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AUGUST, 2013
ALL HAIL THE KING


August 1 – 23, 2013

Three significant events happened in the month of August.  They are: the rescue of a boat on a reef, the Agriculture Show in Neiafu, Tonga, and Kolio’s prizes, and the arrival of our daughter Jenn and son-in-law Jass for their second visit to Tonga.

Event #1

At approximately 0400 on Tuesday morning, August 6, 2013, the 46’ Canadian aluminium yacht, Paje, struck a reef and was aground.  Paje put out a Pan Pan call on VHF 16, the international frequency for distress.  The yacht, Platinum, was the first to respond and advised Paje to repeat the Pan Pan on VHF 26 and started to plot Paje’s position.  We heard the call on channel 26 and Paul immediately started communications with Louise on Paje.  Mary turned on our electronics and plotted the latitude and longitude being reported.  It was immediately obvious to us that the position reported was six miles south of Lape Island and in deep water, with no reefs nearby on the electronic charts.  That was confusing and others reported in on the radio that the position reported did not make sense.  (We later learned that Louise had been reporting the ‘cursor position’ on the electronic chart plotter and not the ‘boat position.  A mistake easily made.)  However, we immediately set out for that position.  We have good waypoints that we have established in our four years travelling throughout Vava’u and were quite confident that we could leave Lape Island in the dark.

Paul asked our friend, Baker, of the sailboat Lighten’up to take over and coordinate rescue communications.  We started both engines and let go of our mooring.  Shortly after, the port engine alarm went off heralding an engine problem.  We decided to proceed with only one engine, which would severely hamper our ability to manoeuvre Bella Via in close quarters but at least we could find the distressed boat and offer what assistance we could.

In the meantime, Baker was having Paje set off flares in an effort to pinpoint the exact location.  By the time we rounded Langitau Island, the island just south of Lape Island, the third flare had been launched and we were startled to see that the flare was right in front of us.  We still couldn’t see the boat because of the darkness (no moon) but we were in the right place.  They were stuck on the reef that we call “Coral Wonder”, one of Paul’s favourite snorkelling spots.

Paul immediately launched the dinghy and got close enough to Paje to take a line.  As Paul waited in the dinghy with this line in hand for another boat to arrive that could take it and tow Paje off the reef, Paje was being driven further and further onto the reef by the breaking waves.  Because it was dark Paul didn’t realize this until it was too late and he and the dinghy were picked up by the surf and driven forward into the bow of Paje.  Fortunately the dinghy was not overturned and the outboard kept running despite having been completely submersed during the event.  Paul’s life jacket had inflated automatically and the dinghy was completely full of water over the shallow reef inside the 1 metre breakers.  With barely enough water under the prop, Paul was able to retrieve a second and longer line from Paje, and after several attempts, crashed through the breakers to the seaward side of the surf.  All this was going on while Mary hovered with Bella Via in deeper water, being very, very careful to stay away from the reef and wondering why Paul had stopped communications on his handheld radio.  By that time, Baker had roused one of the whale watch boats from a nearby island that has taken part in several rescues and that boat was on their way with three persons aboard.  That boat, Lulu Tahi, arrived shortly after but the skipper decided to wait for first light before approaching the boat and the tow line that Paul had in place.

As the sun rises, here is Lulu Tahi getting into position to tow Paje off the reef – unfortunately, a failed attempt because the 20mm line that linked Lulu Tahi with Paje quickly parted from the strain.  Paul’s efforts had been for naught.


Over the next two hours, several attempts were made to pull Paje off the reef by additional boats and people.  By now, the wind and tide had forced Paje further onto the reef and changed its position several times.  Despite the quick response of Bella Via and the vessels Kate, Lot 66, Lulu Tahi, and Dorothea III, attempts to get Paje off the reef failed after parting three different tow lines.

As Bella Via was hovering near the reef, we were treated to a show by two whales, who came up right beside the boat.


The husband and wife aboard Paje abandoned the vessel and stayed aboard Bella Via while over the next two days plans and preparations were made to try again on the high tide on Thursday morning;  this time, using a much larger tow rope from Dorothea, a large super motor vessel.

Over the next two days, many, many yachties and the villagers of Lape Island worked tirelessly to prepare for Thursday morning’s attempt.

