Musket Cove news

Ok, I figured out how to get everybody to email me, just mention that you feel a bit lonely and people begin to write. It's great, love to read those emails. Well, here everybody is getting ready for the Regatta that starts end of next week, they have been asking me to stay and participate. I would be the only Swedish boat, but there is a whole other island group waiting, so I will slip my mooring lines the day before the start of the regatta. I started the day with making a bet with myself that I could dive from deck and swim under the keel in one go. I made it on the first try, but I got a green head and hands from the bottom paint. It was worth it I guess. It has been a bit windy yesterday and today, and that just makes me appreciate my windgenerator so much. Maiken has more energy in her batteries now then we had when we arrived a week ago, and that is while still using everything aboard daily. Need to go, dinner for one waiting (yes, still a bit lonely, so keep those emails coming).

Take care,

Fredrik

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Life at Musket Cove

I just came back from the island bar, and since I don't have anybody else onboard to talk to right now, I guess I will have to include all of you with my thoughts. This is kind of a weird place, at the bar this evening at sunset you had the local yachties (mostly Australians) many with their kids (Australians like big families, many have three kids (much like the family that I grew up in)), the BBQ were going and the Fiji Bitters were ordered in plenty. At the same bar on this little sandy spot you had the Chemical Brothers ( a Big musical group, even though I am not a fan I know it is a Big group, yes that is with a big "B". Julia Roberts is spending her time at the island next to us, so is Kelly Slater (Big time surfer) (No, I don't think they are together, and I don't want to start any rumors)). Today I had a good working day on the boat, a salty environment causes of course a bit of work to make things look like they where painted yesterday, but I had a good day, so now Maiken looks sparkling (at least in a few spot, I will get to the other spots tomorrow). If my dear uncle H�kan ever starts a blog (which I think he should) about his daily life and thoughts, he should know that he will have at least one regular reader. This morning I only had to make one pot of coffee, which meant that there was only one person onboard. Ok, there is definitely good parts of having the whole boat to myself again. Yesterday night I watched the Godfather (cheap illegal copies from Suva), and I just had to make a plate of pasta after the wedding scene, that stuff is easier when you are just one (although I think H�kan would have loved the pasta with garlic, pesto, and some Thai green curry). Now I just have to send this, because as you know there is three parts to the Godfather.

Take care,

Fredrik,

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I am all alone....

So, yesterday H�kan left to go back to family, job, and responsibilities. It's after all those things that make up life, you can't just roll on the waves forever. I will also be back on land soon, but first I hope to continue the saga that H�kan and me started. I felt a bit melancholy, sitting alone last night looking at the stars slowly sipping a Fiji Bitter. You get so used to have another person close at all times on the boat. Well, I got a long list of boat stuff that I would like to have completed before Jenny Blake comes, and there is after all a bar on a sandy island just a couple of minutes away, filled with fellow yachties that are starting to remember my face. I must add that although me and H�kan had a few moments when we didn't get along, it pretty amazing how easy it was to share a such a small surface that Maiken provides.

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Musket Cove, Fiji

We arrived in Musket Cove yesterday after an uneventful sail from Suva. This place is very popular with yachties and in two weeks it is the yearly Regatta, which is one of the big events among yachties in South Pacific each year. I will be here for two weeks while H�kan is leaving and Jenny Blake comes. The yacht club here has good facilities and it would probably be easy to spend a month here just relaxing, diving, and BBQ and beer in the evening. The weather is a lot dryer than in Suva, which feels good since we had our fair share of rain while we were there. Today it is beautiful weather and with cool evenings, swinging on a mooring, life doesn't get much better. While in Suva, we had one crazy night in a sauna tent on the front lawn of Royal Suva Yacht club, we all tried to be hide our naked bodies as much as we could, but it is hard to take a sauna fully dressed which is was what the club would have preferred. We also had the experience of taking part in the judging of the beauty pageant "Hibiscus Queen". We just wanted to take a peek on the nice looking ladies, but ended up sitting on the front table. With the contestants looking at us (the only Caucasians there) like we were part of the show, representing some kind of modeling agency. We even got lunch and beer after. The market in Suva is great, great variety of fruit and vegetables to cheap prices. On the second floor you have the "grog" stores, which sells kava in all forms. I had to buy some good packages (the bigger and longer the root the better), since it is still custom to present Yaqona (Kava) to the chief in the village of the islands that you visiting. Well it is time to go, we are scheduled to go diving this afternoon.

