!) This was a 2 person procedure: one would hold the engine cover doors open and the decompression lever on, while the other swung on the crank handle. When enough inertia was built up a shout of OK was to be heard and the decompression lever released. At this point both members of the starting party would quickly remove their heads out of range, as the crank handle sometimes developed a mind of its own when the engine fired and it disengaged. I must add that the "wee beastie" mostly started on the first attempt because Trevor had just had it overhauled in Auckland and put back in the boat. (This is also why the V belt was not on the fridge compressor.)

After 40 minutes running the freezer box was no colder than when we started and the cause not apparent. It was agreed that we would check with Trevor when ashore for dinner to see if we had missed turning on a valve. Unfortunately he was unable to provide any answers as it had been working fine prior to the motor being taken out and would normally start to freeze down in 30 minutes. A job for the mechanic tomorrow.

Having indulged in a nice dinner and consuming several beers it was 3 men in a leaky boat back to the mother ship. Yes the dinghy had an air leak which we found next morning under the plastic rowlock plate. Pumping it up twice a day soon took care of that! The last job we did before turning in for our first night aboard was to rewire the VHF. This was because it was plugged into a wooden board with 4 standard power point sockets and these had exposed wires at the back. It was also about 18" long and loose and likely to short out if it got wet. After carefully checking the wiring configuration I connected it directly into the circuit and switched it on. Nothing happened. We turned it off. I rechecked the wiring, all OK so turned it back on. Still nothing. At this point Jamie said Hey! this wire is getting hot you must have wired it up the wrong way round. This I disputed, however I was overruled by the skipper and duly reversed the wires." I hope you two know what your doing said Frank" we don't want to blow anything! Silly thing to say Frank! Look the front light’s come on said Jamie, turn the channel to 16 and check it is all working OK! Sadly dear readers, when I turned the channel selector there was a loud "POP" accompanied by the subtle aroma of fused circuitry and the light on the front went out!!! "BUGGER" was all that was heard! (Now this was months before the infamous ad, so we aboard "Tranquillo" claim "pre-emptive use").

In an atmosphere of disbelief we took the cover off the VHF and discovered that:

(a) we had blown the input resistor and;
(b) Frank headed a department that serviced electronic equipment so was pretty au fait with these things.

Fortunately we had seen a building over the road from the Paradise Hotel which advertised the servicing of electronic equipment, so it was to be off to the workshop with the set in the morning for an attempted repair.

On this note we retired for the night along with the mosquitos, 30 degree heat and hoping for a bit of luck tomorrow.