So, we arrived into Fiji a few days ago.  We had a three night passage with rain the first day, and clear, but somewhat rough seas the second day.  I wore a patch and was not seasick.  Ariana and Ryan took Stugeron and they were somewhat tired, but not sick.

Internet is so much better here than Tonga, and we even have Internet on our boat (at least at this marina mooring).  I still need to update Vava’u, Tonga (which I will do this week), but here is the update for right now in Fiji:

(1) Ariana turns 14 tomorrow!  We are surprising her with a day that includes stand-up paddleboarding down a river and horseback riding on the beach.  We have to be up and at the marina at 7 a.m. for pick-up, which pretty much is the earliest we have had to be anywhere for quite some time.  (Yes, I know.  We are spoiled.)

(2) My favorite camera was “stolen” in Tonga.  Dan and I went out one night and I accidentally left my camera in the bathroom.  Five minutes later, I realized it and it was gone.  The owner of the Bounty Bar (Laurence) was very upset and made an announcement to return it, but not surprisingly, no one did.  This was my small, waterproof camera that I used for about 95% of the photos I have taken on this trip.  It is a terrible disappointment because I can’t replace it out here.  I am hoping to get a new one in New Zealand.  In the meantime, I have the GoPro and our Sony DLSR camera, but the latter is bulky and can’t get wet.  There is one good thing though–I had JUST cleared all of the photos (about 700 of them) off of the camera only two days before it was taken.

(3) The weather in Fiji, so far, is SO much better than Tonga.  I am loving that.  It was downright chilly in Tonga and made me not want to get in the water!

(4) We are going to be doing a lot of diving as soon as we leave Savusavu.  The diving in the out-islands here is supposed to be some of the best in the world, and superior to that of the southern Fijian Islands.

(5)  We need to get Kava root.  When we go to the smaller islands, we need to bring it with us as a gift for the village chief so we can be welcomed to their village.

(6)  Right now, we are off to get some good Indian curry!  Yummy.

 

For this passage, Ryan, Ariana and I took Stugeron, an oral anti-seasickness medication. I still felt nauseous, had a headache, and had the motivation of a slug, but at least I didn’t physically get sick on this passage. Neither did the kids, so that was great. It didn’t help that we were back upwind which makes for a more bumpy ride. (Most of the time we were 45-60 degrees off the wind.) I was, once again, happy to arrive at our destination. Surprise, surprise.

I am going to shorten this island to “potato” in my description because it is too long to type all the time! Also, many cruisers actually call it “new potato” rather than learn how to say the name (which is pronounced: “New-a-toe-poo-tah–poo). This was another of our destinations I had never heard of. I knew of Tonga, but specific islands on Tonga or even where the heck Tonga was? No way. Potato was due south of American Samoa, about 160 miles.

The View of the Anchorage from Land

We arrived on a Sunday and stayed onboard to relax and have dinner because we knew we couldn’t check in to the country on a Sunday anyway. The next morning, we hitchhiked into the customs check-in and learned they would come to our boat as a group at 3 p.m. that day. We were, however, allowed to exchange some money while we were in town. The bank was a glorified white painted shed with a card table. It was so funny. We exchanged our money and were brought back to our dinghy by Sia, who worked in the office.

The Niuatoputapu Bank (Yes, seriously)

At 3 p.m. the customs and health officials met us at the dock and came to our boat via our dinghy. We provided snacks and drinks (as is expected) and our boat was inspected. They looked at our produce but luckily, did not take anything. We were not allowed to bring any food to shore, however. Sia had told Dan ahead of time to hide our alcohol because one of the customs officials liked to find a reason to confiscate alcohol from boaters because, well, he enjoyed drinking it. The kids and I scurried to hide a few bottles of rum (Ariana thought Ryan’s room would be good for that), and a bottle of coconut liquor and vodka (that I mostly have for vodka cream pasta sauce if you can believe that!) was left in our salon in a cabinet. The man was surprised by generally unhappy to see that that was all we had onboard. Apparently, the island is a dry one, so he must really be really motivated to obtain what he could get away with!

The Officials (The One Sitting next to Ari is the Official who Wanted Photos of our Palengi Daughter to Show his Twin Kids)

Another official wanted photos of each of our kids with him so he could show his children—twins. That was unexpected too. He was very nice though. After check-in, we decided to head to land to go for a walk. We learned from an Australian boat in the anchorage that the King of Tonga would be coming that Wednesday. He only visits the out-islands once a year for a big cultural celebration. How lucky was that?! We decided to stay at least until Wednesday for the event. It is not every day that you get to see a King…

Our few days in Potato were fairly uneventful. There were no restaurants, and although I heard there was a VERY small store, I never saw one anywhere. We interacted with a lot of the kids on the island (and passed out candy to most kids we saw), and did a bit of walking around the island. I most liked that pigs and piglets were allowed to roam free. You would see a whole family of pigs coming out of the woods and heading across the street. The little piglets were so cute!

