Niue

August 8, 2008

Nice sail all night. We did 3 hour watches instead of the usual 4 hour watches. At night all 4 of the boats could be seen at night and yet we weren’t too close together. We lost sight of each other during the day and never could see more than one boat at night after that. After 24 hours we had sailed 140 miles, with 321 more to go to beverage reef.

August 9, 2008

It’s really nice today. It’s peaceful, sunny and slow, we really need more wind. We decided based on the refer not working we are going straight to Niue. We have another 325 miles, 3 days, to go. We have been using the spinnaker pole, but the wind keeps changing making that a pain. Mike cut his hair, shaved and showered today, Mr. Pretty Boy.

August 10, 2008

The wind is very light today. We decide to motor to charge the batteries, now there will be hot water for my shower! The refer is 33 degrees, not good. Mike is reading up on how to fix it but feels it is out of his element. He noticed that the line that holds the clue of the sail to the boom was gone, so he had to fix that. We have 248 miles to go so Mike decides to play his trumpet. He sat on the life raft and played until his lips were just too tired. I really enjoyed it. I think he did too, he misses playing at church in the orchestra.

August 11, 2008

Our buddy boats went to Beverage Reef, but we are still in contact with them. We have 114 miles to go to Niue. John on Meridian called us at midnight to check on us even though he should have been asleep, he is such a nice guy.

August 12, 2008

The winds have picked up to 28 knots and lumpy seas. We arrived at Niue at 9AM and caught a mooring ball for $10/night. Crux and Traveler are here and showed us how to go ashore, as you have to go to the wharf, and one person gets off at steps and gets the crane hook, hands it to the person in the dinghy, and then turns the crane on to life the dinghy out of the water. Then you have to move your dinghy with a dolly out of the way for the next boat. We have to go to customs and immigration, very easy check in. You also have to go to the Yacht Club to pay for your mooring ball. And since they sell ice cream you must have that too. Jim at the Yacht Club got a hold of Graham Marsh, a refer repairman for us and he let us use his ‘Chilly’ (cooler) so we could walk to the petrol station to get ice for our refer. It was a hot long walk, so after we bought the ice the chilly was heavy, so we heard people hitch hike here, so Mike thumbed a ride. How great was that. Time for bed, but it is a rolly anchorage.

August 13, 1008

We had a good night sleep even though it was rolly. I made banana bread and it wasn’t that great. I will try another recipe next time. We had to go to the bank but they have no ATM’s here, so all you can do is get a cash advance on your credit card, with your passport. Passports are on the boat, so we will wait until tomorrow. We went to the yacht club for our daily ice cream and we continue to meet other cruisers there. Once again we walked to the petrol station and thumbed a ride again. Tom with Warm Rain said he had a gauge to check the refer motor, so he said he would come over tomorrow morning. It would be good it we knew better what might be wrong to save the other guy time. Mike fixed the stainless post on the dodger that tore loose on last passage when he hooked the running back stay to it. I tried a different banana bread recipe and it was good.

August 14, 2008

We did email at the Yacht Club but it only receives and won’t send!

Traveler had left only to return after having rescued a fishing vessel that had engine problems. The newspaper and TV station came and made them local celebrities, so they stayed a couple more days and were treated like royalty by the locals. The rescue was especially great because the seas were significant and Niue had no boat to do the rescue themselves. Of course the fishermen were very grateful. Tom with Warm Rain came on board with his clip on amp meter to check our motor. It verified currents Mike thought t was drawing over 30 amps and it shouldn’t. So we went to town to find Graham and made a 1:00PM appt. We went to the bank and headed once again, hopefully the last to the petrol station for ice. This time a pastor picked us up on the way and went out of his way to bring us all the way back. Thank you Jesus! Back at the boat I am cooking all the chicken since it thawed, and then I will re freeze it and hope it is good. Graham comes and can’t find anything different than Mike so we pay him $20 and take him back to shore. Mike comes back and continues to work on it and finds that there is a broken spring and brushes. He makes a temporary fix, he is so smart. He turns the generator and refer on and charges them for 2 hours. The refer doesn’t get charged all the way but tomorrow we believe it will be acceptable. Every Thursday night the Yacht Club serves Sausage Dogs for $2.50 and Beer for 2.50 to the cruising community, great price and nice way to meet cruisers. They also have a book exchange. Afterwards Traveler rescued us as our dinghy was flat when we went to go back to the boat. The cap came unscrewed and let the air out.