Take care,

Fredrik,

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Time for Sauna...

Suva August 21 2006

When we woke up yesterday morning a small yacht flying the Swedish flag were anchoring next to us, the yacht Sally blue. As we suspected it was the three youngsters from my county V�sterbotten in Sweden, that had arrived to Suva. On their 27 foot Vega they sailed from Ume� September last year. Their plan is to circumnavigate and if everything goes well they'll be home in Sweden next summer. We had a really nice evening together yesterday. Today we've been shopping handicraft. Fredrik is obsessed with walking sticks, he bought four more today. The Finnish yacht Linda have also arrived here and they're setting up a Sauna tent here on the shore so I will have my first sauna in five months. I really look forward to that. One must admit that the Finnish stick to their traditions.
The passage from Tonga to Fiji was my last, I'm leaving Fredrik and Maiken next week. We have done nearly 8000 nautical miles together, equivalent to 17000 kilometers or almost half way around the Earth. I must say that I do long for my children but otherwise I think I could continue for another 8000 miles. There is a lot to see and experience, and voyaging by yacht is a fine way to discover this great planet that is our home.
Tomorrow we will sail to Mamanuca islands just east of Viti Levu and hopefully do some good diving.

Take care out there

H�kan

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Bula!

Somewhere on Tellus, but far from home.

So, here we are in Suva, the capital of Fiji. We have left Polynesia and entered Melanesia. The passage from Tonga was quite eventful with volcano eruptions, stony seas and whales but the sailing itself was rather uneventful. We've been lucky to chose the right time for the passages. The cold fronts with strong winds have been coming once a week here, and as soon as we anchored here in Suva the front came over us with strong winds and rain. Here in Suva there are some 170 000 inhabitants so it seems a big city to us coming from Alofi and Neiafu. And it feels good to be in a city again. It's very friendly people here, "bula" (hello) and smiles everywhere. However, Fiji was formerly known for it's cannibalism and among others the Swedish adventurer Charles Savage (is that a Swedish name?) was on the menu here in the nineteenths century.
Captain Bligh was more lucky. During the mutiny on Bounty in Tahiti, he and some of his men, was put in a 7 m rowing boat. Arriving in Fiji the cannibals attacked them in their canoes. But they managed escape and now the sea between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu is named Bligh Water. I guess the Fijian's was a little bit impressed by his escape. Eventually Bligh and his men arrived in Timor having made one of the most spectacular open boat journeys of all time.
Fiji has 850 000 inhabitants with indigenous Fijians making up half of the population and Fijian Indians the other half. Formerly a British colony Fiji gained independence 1987. But they still drive on the left side and serve bacon, baked beans, eggs and toast for breakfast. Suva seams to be growing, on the expense of surrounding island, and here you find old tradition mixed with modern technique and western style.
The annual Hibiscus festival started today, a festival quite similar to the Heiva in French Polynesia. Beauty contest, dancing, singing and exhibitions. We have had good timing when it comes to festivals.
Sitting here on the boat I'm surrounded by old cargo and fishing ships in the harbor. Some derelict vessels but some used as homes I guess. Right in front of me now is Massachusetts, an old rusty freighter, with washed clothes on a line to dry and a man having his dinner on stern deck. Not many sailing vessels here though. Fredrik and I have sailed pretty fast, leaving many of the boats we met behind.
Soon we'll take a taxi into town and join the celebrating people. Taxi is really cheap here. Ten Swedish kronor (a little more than a dollar) for two kilometers into town.

Hellre lyss till den sträng som brast
än att aldrig spänna sin båge.

Sorry "engalanders", this is written in the beautiful Swedish language.

H�kan

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Stone sea and volcano

Maiken cruising through a sea of stones








This volcanic island rose from the sea in front of us.