Pigs Everywhere!  Pig and Piglet

Pig in the Graveyard

The Town

A Typical House (Most seem to be Nearly Identical Shed-sized Houses)

This Family Decorated Their House to Make it Unique

This, apparently, is a safe location for a tsunami.  Really?  A bit rickety if you ask me…

This military ship came prior to the King’s arrival.  It had his SUV and the King and Queen Chairs for the Ceremony.

Island Kids we Passed Out Candy to–very sweet!

The common mode of transportation was hitchhiking and most people would pick you up if they had room in their vehicles.

Finally, it was Wednesday, and we ended up catching a ride into town after walking a part of the way with some of the other boaters getting a ride from a local family. We squeezed into the back of a small SUV and pretty much looked like a clown car at that point.

The highlight of our stay here was the King’s visit. Even though it had some very boring moments, we were able to see, up close and personal, the authentic Tongan celebration of their King. The locals call non-Tongan visitors “Palangi” and I don’t believe it is meant to be derogatory; it’s just a way to differentiate us tourists from Tongans. But, us Palangis were able to be as close to the King as the locals. And the coolest part? There were only 12 Palangis on the whole island, including our family of four! Being on a pretty unpopulated island for the King’s celebration was definitely better than experiencing the festival on a large island. (He later visited Vava’u, which is much more populated with more ex-pats and tourists, and you could not get very close to the King and Queen in that environment.)   We were able to participate in the agricultural show, walk around the grounds like everyone else, and there seemed to be no concern at all about outsiders at this event. The King had his military security personnel, and at one point, I thought I saw one of the military men take out a rifle. Talk about disconfirmed assumptions; it was an umbrella! His duty was to keep the King dry while he was walking during the rain showers that day.

The Day of the King’s Visit

School Kids Waiting to Welcome the King and Queen

More School Kids

Kids Getting Ready for their Performance

Locals Waiting for the Celebration

Dancing to the Music

A Little Boy Waiting for the King

The King and Queen

The King (Without Any Camera Zoom).  They let us be very close to their King. The King is Wearing the Light Blue Shirt and Traditional Ta’ovala (skirt with burlap-type cloth wrapped around).

Another One of the King and Queen (in the background)

There were a lot of speeches, singing, dancing and school children performed for the King and Queen, and at one point, the King and Queen walked around the agricultural grounds to look at all of the food and handicrafts of the locals. There were tons of handmade fans, straw rugs, dead fish of all kinds, lobsters, a small shark, and very sadly, a turtle. Ariana said she saw the turtle move and I dismissed it (probably as a defense mechanism), but when Sue on the Australian boat told us later that the turtle was still alive, I felt terrible. How could anyone keep a turtle out in the blazing sun just to suffer? I can’t imagine killing them to begin with given they’re endangered, but this is a different country with different cultural practices, so I get it. But to make an animal suffer? I see no point in that.

The Handicrafts and Agricultural Goods that are Being Shown to the King

This Turtle was Alive; It was Very Disturbing to Me.

The day after the King’s visit, we dinghied over to a small island we heard was good for snorkeling, but we could not see any good reef to snorkel in. We later learned that when you go at low tide, you can walk out to an amazing snorkeling wall. We didn’t go at low tide and that was our problem. So instead, we had wooden stick fights and tried to make a wooden shelter on the beach. Good thing we weren’t on Survivor because we gave that up pretty quickly. We, once again, had dinner on the boat and watched a family movie (we do that a lot).

A View of Our “Day” Island

Stick Fight!

Our Lean-To

The next day, we were off to Vava-u, which, thankfully, was only an overnight passage.

Today, we leave Tonga to head to Savu Savu, Fiji, which will be a three night passage.  I am not looking forward to the sail, but I am looking forward to Fiji.  When we hit Fiji, we will have a handful of overnight passages to the various islands, but this is possibly our second-to-last big passage.  We will be sailing to New Zealand after we cover the Fiji Islands.  Unfortunately, I was unable to update the Tongan Islands because I wasn’t able to upload the photos we took.  Hopefully, Fiji will have stronger Internet.  We shall see!

Talk to you soon!

Well, we had a short passage (two and a half days) to American Samoa and it was absolutely terrible. Ari, Ryan and I were very seasick, especially Ari and me. We tried not using a Scopalamine patch since we are low on them and they cause pretty significant side effects (Ari and I both get chest pressure just left of the center of our chest and some blurred vision) but the trade-off was terrible seasickness. I was miserable and Ari was too.