A sad sight indeed to see Paje high and dry at low tide on the “Coral Wonder”, Paul’s favourite snorkel spot in Tonga.  Fortunately the winds and seas were very light over the period of time that Paje sat on the reef thus minimizing the damaging done to the vessel.

The tow rope that was eventually used to pull Paje off the reef was as thick as Paul’s arm and 300 metres long.  It had been off loaded from the super launch Dorothea III onto this dinghy, then tied to Paje and led out to floats in deep water in preparation for the attempt to pull Paje off the reef the next morning at high tide.  Sitting atop the rope is Karlene from the yacht Maloo, who did much more than hold the rope from going astray.  It was she who tied the deep end to the temporary mooring and subsequently handed it over to Dorothea on the morning of the big pull.


At 0845 on Thursday, August 8, all was ready.  Dorothea was in position and with a slow, strong pull Paje slid gently off of the reef.  There were loud cheers and sighs of relief from all watching.

Although Paje was taking on a bit of water, pumps were more than able to keep up and Paje was towed by Dorothea and subsequently Hakau Adventures to the Fisheries Wharf in Neiafu.

Paje is now on a long-term mooring in Vava’u.  Louise and Todd, the owners, have returned to work in Vancouver, Canada, and will return to Paje in a few months to decide where to go from there.

Event #2

On Saturday, August 10, all was abuzz in Neiafu.  King George VI was coming to attend the first Agricultural Show in Tonga since 2009.  There were shows in all of the Tongan island groups; Tongatapu in the south, the Ha’apai group in the middle, Neiafu in Vava’u, and the far northern group.  The king attended every show over a two week period.

Kolio had been preparing for the show since last year and was quite excited about participating.  Not every village was invited.  As Lape Island is the smallest village in Vava’u, this was quite an honour.  The actual show was held on Saturday, August 10 at the high school grounds but before that date, a team of adjudicators travelled to the different islands to judge the gardens and crops of the competitors.  They came to Lape Island to check out Kolio’s mulberry tree farm and pineapple crop and Fakahoko’s home garden (the best green peppers around!).

Paul arose early on the 10th in order to bring our computer to Kolio at the high school.  Paul had helped Kolio develop a slide show that depicted everything that Lape Island is doing to make their lives better.  The computer would be set up as part of Lape Island’s display and run continuously. 

We set off for the high school at about noon.  The show would officially open to the public at 1300.  There was already a large crowd present – you could feel the excitement in the air as everyone waited for the appearance of King George VI.  We said a quick hello to our friends from Lape Island and then proceeded to walk around to all of the displays.  There were four long rows of booths to investigate.  Unfortunately, we had only looked at about half of the booths when we were shooed away by a police vehicle that was driving around between the rows of booths and telling everyone to move away because the king was arriving.  We returned to Lape’s display where we were invited to sit and watch the festivities.

Here are Uiniketi, Tala, Pepe, and Pepe’s daughter Leslieli, sitting in the centre of their display.  Note the large tapa that they are sitting on.  Tapas are very important to Tongans and are used for special occasions – births, deaths, marriages, etc.  Many Tongans have several tapas stored under their beds.  The tapa in this picture is actually one that Kolio and Tala gave to us just before we left for Fiji at the end of August.  We will treasure it always – this is a very special gift from very special friends.

Part of Lape Island’s display was dedicated to the selling of chips (made by Tala from banana, breadfruit, sweet potato, or taro) and ginger beer (made by Tala and Kolio), and cakes (made by Tala’s cousin Ofa).  These proved to be very popular and the chips sold out fast.


Finally the king arrived.  When everyone was seated, there were several speeches in Tongan.  Kolio was able to provide interpretations whenever anything was said that he considered of significance.  This speech giving went on for quite a bit of time.

Tala, who had been up most of the night preparing for the show, fell asleep during the speeches.  We couldn’t blame her, as they went on and on...


Next, came the awards presentation.  Paul and Kolio moved up closer to the front so that Paul could photograph Kolio accepting his awards.  We already knew that Kolio was getting awards for his mulberry and pineapple crops but weren’t sure about any others.  This was exciting.

Here is Kolio (centre of picture in a light blue shirt) accepting one of his awards from King George VI.  Kolio was called up five times!

