Chapter Three
Wednesday October 28th
.98
At about 6am in the morning we awoke to
yet another S.D.I.P. no wind, warm air
which just made you jump out of the bunk
and over the side for a swim. The water
was so warm it was not even a shock to
the system.
Over a light breakfast
of one slice of toast, (this was because
Kerry, the bilge boy, only purchased one
small loaf while getting the cleaning
gear on Tues ), fruit juice and a cup
coffee or tea, we discussed the plans
for the day.
It was decided that
after we all had paid a visit to the
Moorings base for a shower, Frank would
take "smoky" the main VHF and
a little hand held one we had found, off
to the "radio shack" to see
what repairs could be made. Also to get
some wires soldered on to the base of
the hand held so we could plug it
directly into the switchboard power
supply. (This was because the nicad
battery was flat and we did not know if
it would hold a charge.) Jamie and I
would return to the boat and check off
the survey list.
So after a quick tidy
up of the boat it was 30 pumps of air
into the dinghy, then off to shore. Upon
Jamie's and my return to the boat we dug
out the bosuns chair and because he is
of a "slighter" build than I,
he was duly sent to the top of the mast
to check the rig. This involved
examining, aerials and connections,
lights, bolts, fittings, blocks, tangs,
shackles, clevis pins and split pins,
stays, spreaders and the mast and sail
track. We replaced one worn shackle,
fitted an extra block for a spare
halyard and retaped the spreader ends
with insulation tape to prevent chafe.
Next we checked the
boom and fittings, hoisted all the sails
checked for tears and broken stitching
and set the storm trysail up on the mast
ready for deployment if needed.
All deck fittings and
fastenings were checked along with the
stanchions and lifelines jack stays,
(these are the webbing straps that run
the full length of the deck that you
clip your safety harness to, when ever
you leave the cockpit). Also the life
raft service date and it's fastenings.
Then it was on to the rudder, the
gudgeons, and the self steering with its
wind vane.
The self steering was
mounted on double "A" frame
brackets with pintles off the transom
and consisted of a 2m long x 45cm wide
straight blade with a trim tab fitted on
the trailing edge. The trim tab was
activated by a shaft with a sliding
crank which in turn was connected to a
counter balanced wind vane mounted on a
tube, this pivoted on the same shaft. To
engage the wind vane, all one had to do
was set the boat sailing on course then
release a weighted lever, (attached to
the wind vane tube), which dropped into
a slotted round disk that is welded on
the trim tab shaft. Fine adjustment was
achieved by moving the lever from one
slot to the next either way.
We were to find that
the self steering worked very well, but
it did have two draw backs.
- being free pivoting
and 2 ft off the stern, it increased
the turning radius of the boat when
you were motoring and steering with
the main rudder, also it needed to
be locked in line with the keel when
going astern.
- 2) it moved the
centre of lateral resistance aft on
the boat and in certain conditions
induced bad lee helm.
Anyway to continue, we
drilled and pinned one of the pintles so
that the blade could not jump off if we
hit by anything and also attached a line
from the blade to the boat as an added
safety measure. It was then on to
checking the auto helm, Epirb, bilge
pumps, all hoses, gate valves, comparing
the onboard GPS to my hand held,
swinging the compass, checking the motor
over and trying to tighten the stern
gland because after running the motor
you had to pump grease into it via a
grease cup to stop the inflow of water.
This was not successful as the nut would
not budge, so we added an extra tube of
WP grease to the "to buy"
list. We also tried again to find the
problem with the freezer but ended up
concluding that the R12 gas had joined
that of the bus air conditioners in the
upper atmosphere! At this point I shot
into town and bought some braided rope
for the spare halyard and several tools
that we needed and upon my return we set
to installing the halyard.
By the time we had
finished it was 11.30am, 350
Celsius down below, no breeze and we
were both thirsty and hungry so it was
into the dinghy and off to.........yes
you guessed it! Annas cafe for lunch and
to meet Frank.
He had caught up with
the American proprietor of the repair
shop who promised to have a look at the
VHF but did not feel very confident
about having the necessary spare parts
on hand to fix it. He would also check
out the small hand held VHF and wire it
up for us and had arranged with Frank to
meet him at 9am tomorrow.
After lunch we
arranged with Bill at the Moorings for
his mechanic to check out the freezer at
4.30pm. and with Don Coleman, who ran
the slipway next door to Anna's cafe, to
bring Tranquillo along side at 2.00pm
for fuelling, filling the water tanks
and loading the food on board.
Frank headed off into
town to buy the provisions and meet us
back at the top of the steps leading
down Don Coleman's at 3pm. (One of the
stores had offered us the use of their
small truck and driver to get all the
supplies back to the boat.) The captain
and I headed back out to Tranquillo and
made her ready to bring along side Don's
wharf. When we arrived at 1.50pm there
were two vessels already tied up. Don
indicated that the outer one would only
be 10-15 mins so we just motored slowly
around the area while we waited.
Finally at 2.30 we
were able to come along side where we
took on 62ltrs of diesel and 250 ltrs of
water. Both Jamie and I had discussed
carrying some extra diesel fuel, because
although the manual for the motor said
it would only use 500ml per hour @ 3/4
throttle and Trevor had said he only
used 1/2 a tank on his trip up from NZ,
we both felt it would be prudent to have
extra aboard.
At 3.15 there was
still no sign of Frank with the truck
and goods, so while Jamie stayed with
the boat I went back into town to find
out what had
delayed him.