Then we finally arrived into American Samoa. Shall I start with the negatives and finish with the positives? I think I will so I can finish on a positive note! Check-in at American Samoa was terribly inefficient and was not made easier despite the fact we are also American. The harbor was remarkably dirty—absolutely disgusting—so we could not make water the whole time we were there. In fact, we had to fill jerry jugs with water from onshore to be able to shower, since we knew our tank water wouldn’t last long enough given cooking, washing dishes, etc. That meant cold showers all week. (Even when we make our own water, we only have hot showers if the starboard engine has been running that day or if we run the generator.) We also changed Lucky’s tank water in the open ocean before we got into the dirty bay. The smell in the bay was often disgusting. They have two fish canneries (one is Starkist) and the smell is nauseating downwind. A few nights I actually was awoken by the terrible smell. I will never forget how horrible that smell was!

That Bright Yellow Building is McDonald’s

The Main Street

The Beach in the Downtown Area

Another negative was the terrible holding in the bay. It was the worst holding we have come across. We held well for a little under a week, but one day after being out all day, we returned to see our boat in a completely different place, side by side with a monohull, attached to the gigantic, rusty ship mooring. That’s always a little disconcerting, to say the least. From what we understand from Paw Paw, a monohull in front of us dragged back and loosened our anchor. (They also were not on their boat.) Then we started dragging back—apparently getting closer to reef. A few guys from other boats came over, hopped onboard and started our engines. They could not pull up our anchor because we keep the compartment with the windlass control locked because we have our Parasailor in there, etc. So, these men had to power forward dragging our anchor. Apparently, our anchor then got wrapped around the monohull’s anchor, so they then dragged both of our boats a bit to get to the ship mooring, where they tied us. We were tied up next to Vasco (a Bulgarian 78 year old who was sailing around the world solo on a boat he and his late brother built). We ended up staying a few more nights on the ship mooring tied to Vasco’s boat, but when the wind got slack, we would hit the big ship mooring. Dan and Vasco were out there trying to keep us off, and we ended up bending (and breaking) our boat hook and causing slight damage to our bow above the waterline. We are going to have to get that repaired in Fiji. Bummer. In hindsight, we should have gotten off that mooring and taken our chances with our anchor again. Vasco was so nice. I made him a breakfast burrito one morning and he made us all rice pudding the next day. Dan also helped him get up his mast for a repair he needed to do and when Elaine and Roy from Paw Paw came over one evening, Vasco joined us as well for a few beers. I can’t imagine sailing alone at that age (or any age for that matter!).

A House in American Samoa

A View of the Trash:  There was A LOT of Trash

The Fishing Equipment.  For Some Reason, I Like This Photo

Now for the positives of American Samoa. The people were, by far, the friendliest and most helpful we have come across in our travels. It wasn’t just because we were American either; Roy and Elaine reported the same thing (and they are from Ireland/South Africa originally). Also, the provisioning was wonderful. Although I found no turkey bacon or soy sausage, we were ecstatic that we could find things that are really only available in the U.S. or that we have not seen in months. We found great canned soups, Cheeze Its, mint Oreos, Bella Vita Breakfast bars, convenience foods such as pre-made Veggie lasagna, black beans (woo hoo—it’s been MONTHS!), refried beans, bagels, fresh ravioli (but then frozen) and Amy’s Organic Frozen Burritos (for the kids). We were like kids in a candy shop.

The buses in American Samoa were fantastic and fun. They were essentially built by hand with wood on a truck frame and each driver would decorate them differently. Most drivers played common American music remade into a reggae style fairly loudly, and one driver had a huge TV where he showed Ultimate Fighting Club matches. (I preferred the music.) These buses would take you nearly anywhere you wanted to go. We took the buses to go shopping (and a cab back for our big provisioning), we took the bus to the movies (to see “The Secret Life of Pets” with the kids), we took the bus to Carl’s Junior/Green Burrito for burritos and Tropical Pizza (which was really Pizza Hut), and another day we went to the Army Reserve Center to shop at the Exchange and for an appointment to get our retiree Military Identification Cards. We were unable to update our IDs before we left because Dan was still essentially active duty (on terminal leave) up until December. So, we were pleasantly surprised when we learned American Samoa had an Army Reserve Center and they could make us our IDs by appointment. If, for some reason, we now want to take a Space A flight from Europe home, we need to have the most updated IDs to do so.

American Samoa with one of the Crazy Buses In the Background

We Could Get Our New Military IDs!

American Samoa had a McDonald’s. What’s funny is that we never eat McDonald’s for lunch or dinner at home (the kids have actually never eaten a McDonald’s hamburger), but we sometimes would get McDonald’s breakfast if we were on a road trip, etc. We eat there, on average, about 4 times a year. Well, in American Samoa, I think we ate there for breakfast five times in nine days! Crazy. Oh, and the kids also ordered a large fry to share on another day. I guess you want things more when they are scarce to you. Also, we always have that “convenience” when we are in the U.S., but almost nothing is convenient traveling out here, so I guess we just wanted to take advantage of it while we had it.

