[password] pilot25041
[position] 18 41.79s 173 59.88w
[status] Saturday 29th September late afternoon and anchored in Pangaimotu Bay, a very quiet and still anchorage, well protected from the 15-20kts of wind blowing on the other side.
On Thursday morning we left our anchorage by Kenutu Island and worked our way out the through the inner reef, as we were doing so we saw a couple of turtles swimming on the surface, although once they saw us, they quickly disappeared. We then motored down to Old Neiafu Harbour, and after looking at a couple of mooring buoys and deciding they were not suitable, we dropped anchor on the eastern side in 6m of water. We then launched the dinghy and ventured ashore to 'top up on essential supplies'! Well, 2 hrs later the 'essentials' were too much to carry so we had to get a taxi back down to the wharf where we had left the dinghy. Fortunately there was still enough water in the narrow inlet, as by now it was low tide, for us to get out into the deeper main harbour, after a spot of lunch it was a restful afternoon, although Barry did repair the broken stbd fwd lazarette hinge after he bought some new twist drill bits at the local hardware shop!
It was a very quiet night with no other boats around us, the following morning Friday, we then ventured ashore to the local village of Makave for a good walk. This village has probably the best houses and gardens we have seen on this trip, there is obviously more 'money' here, the Methodist Church was also very large and they were holding a lunchtime service as we were returning from our walk to look at the Kilikilitefua Wall ....... this is a wall made from volcanic stones, when the first son is born a stone is added to the wall to signify a new generation. The wall was first established some 400 years ago (according to folk lore) and at one time was 1.5m high, however, many of the stones were removed for more practical uses. The name comes from kilikili - small volcanic rock/pebble and tefua meaning 'first'; referring to first born. The village name Makave also has relevance; maka means 'stone', whilst ave means 'take', hence Makave means 'take a stone'. After a late lun
ch, we then motored around the corner a short distance and anchored between Otuatea and Olu'ua islands, we watched from a distance as the locals from the village commune were harvesting something from the beach, not quite sure what they were doing as we didn't launch the dinghy to find out, but it was clearly a team effort, after a bit of swimming to cool down we then had a quiet evening although the wind did pick up overnight.
And so to today, after breakfast as we lifted our anchor we also picked up a mooring rope, which was clearly tethered to the seabed under Surreal and had the other end disappearing off towards shore, so once freed from our anchor we tied a plastic drinks bottle to mark it, as we think it was maybe a local one that had lost its marker. We then set off with a reefed main and genoa, soon making 8.5kts in 15kts wind, rolling the headsail away whilst we negotiated the shallows of the inner reef, before sailing down to where we are now in Pangaimotu bay. There are now 5 other boats here sheltering from the wind as it is expected to get stronger over the coming days ....... for us our original idea of departing here for Haapi on Monday now looks to have been put on hold, as the current forecast is for 25+kts until the end of the week, and whilst Allan & Barry would clearly enjoy having a fantastic and quick sail south, we don't think our female crew members would share our glee to t
he same extent!
We have also found out that the Vava'u Tourism Association are hosting the 5th Annual Vava'u Blue Water Festival for a week starting today, so tomorrow we will probably go back around to Neiafu main harbour to participate in these activities.
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