I found Frank at the
second "big" store, ( about
the size of a small NZ superette but
with 10% of the range and stock) where
he was having trouble finding some of
the smaller items on our list and had
also been waiting for the truck to
return. Between us we very quickly
completed the shopping, loaded the
truck. While Frank and the driver headed
back to start unloading, I tried to beg,
borrow or find a spare 20ltr jerry
can/container to hold the extra diesel.
All to no avail as these items are as
scarce as hens teeth and worth their
weight in gold in Vava'u. There was not
even a 5ltr one available. That only
left stealing one and as we all will one
day return to Tonga this was out of the
question and besides it's dishonest!.
Better hope that we have plenty of wind
on the trip! and won't need to motor
much.
By the time I got back
to the yard Frank had all the unloaded
goods on the side of the road and we
started carrying them down the 45 steps
to the boat.
This took 10 trips
each and was Very hot work in 350C
heat. All cartons were unpacked on the
dock and the items passed to Jamie and
Frank on board for stowing. This system
keeps cartons off the boat along with
those pesky brown insects they can
harbour called COCKROACHES.
After stowing
everything away we cast off and motored
over to the moorings jetty to get the
freezer system looked at. Here the
problem was quickly identified as no R12
gas. This was remedied and T35.00 later
we had the freezer pulling down,
although it took both mine and Jamies
combined weight on the compressor during
adjustment, to get enough tension on the
belt to stop it slipping. We decided to
keep the motor running until the freezer
was as cold as possible which was to
prove a wise decision as by next morning
all the gas had disappeared again. (The
freezer actually held goods frozen for
the next 5 days!) While the repairs were
under way who should Frank spot on
Anna's cafe jetty next door but young
Max and his parents Ulf & Poly from
the flight up. After introductions and
solving the mystery of who Max had been
laughing at on the plane, we invited
them to join us for our farewell dinner
in Vava'u at the Captain's Table
restaurant. This is located next door to
Don Colemans Haulout yard . The
Moorings, Anna's cafe, Don's yard and
the Captain's table restaurant are all
within 100 meters of shore line and use
the same entry from the road.
Jamie took the boat
out and anchored it while Frank and I
had a shower each and got cleaned up.
While waiting for Jamie to come ashore I
got talking with a fellow cruiser from
the USA and mentioned that we were
looking for a 2nd hand VHF just in case
ours could not be repaired. He said that
he had offered a spare one to a friend
on a boat out in the bay and would find
out if he still needed it, if not he
would bring it over in the morning.
Unfortunately he could not help me with
any spare fuel containers as he was on
the look out for some himself.
Over a nice dinner of
garlic lobster, Ulf and Poly asked each
of us how long we thought it would take
to get back to NZ, made a note of the
estimates, and arranged to have BBQ with
us on their return to NZ late in
November, before they headed off home to
the UK.
Thursday 29th Oct 98. Departure 11:30hrs
By 6am I was in the water with mask,
fins, and snorkel, cleaning the
propeller and the bottom of the boat.
After about an hour and a half Frank
took over from me and finished off the
hull. While we were doing this we found
that the sumlog speedo cable was broken
however we were not too concerned about
this as we knew how to measure the boats
speed and both GPS systems gave us speed
over the ground.
Over breakfast we went
over the last minute items that we
needed to get, the program for the
morning, and made sure everyone was
still happy to set sail.
At 8:30 am we dropped
Frank off at the Moorings jetty to go
and collect the radios and I shot up to
the office to get the latest weather map
and send a fax off to New Zealand giving
details of our planned course, waypoints
and ETA.
I rejoined Jamie on
board and we motored off down to the
main wharf for clearance. An
inter-island trader was tied up at the
time so I dropped Jamie off on the wharf
ladder and spent the next 45 minutes
standing off. While I was doing this a
small RIB approached and in it was the
fellow cruiser I had spoken to the
previous day. He had with him a Horizon
VHF in good working order which I bought
for US$50.00. Without delay this was
installed and working fine by the time I
went back along side to collect Jamie.
At this point the
owners of a Canadian trawler invited us
to tie up along side while we went and
collected our fresh fruit and
vegetables. We found out that they were
heading off to Napier in a couple of
days.
As there was still no
sign of Frank, Jamie and I went up to
the markets and paid for the perishables
and brought them back to the Boat ( This
took two trips on foot). We got
pineapples for $2.00, not each, but for
a pile of 8, same with the mangoes,
bananas, pawpaw, oranges, lemons, limes,
pamplemousse, tomatoes, all $2.00 bag,
and large water melons $1.00 each. With
the help of the stall holders at the
market, all the fruit was selected to
ripen progressively over the next week,
which I might add, it did perfectly.
Frank arrived back at
11.30 and helped Jamie on board with the
last of the fruit and veg, while I shot
up into town for a 2nd can opener and a
potato peeler.
At 12:15 we cast off,
cranked up "Methusula" and
motored down towards the channel.
As we stowed the last
of the fruit, Frank said repair shop had
only been able to get the hand held VHF
working, so we were very fortunate that
I had managed to acquire the Horizon. It
was then on deck for our last look at
Neiafu as we headed out between the
islands and towards the sea. We were on
our way!
Leaving
Neiafu Harbour for New Zealand looking
towards Open Sea
Leaving
Neiafu looking back
First log entry:
Neiafu Harbour entrance.
Pos: 180.40's
1730.59'w
Weather: Fine
Wind: 10-15k SE
Seas: Slight.
Getting ready to set the sails and have
lunch. All's well!