Another day, the kids and I went to the small museum they have in Pago Pago. I think it took us 30 minutes to go through the entire museum, but it was quaint and we learned a lot about the herbs they traditionally used to cure ailments (including “supernatural” ailments), we learned about their tradition of tattooing, and we saw the very small moon rocks (in acrylic) that Richard Nixon sent to American Samoa after our (America’s) moon landing. They were very tiny and maybe not so climactic but worthwhile nonetheless!

A Carving Outside the Museum

Moon Dirt or Rocks

The island of American Samoa has an amazing colony of large bats that hang in the trees across from the Port. They were very interesting to watch, especially at dusk when they became really active. We learned from a local man out for a walk that the bats settled here in this busy part of Pago Pago because they know that in that location, they are safe. We asked “from what?” and he said that even though it is illegal, the locals will shoot and eat them if they are in the less populated areas. Interesting. Bat stew?

While we were in American Samoa, we also took a bus to a trailhead in the National Park system. The hike turned out to be an interesting day. Apparently, you can either walk 3.2 miles to the summit and then come back the same way or continue the 2 miles up onto the narrow ridgeline and on to a town on the other side of the ridge. We talked to a group of locals who had just completed the hike. They went up to the first point and came back to the start and said it was a nice, tiring hike. We asked them if the bus goes to the town on the other side of the ridge, and she said they only run every two or three hours over there and they may not go that late in the day. We kept that information in our back pocket and started up the trail. About 30 minutes in, it started to pour. It never stopped! It got lighter a few times, but that rain was persistent. When we finally reached the first point, on one side of the bay we had no view at all. On the other side, we could see a portion of the view. This area at the top used to have a tram that I think the military built prior to WWII for some strategic reason. All of that was gone now, but they had a few structures still standing at this ridgeline. We ate the sandwiches we brought standing at a high worktable that had a rusty covering over it while the rain dripped down. After lunch, we asked the kids if they wanted to continue on to the town or turn back. We told them they may not have any buses over there, so we knew we might get “stuck,” but the kids wanted to continue on versus go back the same way we came. I think they were partially motivated by the fact the distance was shorter if we continued on, but that turned out to be misleading. Although it was a shorter distance, when you continue on with the hike, you spend a lot of time using ropes to go down these “ladders” and up others. We went up and down about 20-25 of these in the pouring rain. They had no room for any switchbacks in this area because we were actually traveling on the very top of the ridgeline. At some points, on either side of us, it was sheer cliff, but thankfully, the areas have very thick foliage so you knew that if you fell, you wouldn’t fall far without the dense trees and bushes stopping you. It turned out to be a very interesting hike, and the kids really enjoyed it. I was complaining (at least, on the inside), but they seemed not to care that we were soaking wet, cold, and trudging through muddy lands. I must be getting old. Anyway, we finally emerged out of the forest into a village of houses. The only person we saw was a power worker who was called out to fix something in the village on this rainy day. He looked at us like we came from the moon.   He asked us if we had done the hike and when we said yes, he asked: “All the way from the other side?” We said yes, and he asked: “Wasn’t it really muddy?” We said yes once again, but I think the mud on our legs was the giveaway. When he was over his shock, we asked him if there were going to be any more buses here. It was 4:30 in the afternoon. Nope. No more buses…uh oh. But then this man called over to his friend in a pick-up truck (who literally was the only car on the road), and he asked his friend if he would drive us back to the harbor in the back of his truck and he agreed. Great luck! We jumped in the back of his truck and had the pouring rain pelting us in our faces as we traveled through the mountain roads back to Pago Pago, which was a good, solid 20-minute drive. In hindsight, it was a really good thing we caught a ride because there is no way we could have walked it and there didn’t seem to be much in the way of civilization in the village (no stores, phones, or businesses), so I am not sure we would have found a way to call a taxi to where we were.   Heck, I’m not sure any of us even knew the name of the town! When we finally reached our dinghy, we were so cold and it was still pouring rain. It was so wonderful to finally get back to our boat to clean up and get warm. Overall, it turned out to be an adventurous day. We slept well.

The Very Wet Hike!

There were so Many of these to Climb (Up and Down) Because we were on a Mountain Ridge.

Some of These Were High Up and Slippery!

Finally!  The Village We Were Hiking To.

Drowned Rats in the Back of a Pick-Up Truck

One of the main reasons we chose to go to American Samoa was so that we could pick up the kids’ school materials for the 2016-2017 academic year. If we had all of that stuff shipped to anywhere else, it would have cost a ton more in shipping and we would have had to pay hundreds of dollars in duty fees. Thanks to John and Stacey, we received all of our packages through regular, USPS Priority Mail. I couldn’t get a replacement battery for my Mac though. Batteries have to come via cargo ship rather than airplanes. If I knew what I know now, I would have had the company send it via ship to American Samoa back when I was in Niue (which is when I had most of the other packages sent), but I thought my brother would be able to send it more easily. You live and you learn!

