Maurelle, Vava'u, Tonga
On Wednesday we left our sheltered anchorage in the Hunga lagoon and
sailed slowly under mainsail back to Neiafu where we anchored just before
2PM. Rocky went ashore to see if there was a basketball game on
television at the Bounty Bar and I played white tornado and cleaned up the
boat for Lori's arrival later in the afternoon. At 330PM Rocky and I met
at the Aquarium Café and Lori walked in as planned at about 4. Her
flights went without a hitch and she arrived with all of the head stay
and roller furling equipment intact.
We went for a celebratory dinner at the Lobster House where, ironically,
they didn't serve lobster. We picked that restaurant because of its
ambiance. A beautiful building right on the waterfront with marble tables
and fancy local art work on the walls. It was clearly the nicest dining
facility in Vava'u. We were the only customers that night, and the two
waitresses fussed over us, or tried to. They were both new to western
style food service. I ordered a steak, medium rare, and they didn't know
how to deal with the "medium rare" part of the order. As far as they were
concerned steak only comes one way. We also asked them if they had wine.
"Oh yes!" they answered enthusiastically, but were puzzled when we asked
what kind. They finally decided they had red and white wine, but were
further puzzled when asked what kind of grape it was. We told them that
it should say what kind of grape it is on the bottle, and now they were
really puzzled, so they went to get their inventory of wine. Out came a
soggy and aged half empty box of "Red Table" wine. It was a good meal
though, and we had fun training the wait staff.
Lori had reserved a hotel room at the Moorings' Boathouse Apartments
overlooking the harbor for the night just in case we weren't there when
she arrived. So I got a hot shower and stable bed for the evening. What
a treat. We recommend the Moorings Beach Boathouse for anybody needing
accommodations in Vava'u.
Raymond, the Moorings Base Manager who picked Lori up at the airport,
kindly agreed to allow us to use one of his piers for our head stay/roller
furling reconstruction project. He told us that we would have the minimum
impact on his business if we did the job on Saturday, so after checking
out of the apartment and doing some shopping for fresh produce, we headed
off for a couple of days of exploring.
Our first stop was the famous "Mariner's Cave" on Nuapapu Island.
Mariner's Cave is an underwater cave ten feet in diameter with an air
filled chamber at the far end perhaps twenty feet in. You have to dive
down about six feet to enter the cave. Once inside you can breathe in the
thirty foot diameter chamber, the only light inside being that which comes
in the entrance. Diving into the cave was a very cool but it was a little
bit spooky for me, the first one in. I got some good video of Rocky in
the cave, but Lori opted out. Perhaps after she sees the video and does a
little more diving here she will be comfortable enough to try it.
We then powered down to the coral gardens at the far end of Nuapapa, this
time approaching it from the other side so we didn't have to cross the
reef. Lori and Rocky snorkeled the length of the reef as I drifted
offshore aboard Moku pe'a waiting for them. The it was back to Port
Maurelle for the night.
Today we plan to head in to Neiafu in time for Rocky to watch the first
NBA finals game at 2PM, and tomorrow we tackle the head stay project.
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