After the awards ceremony, the king proceeded to walk the grounds and look at every display booth.  The Tongans were very excited about this, as the previous king had only toured everything from the back seat of a car.  We noticed that there was a woman talking to him about each booth, probably telling him something about the island or group.  When the king arrived at Lape Island’s booth, Kolio took the opportunity to mention to the Queen that Lape Island was now doing the ancient method of weaving called Mosikaka that was almost a lost art.  Her ears perked up immediately and she walked right into the display to check out the Mosikaka purses.

Here is the Queen examining a purse that Tala had made in the ancient method of weaving called Mosikaka.  The Queen looked quite impressed.

Here are our friends from Lape Island displaying their awards.
They received:

  • First Place – Mulberry Plantation
  • Second Place – Cleanest village
  • Second Place – Display of handicrafts
  • First Place – Innovative manufacturing of products
  • Second Place – Pineapple Plantation
  • First Place – Fakahoko’s Home Garden

All of these awards came with prize money which would be given out later.


Event #3

On the morning of Monday, August 19, we left Lape Island early and travelled into Neiafu.  Jennifer and Jass were due to arrive that afternoon and we wanted to greet them at the airport.  We were a bit apprehensive because there was a new airline, Real Tonga, flying into Vava’u and they were having some growing pains.  A couple of flights the previous week and as recent as the Saturday before, had been cancelled due to either mechanical difficulties or bad weather.  The weather that day was clear, with no rain in sight so it looked for a positive landing.  In fact, the plane arrived right on time.
Jenn and Jass were staying aboard for three weeks and they were bringing along their expensive camera equipment to make a documentary of our lives aboard Bella Via.  This necessitated their bringing not just the camera but many, many accessories...meaning lots of luggage.  Unfortunately,  their entire luggage did not make it on the plane that they were on and they were told that two of their bags would be on the next flight that afternoon.  Fortunately for us, Mike, the owner of the Aquarium Cafe in Neiafu, was at the airport picking up a delivery.  He told us that the rest of his delivery was also on the next flight and he would have the cab driver, James, pick up our two bags as well and deliver them to the cafe.  This was all arranged and we set off for Bella Via.

We had time for a celebratory glass of champagne and some unpacking before setting off for the Poolside Cafe for dinner.  We also wanted to order some passage food from the Poolside Cafe for our upcoming three-day passage to Fiji.  After dinner we stopped at Aquarium Cafe on our way to Bella Via and asked about the luggage.  We were informed that the bags had been placed at the bottom of the stairs but...the bags were not there!  This caused quite a bit of stress because the bags contained the camera equipment.  Paul went inside the restaurant to investigate further and learned that one of the workers had locked up the bags in a safe place.  What a relief!

After that somewhat troublesome start, we settled down to enjoy their stay.  We started off the next morning back to Lape Island so that Jenn and Jass could say hello to the people they had met two years ago.  In fact, we spent most of their stay in Tonga at Lape Island, occasionally venturing forth to other anchorages.

We had about a week in Tonga before we sailed off for Fiji.  In that time, Jass and Jenn started taking professional shots of every room on Bella Via for our future advertising of the boat for sale.  They also started filming for their documentary and that meant many interviews of different people with the necessary signed releases.  And, of course, there was snorkelling and sightseeing that needed to be accomplished on the good weather days.

We have had a lot of rain in Tonga this year.  Everyone is commenting on the weather.  But that didn’t stop us from having fun and enjoying our family time.  Our friends on Lape Island arranged a potluck picnic for the Saturday before we left.  At that time, we all ate together (contrary to the way of island people where the white person eats first) because we begged them to do it that way.  There was lots of singing and dancing and gift giving for all of us from the people of Lape Island.  Jenn and Jass had already passed out their gifts to every family during the previous week.

Monday, August 26, 2013

We went to Lape Island early this day to say goodbye to our friends.  It was a sad farewell because, if we sell the boat this year, we will not be back and everyone knew that fact.  We didn’t dwell on that thought though – we said “Tokisio” (see you later) instead.

At 1430 we released the mooring line and set off for Fiji.  Everyone on board was excited, especially Jenn and Jass for their first blue water passage.  All safety features had been explained and Bella Via made ready.  The weather looked good for a three-day downwind sail.

When we next write, we will talk about the passage and the rest of Jenn and Jass’ stay aboard.

 

    Journal 2012