An amazing last few days - weird but amazing

19deg.18.315S 176deg.24.359W 15:10L
Early afternoon, somewhere east of the Lau Group in Fiji. We are sailing south of the island group to avoid having to pass through it during night. Yesterday we saw the birth of an island, most likely we were the first humans to see the new creation. We have some pictures, but they will have to wait until we have a chance to upload them. So you might have heard about the sailor superstition that you should "never leave on a Friday". Well, we did and the sea turned to stone, it is hard to get a stronger sign than that. It sounds like a bad joke, but just wait until you see the pictures. Floating stones none the less. When you pick them up, it is easy to see that they are really just volcanic ash that compressed into pumice stone. This experience mixed with a close encounter of three whales makes you understand that the ocean is full of surprises. We had a great time in Neiafu and Tonga, and this might be the place where I come back and leave the boat one day. There is a lot of great entrepreneurial young people around trying to make a go at this place. Good bars like Mermaid and Tonga Bob's, and fine restaurants like the Dancing Rooster. This together with an amazing area, the Vava'u group of islands, makes this an easy place to enjoy. Like all the other islands it is the small things that makes it so human; like when you wake up at 0530 on a Friday morning to the song from the village church or the young children in school reciting something loudly in a very simple schoolhouse.
So, we are on the way again. This time toward Fiji, where we hope to do some good diving before H�kan leaves and Jenny Blake comes to join Maiken for the last passage to Australia. We plan to entry the country in Suva, and then make our way down to Kandavu before heading to the western side of Fiji.

Take care,

Fredrik,

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Whales and volcanoes.

Lat 19 deg 00' Long 174 deg 48' Saturday Aug 12 17.45 local time

We left Neiafu and Vava'u yesterday after some tedious checking out procedures and set sail for Fiji, passing the north side of Late island as first way point. After five miles we noticed brown, somewhat grainy streaks in the water. First we thought that it might be an old oil dumping. Some ship cleaning its tanks. But the streak became larger and more frequent after a while, and there were rocklike brownish things the size of a fist floating in the sea. And the water were strangely green and "lagoon like" too. Eventually it became more and more clear to us that it had to be pumice from a volcanic eruption. And then we sailed into a vast, many miles wide, belt of densely packed pumice. We were going by motor due to lack of wind and within seconds Maiken slowed down from seven to one knot. We were so fascinated and busy taking pictures that we plowed a couple of hundred meter into this surreal floating stone field before we realized that we had to turn back. Just as we came out of the stone field and entered reasonably normal water we noticed that there came no cooling water from the engine. Not surprising, really. After cleaning the water filter the Yanmar diesel started again. Thank God! Without wind we would have been stuck in a sea of stone if the motor had failed. Next thing to check was the other water inlets. Some minor pumice particles but nothing serious. But the bottom paint were scrubbed away at places along the waterline, Maiken has an ablative paint so it was just doing what is supposed to do. Like we'd sailed through sandpaper. So, we headed back east to get away from the stony sea. There are two active volcanoes south of Late island, adjacent to Metis shoal and Home reef. Since we didn't know which one had erupted, the extent of the eruption and it was getting dark the we decided to anchor in Vaiutukakau bay outside Vava'u for the night. The sky darkened fast from rain clouds over Vava'u and we sailed leaving the stone sea onto darkness towards a perfect rainbow ahead, like a big welcoming arcade. It was completely dark when we anchored close to land at 25 meters depth. In the morning we woke to birds song. Lot of birds nesting on the steep hillside next to us. After checking the motor and boat we set out again. We decided to go south of Metis reef to go clear of the stony debris.
Just after leaving Vaiutukakau bay we encountered three whales, probably two males and a female, playing in front of us. They circled around the boat only meters away for a while, seemingly interested of Maiken, before swimming away.
A couple of hours ago we identified the active volcano as the one close to Home reef, and we are on our way there now to take a closer look.
We are two miles from it and we can see the volcano clearly. One mile in diameter and with four peaks and a central crater smoking with steam and once in a while an outburst high in the sky with lava and ashes.
I think were the first ones out here so perhaps we could claim the island and name them(?)

Well folks, it's getting hot.
Have to quit!