We saved a lot of money on the kids’ school supplies this year. I bought several of Ari’s courses and Ryan’s curriculum on Ebay second-hand. For Ryan, we ended up getting Calvert’s 6^th grade with Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra for Math. For Ariana, we ended up getting an Oak Meadow Biology Course, an Oak Meadow Language and Composition Course, a “Great Courses” World History set (DVDs with a Californian history/theater teacher who plays the part in his lectures, and a workbook, etc.), another World History DVD collection put out by the BBC, Teaching Textbooks for Algebra 2, and for both of the kids, I purchased Wordly Wise for their grades, and Spanish Workbooks that I will use to supplement my teaching of Spanish.   Ryan finished school this year on time, but Ariana took longer. She has finished most of her work, including Geometry, but she is still finishing up her physics course (with Dan’s assistance).   Two more chapters out of 20 left!

After about 9 days, it was time to leave American Samoa. We had our materials, we had re-provisioned our boat, and it was time to leave that dirty harbor. Our next passage would be a day and a half and we were headed to Niuatoputapu in the Kingdom of Tonga!

Niue

A photo of Niue Island

Craig on Watch from Palmerston to Niue

After a three night sail from Palmerston, we arrived into Niue, an island that is a New Zealand protectorate and uses New Zealand currency (which is a great exchange rate for the US dollar right now!). Niue was such a pleasant surprise. I was expecting little from the island and ended up enjoying it immensely. In a nutshell, we spent time scuba diving, hiking, exploring caves (via land and water), playing mini-golf, and eating Rotis at Gill’s Indian Restaurant. As soon as we were cleared into the country, we headed to the Yacht Club for a cold beer.   Here, we hung out and met a couple from New Zealand who were there on vacation (Ann and Barry from Dunedin), and then continued on for dinner at a Japanese/Pizza restaurant (strange combination served there) with Craig. We had a fun night!

Waiting patiently for dinner–we were hungry!

One interesting thing about Niue was that you had to use a crane to pull your dinghy out of the water every time you went ashore. Even the dive boats used this system each time they took people out diving. This is how it would work: We would motor over to the pier, Dan would let us all out to go up the ladder, we would grab the crane rope and give it to him so he could pull the hook to just above the dinghy, we would grab the crane control that would lower and raise the crane, Dan would hook up the crane to the dinghy lines, he would then hop out of the dinghy and we would lift it up and he would pull the rope that would pull the dinghy over the land. We would then lower the dinghy onto a handheld trailer and park it in a dinghy parking space. We couldn’t lift Dan IN the dinghy with the crane because the weight of the dinghy was not balanced with the (three) lines that connected to the crane. Over the course of the week we were there, we realized this system was not as irritating as it seemed, because it became a relatively quick process once you got it down. Unless…

–A local who is trying to be helpful yet knows nothing about boating (or physics) decides to keep control of the crane lever when you’re trying to pull up your dinghus. Yup, that can be terrible, as we found out… And of course, it had to happen on a day when Dan had a backpack with Ari’s and Ryan’s computers in it, so it was especially important to be careful. Mr. Local Man, however, did not bother to ask: “Do you want me to lift you in your dinghy?” or even: “Are you ready to be lifted?” Instead, Mr. Local Man just started lifting our dinghy out of the water without Dan expecting it, and as soon as the dinghy rose above the water, the imbalance threw Dan out. Luckily, Dan had the rope that swung the crane, so he was able to keep the backpack (mostly) out of the water and I was able to grab the backpack quickly. The backpack was wet, but miraculously, the computers stayed dry. Patagonia must make their packs water resistant; thank you Patagonia! Ryan had to turn off his touch screen because it was acting up, but otherwise, the computers survived. But, our lunchbox started floating away, Dan’s only pair of sunglasses fell to the bottom of the water, and Dan was now soaking wet.   To make a long story short, Dan went back to Do Over to get a mask and snorkel (and dry clothes) so he could find his sunglasses. After about 40 minutes, he managed to find his sunglasses and a headlamp (that was still working)! It was amazing that he found his sunglasses, quite frankly. It was rough, the tide was going out and he had to anticipate where the current would have taken a lightweight item like a pair of sunglasses. He and Ariana finally arrived at the Yacht Club, fully successful, and all was better…

The crane for lifting dinghies and boats and the dinghy parking spaces

A Different Crane was Used to Load this Big Boy into the Water as a Transport from the Supply Ship that was Coming

(As an aside, salt water is a VERY harsh environment for all electronics. We’ve had to bury a tablet, two Kindles, and our IPad has perpetual touch screen issues. And the newest update is that Ryan’s T and Y keys on his computer work only sometimes after their temporary Niue dip.)

