Blogs

Anchored at Namena marine reserve. Awesome diving here. Stayed here last year for three days and did lots of diving and the weather has allowed us to do the same again this year. There are so many dive sites and all wonderful diving - Tetons, Fantasy, The Mushsrooms, Rainbow, The Chimneys...... Lots of fish, large and small, soft corals, fan corals, christmas tree worms........ Great for photography, both macro and normal. Also a red footed booby bird colony. Lovely, cute fluffy chicks and birds flying over the boat all day and follow us in the dinghy. Here with Sea Bride and Vixen 7, so good company, good scenery and great diving.

The Eastern islands are on the barrier reef that protects Vava'u from the raging ocean waves. To get out there we had to negotiate our way through shallow water, between reefs, which are spectacular! It was worth the effort. From the protected side, we climbed up Lolo, a small island made of sharp lava rock, to see the blow hole. Amazing pounding surf on the outside comes shooting through the rocks giving us a great display. It is possible to walk between Kenutu and Lolo at low tide, which we did - but it was a little hair raising as the tide came in and the waves got deeper and deeper over the joining reef. Kenutu has a lovely walk through the tropical jungle to a look out from the top. The best of the three islands was Umumana, which has a very deep well of fresh water and a more extesnive walk to a high lookout point. The first part of the trail is very thoughtfully lined with coconuts, but it gets a little hazy after that. We had to use our bush survival skills to look fo r clues about where the track went next - we left a trail of coconut leaves tied to trees to make sure we could find our way back. We made it! Wow, what a view. The power of the ocean waves crashing against the eastern side of the island is incredible. At the northern tip of Umuna there is a sand spit. We walked out to the end and went snorkelling in a vast coral garden. Angelfish, butterfly fish, lemon peel fish, neon blues, parrot fish, colourful wrass, bright blue starfish, black spiny sea slugs and a myriad of other sea life. A very special place. On the way back through the pass we forgot that we had the fishing line trawling out the back - and just as we got to the most narrow bit with coral reefs all around - we got a strike! Karl wrestled the fish on board while Heather slowly steered through the rocky patches and into clear water. Phew! The Green Jobfish we caught is a member of the snapper family. We sat on a little sandy beach having a cold beer while the fish smo ked in our smoker. A great lunchtime treat! Last night we were back in the harbour again to help Wanda from "Vegas" celebrate her Birthday. A table of 13 of us had dinner at The Beach House - great food and good company. At the next table, the Crown Prince and his body guards were having dinner. After dinner the whole group went on the The Bounty Bar to continue celebrations and surprised Wanda with a Birthday cake. By the time we got back to the boat it was 1am! It will be a quiet day today :-)