H�kan

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Whale swimming pictures

Whales are beautiful

Neiafu 19.42 local time August 7 2006

A small glass of dark rum in my hand, sitting on deck, feeling content. The sea is completely calm, the moon is full and from the Mermaid over the water I hear "Go, go Johnny go". And we went. Been out all day looking for whales. Six of us on the boat except the guide and the helmsman. Only four allowed in the water at a time swimming with the Humpback whales. Although we've seen a lot of whales around earlier it wasn't all that easy to spot them today. There are about 700 Humpback whales here but the waters are vast! After an hour and an half we spotted a couple of whales. The boat took us some twenty meters from the whales and we went into the water and swam towards those mighty animals. The first times I caught only a glimpse. We left the first whales to them self after an hour, took lunch and did some good snorkeling in a cave. In the afternoon I came so close to the whales that I almost could have touched them. An impressing and humbling experience. But it's hard to say whether the whales mind. Today there were two boats out whale swimming. We took it really slow and careful and as long as this whale swimming is kept on a reasonable level I guess it's alright. The Humpbacks come here to mate and to give birth. They do not feed in these waters and spent five months without food from and to Antarctica. The mother is pregnant for 12 months and the whales live in average 40 to 45 years. According to our guide their song differs year from year. And the song depends on where they are going, Nuie or Tonga?
There's a lot going on out there in the oceans.

Salve!

H�kan

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Lazy sunday..

Neiafi August 6 2006

We're still in Neiafu relaxing. Today the churches are crowded. We saw people standing outside by the door and windows. Beautiful singing inside.
Almost everything is closed down, even the ATM machine is unavailable today. Luckily the Yacht club's restaurant is open so here we sit enjoying our breakfast, reading and writing. Yesterday we had breakfast at the Aquarium where they also have internet access at a reasonable price. The Aquarium was started by Ben and Lisa a couple of years ago. The moved from San Francisco and live here on their boat. You can buy land and start your own business without a local partner here now. At the shore there is a large new construction site and estate prices have gone way up the past few years. Neiafu is a great place to have your yacht stationed, the bay is almost completely landlocked and from here you can easily reach large parts of the south pacific.
Yesterday a Humback whale was swimming here in the bay among the yachts, and tomorrow we are scheduled to swim with the Humpback whales. I hope Fredrik has recovered from his hip ailment by then. Well that's all for now folks!

Ciao.

H�kan

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Feast..

Neiafu August 4 2006

Yesterday evening we went to the feast in Hinakauea bay. A beautiful spot with a little village, children playing on the beach, and yachts in the bay. There where a little market with local handicraft of good quality. In all, we where some twenty person at the feast. Before eating the children in the village, all dressed up, danced traditional Tongan dances, which lack hip movements and instead concentrate on rather slow gracious arm and hand movements. They also showed sitting dances and the boy's danced some warrior dances. To accompany two gentlemen played guitar and banjo. The food was a variety of fish, meat and vegetables cooked in the umu (earth oven) and a small pig that they had grilled whole. At the end, for those interested, there was kava tasting. I took just a little sip from the coconut shell used as a cup. It didn't taste anything special, but it had a transient anesthetic effect on the lips and tongue. The locals seamed to enjoy it though. Later in the evening, back in Neiafu, guided by the music we slipped in to Tonga Bob's Cantina where they had a Drag show. We left rather early but the music continued to play, ready audible at our yacht, till two a clock in the morning. This morning we had the third visit at our yacht from a local guy who wanted to sell handicraft. They go round to every yacht in the bay. This is, I think, the downside to tourism. Still it's less so here compared to Bali and Thailand.

Take care

H�kan

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Neiafu

The Tonga islands are flat and low as is Niue. But Tonga is an archipelago consisting of many islands. This is the lee side where the whales prefer to be.

This is Lofi, a local monger of handicraft and the first person we meet in Neiafu.

Neiafu is a small city with some 6000 inhabitants and rather much tourism, both backpackers and yachties.

Is Fredrik considering a night at Puataukanave International Hotel? First class one should think.

Damn! Where did we leave the boat?

Puh! Found it at last.

People in the Kingdom of Tonga are very religious. Mormons have a stronghold here.
A mixture of worship and commerce.


This rainbow so close that you could almost touch it.

Tongan village feast.

Market at Hinakauea bay with baskets made of Pandanus, carvings made from cow and whale bones among other things.

One of the many little pigs who run around freely. This one has stopped running.

Children playing at the beach in Hinakauea bay.

One of the showgirls.

The band is gathered and it’s time to take it away! The chief choreographer is sitting a little to the middle.

Tongan sitting dance. Perhaps a good choice later in the evening getting tipsy and tired.