A beer at The Mini Golf Restaurant

The View (of Our Boat) from the Mini-Golf Restaurant

Niue is very deep right off the shore, so we could dive right underneath our boat. But, Niue had a bunch of really cool dive sites we couldn’t find on our own, so we decided to go with one of the dive shops on a dive called “Dome Cave.” The dive involved swimming down 10 meters (about 30 feet) and then swimming into a cave for about 30 meters (90 feet) and then you surface inside land, in a cave with stalagmites and stalactites. This particular dive guide also lets everyone take off their gear and explore the cave for a while before descending back into the water to continue the dive.  This dive sounded very unique, even for people who have been diving for a long time. We knew Ariana would do great on this dive and we really wanted to be able to do the dive with her. The other dive shop said they could not take her because it was a cave and she was 13, but apparently there is some ambiguity in the Padi rules depending on whether it is a truly dark cave with no visibility of the entrance/exit versus a cave where the entrance/exit remains visible. In this cave, you could always see the entrance/exit in the water (the blue light of the ocean glowed), so it technically was not enclosed “cave diving.” And not to be those old people who say: “back in MY day” but the rules have changed over time for reasons that most likely pertain to money. Dan was certified to dive at 13, just like Ariana. At that time, 13 was the youngest you could be to become a certified diver, but once you were certified, you had no restrictions because of your age. You took the whole course just like an adult, you had to understand the physics of it just like an adult, and you had to demonstrate physically that you could do all that you needed to do to be a competent diver—just like an adult. Ariana had to do this too last year in the BVIs; it was a full course, just like an adult. However, on her certification, she is now considered a “junior” diver until she hits a magical age (I think the magical age is 15 now.)

Also, when I became certified 19 years ago, a recreational certified diver could dive to 100 feet. They have now changed it so that an adult recreational diver is supposedly only allowed to go to 60 feet for the first certification level, but of course, you can sign up for a separate costly course that would permit you to go deeper. Funny how things change.

The Trees on Niue That Look Less Tropical

Okay, now that I’m off my soapbox, I’ll get back to our dive. As we were riding over to the dive site in the powerboat, we saw a whale spout. When we got to the dive site, as soon as I rolled off the side of the boat into the water, I looked around under the water and saw a whole pod of dolphins swimming away. Sadly, by the time Dan and Ari were in the water, they were gone, so only the New Zealand college student (the only other diver besides our guide) and I saw them. The dive was pretty incredible. It was just as described where you descend and then go forward into the cave for about 90 feet and then you surface inside the land. There is an area where some fresh water hit the salt and the effect was very strange. The water was blurry; the visibility was still good, but it just became blurry and Ari said it made her feel a bit weird. I agreed. We had flashlights when we were inside the cave underwater and there were a ton of squirrelfish hanging out there. When we surfaced inside the island, we all took off our gear and walked around the dark cave.   At one point, we turned off our flashlights and it was pitch black except for the slight glow of beautiful blue ocean water in one corner of the cave. We got to see a coconut crab in there as well, which apparently, is quite characteristic of Niue. Finally, it was time to get back into the water, descend and travel out of the cave, and continue through the natural chasms on the ocean floor. Many times on the dive, we were visited by the most venomous snake in the world—the Niue sea snake. They are quite commonplace in these waters, but luckily they are not aggressive. They are, however, quite curious and they would come close to you in the water—VERY close. At one point, one came out of deeper waters and ended up grazing Ari’s face in his efforts to swim by us. Another followed my fins for a while and finally left. We heard they cannot bite humans because their mouths are not that large and they cannot get them around a human, but I am not too sure I trust that since they apparently eat moray eels. Last time I looked, my arm wasn’t nearly as wide as a moray eel’s. What’s to prevent Mr. Crazy Sea Snake from thinking our arms are slithering morays? And speaking of moray eels, we saw one in between two rocks on our dive. We sat there looking at him for a few minutes and he must not have liked that we were eyeballing him because he all of a sudden just dashed out through the open water to get away from our stares. It’s not often you see morays out in the open so that was a special treat! It sure is crazy how many cool animals there are in the world! Despite wearing wetsuits, Ari and I came up from our dive cold, but it was well worth it. Just as we suspected, Ariana handled the dive like a pro. We were proud parents!

Another day, we decided to dive underneath our boat. The dive guide told us there were some amazing chasms you can swim through and the visibility was purported to be even better than the Dome Cave site. The O-ring on one of our tanks was bad (this happened in Fakarava too with another tank), so we found ourselves with only 1,000 PSI of air in one of our tanks (they were all filled the day before to 3,000 PSI so—big leak)! We had rented a BC, reg and wetsuit from the dive shop so all three of us could dive together (and Ryan just stayed onboard our boat), and here we had a leaking tank. Figures! Dan just decided he would buddy breathe off of our octopi at various points in the dive so we would all have enough air for the dive. That worked out great. He buddy breathed with both of us for a while, and we all ended up coming up with about the same amount of air left in our tanks (about 600). It was a nice dive. The visibility was great and there were a ton of fish. We even saw a turtle.