August 15, 2008

Our buddy boats arrive safe and sound! This morning we went to the market for produce at 6:300AM and got papaya, bananas and coconut. It was not very good, especially after Rarotonga’s exceptional market. But we had heard that there would not be much to buy in Niue that was an understatement. Today Mike sewed 5 slugs in the sail that had broken on our last passage. And he put the stern anchor back in its proper place. After lunch we decided we deserved ice cream, so back to the yacht club we went. Right now our refer is 21 degrees the lowest it has been in a week! Yea! Thank you Jesus!

August 16, 2008

Today is sunny and hot. We went to the tourism office and made transportation reservations for 10 cruisers for Sunday night to the Wash A Way bar, who is known for the best hamburger on the island or in the world? It depends on who you talk too. We invited Crux and Morning Light (Frank) there are 2 boats by the name of Morning Light, for appetizers. We had a nice visit. We keep seeing Anna and Roger and had yet to get together, Rogers back is always hurting him.

August 17, 2008

We picked up Anna for church at 10AM. The surf at the wharf was wild. Our dinghy landed way up on the steps. Anna and I got out quick and Mike hooked the dinghy on the hoist hook! We met another gal going to church on shore so we all decided to go to the closest church together. All the women wore hats. The service was mostly in Niuian with little English. Pretty good youth group that sand a choir song. Message was ‘Make the best of a second chance from God’. Niue has a law that no swimming, no fishing or recreation boating on Sunday. They also ask that you be quiet going through villages. Another religious island. After church we met a local woman who shared lots of information with us. Her name was Lalina. She said if we needed transport that she could be found at the police station. As we were going ashore to catch our ride, our dinghy caught a breaking wave that took us past the steps, the get off point, I thought we were going to die, our dinghy was close to flipping on the rocky reef in huge breakers, but Mike was able to turn just before we dumped, thank you Jesus! The other Morning Light boat, Christine and Jamie were running to our rescue. I was still shaking once we got a shore! There ended up to be around 25 people wanting transportation to the Wash A Way bar but the owners just accommodated all of us. It was a good time. The burgers were beef patty, beet slice, cooked egg, lettuce and some sauce, no fries were served and could not even be ordered. Everything was okay, an enjoyable evening and getting our dinghy launched proved to be easier, although the surf was still wild.

August 18, 2008

Today we went to shore to get connected to the Internet Service. I was not sure I wanted to try to go ashore again, but we did fine. The yacht club is closed for 2 weeks as Jim is on vacation. That is a bummer because the yacht club was good for internet, ice cream and meeting other cruisers. A great place to relax. We went to the Internet café and bought the service that you should be able to get from your boat. We got a strong signal but it would just go away before you could get anything done. So we went to the picnic table at the top of the bluff and finally got email to send. Basically we paid $25 for a one time use. Janet from airstream gave me 2 books, that was great.

August 19, 2008

Today we went to shop to rent bikes. Everyone said you needed to see the caves before leaving and you could ride bikes or hitch hike. Since we were able to rent bikes we did, we needed the exercise with all the ice cream we have eaten lately. I am so glad we went the caves were spectacular. It only took 3 hours to go there and back. We visited 2 caves and a sea track. I would have loved to have done more but I am tired of rolly nights and scary shore landings. A lot of cruisers are leaving for that very reason. The water is so clear here you can easily see your anchor in 51’ of water. We bought a few groceries on our way back and took them back to the boat. We got our passports and checked out of Niue. We ended up getting too much money so we bought more groceries including sausages and invited Willow to our boat to share them. They have no refer, so no meat on a regular basis, but they also have fewer mechanical problems too. Bonny gave me her oatmeal pancake recipe and we gave them our cruising companion for Tonga and other cruising grounds. Nice time.

August 20, 2008

We got up and it was sunny and nice. We left our mooring ball at 10AM and headed for Tonga. We were able to reach Charisma tonight to let them know we left. Winds were pretty consistent all day. We tried to dry some of our laundry that I had washed the day before. We put up our staysail for the evening and I am so glad we did. The winds picked up to 25 knots and the seas got bigger, so we were prepared early.