What an action packed couple of days!!! We arrived at the Expedition Center yesterday (Friday) at about 8:30am and loaded up the remaining odds and ends, swapped the gas struts on the roof, fitted the curtains etc etc. From there the next stop was to pick up the Sat phone. Some minor issues with that regarding payment, in that they usually deal with mining company accounts so didn't want to deal with cash or credit card. We ended up leaving them to figure it out amongst them selves for a few hours while we went and stocked up the truck at the supermarket.
I think it took Sarah the best part of 2 hours in the Super Market to get everything required to stock the vehicle up from scratch!! By this stage the day was rapidly disappearing and I had wanted to get 250km away from Sydney to Mungo Brush. We slapped the shopping in the back, the meat and in the fridge and hit the road, the idea being once we got to camp we could then figure out where it all needed to go at our leisure.
The highway out of Sydney was horrendous. The traffic was fine, the actual road was rough as guts! It was concrete, with patches on top of patches, mixed with the odd piece of asphalt just for good measure. Daniel from Mulgo had said he thought the spigot bush on the fly wheel was worn as he thought he heard it rattling when he was moving it round at his work shop. Didn't make sense to me as I replaced everything only 1500ks ago. Sure enough, I found the noise. It was the bling alloy gear knob and it was loose, and even after a tweak back up tight, it soon came loose again. It sure made a racket when it started to come loose!!!! The other strange one, is i thought the steering felt vague, well more vague than usual anyway. There seemed to be slightly more play in the steering, as if the steering box needed adjusting. We arrived at the camp site called Banksia Green, which was a little sheltered camp site nestled behind the sand dunes of a big long white sand beach with clear blue water. Of course by the time we arrived it had been dark for two hours already and we still had all the shopping to put away.... Alex and I played catch in the dark with our head torches on, using a ball that lit up when you bounced it. It was pretty late by the time the two of us were allowed back inside, but Sarah did a good job of sorting it all out. Little did we know we had an audience, it wasn't untill a few minutes after we had turned all our lights out that the Dingos came prowling for a closer inspection. They slipped through the campsite like shadows in the moon light.
This morning (Saturday) we awoke to bright clear sunny skies with some good heat in the sun. After breakfast and a bit more sorting out of gear, we ventured over the dunes to the beach to be greeted by Dolphins playing in the breakers. I was surprised at how warm the water was, so naturally I had to go in for a swim! It wasn't long before Sarah and Alex joined me :) I was busy doing my morning checks on Betsie whilst trying to figure out what was going on with the loose gear knob. Such a strange thing to happen out of the blue, and it just kept coming loose within a few k's of tightening it. Why had it never happened before??? Even stranger was that the point that it went tight was now further round than usual meaning the shift pattern was shown off center. So strange. I came up with a few ideas to remedy it, and ranked them in order of desperation, should the first idea fail. Thread tape, then lock tight, then epoxy, then drill a hole in it and fit a self tapping screw to lock it. Worst case I throw it in the bin and fit one from Repco in Brisbane. Actually, that might slot in right after the thread tape idea.
I hit it with thread tape, and crossed my fingers. Next I examined the steering. Nothing was amiss underneath, so it traced my way back up through the linkages to the steering wheel. Something was loose, but the big nut in the middle (haha) was tight. Hmmm. Turned out there are four small bolts that hold the center of the steering wheel boss to the outer of the steering wheel boss and they had worked loose. How?? Why?? All I can think is that during shipping it's been subject to a constant vibration for days on end and it's been at just the right frequency to upset the gear knob and those bolts. Otherwise, who knows, everything else looks fine!!!!! We only got as far as Smoky Cape this afternoon, but in doing so we had a look at the light house, and found a camp site early. Alex saw his first kookaburra and his first Hoppers, which was fun to see. He's been hopping around since. We had just sat down to eat ( potato bake in the camp oven and sausages ) when we saw the first flash of lightening followed by a clap of thunder and the rain started. I had been watching the sky change for the last few hours, so we were ready for it!!! So right now we are all tucked up inside, Alex and Sarah are watching a movie and I'm tapping away on my iPad. Cosy :)

On Saturday we visited the tiny island of Lape with friends Pieter and Sarah. There are 26 people living here from 5 families and the school has 8 children. We were invited to see the school and were amazed to see everything so well laid out and organised. Going to school here would be a special experience! The whole island is very tidy and clean, in fact it is the only one we have seen where the pigs are kept in a pen rather than running through the gardens and digging up the ground. We were treated to a traditional Tongan feast on Lape and especially enjoyed the fish dishes, one raw (marinated in coconut milk) and one sweet and sour. The four of us went to a very large church in Neiafu on Sunday. It was packed full, with people sitting on the floor at the back. Everyone was wearing beautiful brightly coloured clothes and the throng of singing voices was amazing. No instrumental back up required, the Tongans sung in perfect harmony and good heart. A wonderful experience. Lat er we visited the island of Tapana where a floating art gallery sits. This is a tiny house boat and is known as the Ark Gallery, featuring art inspired by local scenes. After a week of swimming snorkeling and exploring we had a farewell dinner on Tuesday night at Mango Cafe, to say goodbye to Pieter and Sarah and have an early Birthday celebration for Sarah. Today we visited the village of Toula at the far end of Neiafu harbour to get our LPG bottle filled. After walking for a while with our empty bottle a gas company truck came along and told us to get in the back. So we had a ride to the gas filling station on the back of a flat bed truck amongst the rows of gas bottles! Another new experience and good fun. The village of Toula is the first one we have seen with rubbish bins and recycling bins along the street. This initiative seems to be working as the streets are relatively free of rubbish and the whole place looks cared for. Other villages, including the main town of Ne iafu, seem to be drowning in empty soft drink cans and plastic wrappers from chips and noodle packets. The rubbish in most villages really spoils the scenery, but Toula looks and feels like paradise with clean streets and pretty gardens overlooking the harbour.