In Niue, we rented a car for a few days (it was REALLY inexpensive at about $28 a day USD). We toured around the island and did some great, different hikes. One was a hike down to this beautiful arch on the water, another was a hike along the jagged, rough volcanic shore that ended by going down a really high ladder into a lagoon, and another involved exploring caves, which was also fabulous. We played a round of mini-golf at the most scenic putt putt course I’ve ever seen, and it was even cool enough to wear a sweatshirt that day!

Mini-Golf!!

Putt-putt with a Beautiful View

Our Hike: The Arch

The View of the Arch from the Cave

Hiking on the Volcanic Trail

One of the Cool Caves on Niue

Another Volcanic Hike Photo

Our Flat Tire–At Least Dan Got to Show the Kids how a Tire is Changed!

Ari Climbing on the Cave Wall

A Shrimp Underwater in this Lagoon

The Ladder we Had to Climb Down (and then up!)

Cool Cave Formations

Volcanic Hike

Beautiful Lagoon That Ari and Dan Snorkeled

My love of Niue suffered some setbacks after about a week when the winds shifted and caused an immense amount of swell in the anchorage. We had a solid mooring ball so we didn’t have to worry about coming loose or someone dragging into us, but it was ROUGH being out there on the boat. Ari and I didn’t feel great out there. I was pretty seasick and I wasn’t even sailing. That seems inherently unfair. I suffer through it when I sail, but in port, I should get a break from it, shouldn’t I? In hindsight, I wish we had just gotten a room in town for the few nights that the anchorage was so rough.

Stopping for a Cocktail

The Kids Exploring

Dan and I had intended to go on a date night, but understandably, the kids didn’t want to stay on the boat with it rocking and rolling so much, so we scratched date night and all went in for dinner, despite the roughness of the dinghy ride into shore. That dinner turned out to be excellent, and we dined with Mark and Eileen on Wavelength (from Washington State). The food was fantastic, the company was wonderful, and I didn’t want to leave shore. Finally, we had our weather window to leave Niue, so we checked out of the country and headed on down the road. Next stop: American Samoa.

Since we were not going to be able to go to Maupiti (because of our 90 day issue), we decided to stop at Palmerston Island on our way to Nuie. It was going to be a 4 night sail to Palmerston, and another three-night passage to Nuie. I was very much looking forward to Palmerston, which has an amazingly unique history. It is part of the Cook Islands, and therefore partially supported financially by New Zealand, but the residents are essentially all members of the Marsters family who settled on the island back in the mid 1800s.

Palmerston

Heading to the Island

The Island

This is the description of Palmerston from Wikipedia:

“Overview[edit]

A true atoll, Palmerston Island consists of a number of sandy islets on a continuous ring of coral reef enclosing a lagoon. The largest of the islets include Palmerston, North Island, Lee To Us, Leicester, Primrose, Toms, and Cooks. The total land area of the islets is approximately 1 square mile (2.6 km²). The coral reef covers about 3,600 acres (15 km²). Thelagoon is some 7 miles (11 km) across, covering an area of 56 square kilometres (22 sq mi). There are several small passages through the reef for boats, though there is no safe entry for large ships. At a latitude of 18 degrees south, Palmerston enjoys a tropical climate but is exposed to severe tropical cyclones. A particularly destructive series of storms occurred during the 1920s and 1930s.

All the islets are wooded with coconut palms, pandanus, and native trees. There is some natural ground water on Palmerston but water captured from rainfall is preferred for drinking. Shellfish inhabit the reef, and fish are abundant although there are concerns about overfishing. There are only 62 people living in Palmerston,^[3] all but three^[3]descended from an Englishman named William Marsters (see History, below).

The economy is based on fishing, tourism, copra, and bird feathers, though Palmerston’s extreme remoteness makes a cash market difficult to maintain; in fact it is more like the subsistence ways of life in the northern atolls. Electricity and other modern utilities are available on the island. A recently built telephone station provides the only permanent link to the outside world. The island has no airport or regular air service, but cargo ships visit a few times a year.^[3]

History[edit]

Palmerston was discovered by Captain Cook in 1774, but he did not land on the island until 13 April 1777. He found it uninhabited, though some ancient graves were discovered.^[2] Cook named the island after Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, then Lord of the Admiralty.^[2] The ancient name of the island was supposedly Avarau, meaning “two hundred harbour entrances”.^[2] In 1863 William Marsters, a ship’s carpenter and barrel maker, arrived on Palmerston from Manuae with two Polynesian wives and annexed the island from the British government. He added a third wife and sired a large family of some 23 children, whose descendants now inhabit Palmerston. Thus, Palmerston Island is the only island in the Cook Islands for which English is the native language.

William Masters, originally thought to have come from Leicestershire, England, is now thought to have come from Gloucestershire, which might explain why his descendants now spell the name “Marsters” due to the Gloucestershire accent.^[4] By the time his youngest daughter Titana Tangi died in 1973, there were over a thousand of Marsters’ descendants living in Rarotonga and New Zealand.

