0600 position 23-52S 147-41W. At anchor off of Rairua Town, Raivavae Lagoon
As dawn approached we could see the lights of the villages on Raivavae which confirmed our GPS position. I know the GPS is
accurate, but I am always nervous approaching a new landfall in darkness. What if the charts are wrong? They rarely are
off by more than a few hundred yards even in third world countries, but it is still comforting to be able to confirm the GPS
position with bearings on identifiable landmarks.
I also sighted the loom of some lights astern, which I mistakenly assumed were lights on Tubuai, the next island to the
west. It turned out to be the inter-island steamer also headed for the pass at Raivavae but moving a lot faster. His
timing was perfect, and we followed him into the pass and into the anchorage off the town of Rairua just after dawn. You
know you are not going to run aground if the 200 foot ship whose track you are following doesn't.
When I realized it was a ship astern of us, I turned on the running lights. Yes, I know we are supposed to have the running
lights on at night, but we usually don't. There just isn't any traffic out here, and our own running lights make it
difficult to see if there is anything else out there. If we see something we turn the lights on. The running lights worked
fine when I turned them on, but fifteen minutes later the stern light (the one showing the steamer that we were there)
burned out. Uh Oh. Quick, tie a flashlight to the back stay and make sure it stays aimed at the steamer so they don't run
us down. Never a dull moment on the Moku pe'a and one more thing to fix.
There was one other yacht in Raivavae, a French catamaran, but we've seen no sign of life aboard. Shortly after completing
SOP1 (except the beer part), we relaxed, had breakfast, and I took advantage of the hot water generated while powering into
the lagoon to take a hot shower. Heaven. Then we launched the dinghy and went ashore to try to check into the country.
Turns out the Gendarmarie is closed one day a week, Saturdays, and today is Saturday, so we gave up on that and rode our
folding bikes fifteen miles around the island. Afterwards, our butts and legs were sore, but it was nothing that a couple
of beers couldn't cure.
Foremost in our minds was putting the forty pounds of ahi in the ice box to good use. If we procrastinated too long it
would go bad. We are eating all we can (it's grilled ahi belly tonight), but we had to get rid of at least thirty pounds of
fish. Our plan was to try to sell or trade it for local art or beer, and we made inquiries at all four small markets around
the island during our bike ride. Very little English is spoken here though, and we don't speak French or Tahitian so we
were unsuccessful in making a deal. We did find one nice gal who spoke understandable English at the market closest to the
boat, and she was nice to us, so we gave her twenty pounds of ahi. Matt made a pal on the pier while I was out on the boat
fetching the ahi. Matt was trying to ask how we could get water for the boat, but due to the language barrier the local
thought that Matt was thirsty and gave him a store bought 2 liter bottle of water. That was a pretty nice gesture, so we
gave ten pounds of ahi to him. What goes around comes around. We have no expectations, but we are hoping that somehow our
generosity with the fish creates something noteworthy. Stay tuned.
I don't recall if I mentioned previously that the water in Tonga was the worst tasting potable water on the planet. I
couldn't drink it straight, and had to disguise it for four months with crystal light to make it palatable. It is still in
our tanks, and I can't wait to be rid of it. Matt shared the bottled water his new pal gave him with me, and it was
fantastic. I forgot how good pure water tastes. I'd almost rather drink good water than beer…. Almost…. Unfortunately, we
are going to have to wait until we get to Papeete to get more drinking water. There's none readily available here.
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