Though only some 50 family members remain on Palmerston, all of Marsters’ descendants consider the island their ancestral home. In 1954 the family was granted full ownership of the island. Three branches of the family remain on Palmerston, each branch being descended from one of William’s three wives,marriage within a family group being prohibited.^[4] All of William’s wives came from Tongareva and there are still many family links and common ancestors between these atolls.”

Here is a bit more about William Marsters:

William Marsters

Our Time on Palmerston

Their major export is Parrot Fish, although it doesn’t specifically mention that above.

When you go to Palmerston, one of the three families “hosts” you.  We contacted Bill Marsters ahead of time via email and he told us to contact him via radio when we were close to arriving.  Apparently, there is some competition among the families in hosting the yachties and he wanted to make sure he came to our boat first.  Once we were moored and settled for a few hours, Bill (and Craig from New Zealand who was visiting Bill and his family on Palmerston for a few months), came back out to bring us to the island.  We toured the island for a while, which included a visit to the school.  We had brought some school supplies so we wanted to drop those off.  While we we there, we met the students, the teachers (a married couple from the United States and South Africa who met in Korea), and the principal (who was from New Zealand).  The kids actually do a Christian-based homeschool program and the teachers act as guides and help the kids when they need it.  The kids had a break and Ari and Ryan got to play rugby with them for a little while.  Then we went back to Bill’s place for a HUGE lunch and hung out there until early evening.

 

The next day, we came back to the island at around 10 in the morning.  After school, Bill and his wife, Metua, were having a birthday party for their daughter, Julianna, who was turning 15.  In the meantime, we went to the other side of the island where Dan, Ariana and Craig snorkeled and Ryan and I beach-combed.  Ari said the water was very cold, but they did manage to see a shark and some pretty fish.

Later in the day, we attended Julianna’s birthday party, which was very fun and unique.  Some of the kids dressed up (similar to Halloween) and we all ate traditional foods as well as some more recognizable to us Americans (e.g., Lasagna).  We met so many of the folks who live on the island, and Bill supplied us with a great deal of food to take with us (e.g., coconuts, parrot fish, mayonnaise, a local chicken cooked traditionally, bread).  They were so nice.  What was fascinating was how much food the people on Palmerston stock in their freezers.  Apparently, there are more freezers than people and they are full to the brim with food.  I guess that is a result of not having any idea when another supply ship is going to come to the island; you end up hoarding food!

Solar Power on the Island

Telecommunications

Fish Head, Fish Head, Roly Poly Fish Head…

More Photos of the Island, Including the Roaming Pig

Interestingly, two sons of Tom Neale (who lived on the island of Suwarrow and wrote a book about it), reside in Palmerston.  Arthur Neale asked us if we would be willing to take along Craig as crew since his 90 days were coming to an end in Palmerston and there were no supply ships expected to come to Palmerston anytime soon.  So, we had a passenger/crew for our passage from Palmerston to Niue!  Craig had been to the island several times before and had stayed in touch with Bill for years.  Bill had to fly to NZ for his daughter, who was having unexplained seizures.  Bill contacted Craig and asked if we wanted to come back with them and visit for a while. Craig did, and was on Palmerston for nearly three months.  Those supply ships really ARE unpredictable and infrequent!

Craig was easy to have onboard and helped by cooking curry dinner and taking watches.  He was trying to get home to Napier, New Zealand for his partner’s birthday.  She was quite happy to hear he had gotten a ride and would be able to be home in time.

Our New Zealand Passenger/Crew/New Friend, Craig

I would write so much more about our time on Palmerston, but I can’t right now if I actually want to get this posted!  It was a VERY worthwhile destination and I am so glad we went.  Dan had thought it might be fairly cult-like on the island, but it was nothing like that at all.  As you can imagine, being around your extended family all the time has its pros and cons, but most of the people were so nice and just living their lives like everyone else.  What perhaps surprised me most was how “regular” the teenagers were.  They had Facebook, dressed up sometimes, and acted just like American teens (for good or bad, ha ha!).  What an experience!

 

 

We are traveling to so many places, sometimes I have to stop and think:  Where am I?  We are currently on Vava’u, Tonga with (surprise, surprise) SLOW Internet!  We have a few gigs of data on our MiFi, but the major updates with photos will have to be done at a restaurant in town where you pay for Internet by the hour, rather than the amount of data you use.  The connections seem to be faster from what I have seen; one couple was able to Skype their credit card company, so I hold out great hope!

So…I will be updating this blog while we are here with:  Palmerston, Nuie, American Samoa, Nuiatoputapo, and if I am really ambitious, Vava’u, Tonga as well!

We are still planning on traveling through Tonga and Fiji and making our way to New Zealand in late October/early November.  Then we get to be on land for a while to explore both the north and south islands of New Zealand.  I am very much looking forward to that!  Out for now!