Tongan Tidbits
1. Food on Board
We are living on a boat that is a) in the South Pacific b) operating on a vegan + fish diet and c) on a very tight budget (despite paying crew). Everyday we each have one four hour shift (two hours on the wheel followed by two hours as navigation support person) and one job (which could be cleaning or cooking). Our meals depend on what ingredients we have or haven't aquired at the most recent island, if we've caught fish recently, and who's cooking (if you're cooking to can make whatever you like!). In the end our meals resemble the following:
Example daily menu #1.
Breakfast:
fresh bread with various toppings
smoothies made from frozen bananas
Lunch:
split pea and onion soup
mango-coconut-pineapple salad
Supper:
sushimi
fish curry with rice
Example daily menu #2.
Breakfast:
crepes
fresh papaya slices
Lunch:
pasta with tomato or pesto sauce
Supper:
chilli
roast potato slices
hot flat bread and humus
2. Niuatoputapu
We weren't going to stop at Niuatoputapu but the wind was blowing in the wrong direction so we did. It was like a bonus box of chocolates you discover by accident. All the islands we'd been at so far weren't in fact islands but merely atolls, very low lying rings of coral marking the place that islands once stood many million years ago, but Niuatoputapu was an actual island made of volcanic rock. While there we climbed to the lookout accompanied by 4 adorable pre-teen boys, swam in the fresh water spring, visited the king's palace, stopped at a beautiful beach, admired the view of the next island over, and, of course, did a great dive. Two days full of fun activities and then we were off again.
3. Cave diving.
Vava'u, different again geologically anywhere else we've been, is uplifted limestone, a high(ish) flat table plateau eroded into butte like islands and riddled with caves. (It's a hundred and some meters high which is very low of course compared to mountainous terrain anywhere but high compared to the atolls we've been visiting where the maximum elevation - sometimes of a whole country! - is about 3 meters.) After a day in the town; obligatory hike to the top of the hill, restaurant meal, internet time, drop in at church fundraiser with traditional dancing going on, etc, etc... we were back on the boat and heading out to small uninhabited islands and gorgeous deserted beaches.
The highlight of this region was the caves. We did cave dive after cave dive. I regretted once again not having a gopro to record the experience. Inside the underwater caverns, looking up at stalagmites, down at huge schools of fish, and out to the impossibly turquoise entrances, was more special than I can describe. Some of the caves had multiple tunnels leading into them so you could swim in and out different ways, some had air above the water so you could surface and breathe, and others had branches leading off into the pitch black interior in all directions. It was simply amazing! We snorkeled into some caves, kayaked into others, and, of course, SCUBA dived as well. Heaven on earth for sure.
4. Night Sky
When we're sailing we don't see much of the night sky as there's a huge red awning over the cockpit that protects us from the sun during the day but blocks the sky at night too, and, also, it always seems to be cloudy if not raining at night at sea. But when we're at anchor and I get up to do a 3 am pee I always take 15 and go to lie on the hammock on the bow from which there is a fantastic view of the night sky. At this latitude the milky way is splendid. It spans the sky from horizon to horizon going directly overhead cutting the bowl of the sky into two equal halves. The southern cross, high in the sky in the early evening, is setting by the middle if the night, and if you wait long enough, of course, you can always see a shooting star.
In the water tiny dots of bright fluorescence blink on and off as if trying to mirror the sky above and it is so beautiful that words, again, fail me.
5. Uniforms
All over Tonga, well to the bits of it I've been to, the kids wear uniforms to school. Girls, of all ages, wear shirts with pinafore dresses. Boys wear shirts, sulus, and traditional wide woven belts. It seems so odd to me to see all the boys walking home from school, hanging out at the ice cream shop, chilling with their friends, in what look - to my western eyes - as long skirts. Also men in many professions with uniforms, like postal or telecom workers, are often seen going about their business in company coloured shirts and sulus.
P.S. Leaving Early
I'd originally planned to stay with Infinity till the end of August, to continue living with the family and teaching the kids until I had to go back to work myself, but all the other crew were leaving early June, it wasn't clear if the kids were going to be there all summer or not (long story), I sort of felt I'd had the Infinity experience (very long story) and in the end it turned out to be much harder than I had expected to be the member of the community that I'd hoped to become (very very long story) so when we got to Tonga I booked the cheapest ticket onwards that I could find... Fiji here I come!
1. Food on Board
We are living on a boat that is a) in the South Pacific b) operating on a vegan + fish diet and c) on a very tight budget (despite paying crew). Everyday we each have one four hour shift (two hours on the wheel followed by two hours as navigation support person) and one job (which could be cleaning or cooking). Our meals depend on what ingredients we have or haven't aquired at the most recent island, if we've caught fish recently, and who's cooking (if you're cooking to can make whatever you like!). In the end our meals resemble the following:
Example daily menu #1.
Breakfast:
fresh bread with various toppings
smoothies made from frozen bananas
Lunch:
split pea and onion soup
mango-coconut-pineapple salad
Supper:
sushimi
fish curry with rice
Example daily menu #2.
Breakfast:
crepes
fresh papaya slices
Lunch:
pasta with tomato or pesto sauce
Supper:
chilli
roast potato slices
hot flat bread and humus
2. Niuatoputapu
We weren't going to stop at Niuatoputapu but the wind was blowing in the wrong direction so we did. It was like a bonus box of chocolates you discover by accident. All the islands we'd been at so far weren't in fact islands but merely atolls, very low lying rings of coral marking the place that islands once stood many million years ago, but Niuatoputapu was an actual island made of volcanic rock. While there we climbed to the lookout accompanied by 4 adorable pre-teen boys, swam in the fresh water spring, visited the king's palace, stopped at a beautiful beach, admired the view of the next island over, and, of course, did a great dive. Two days full of fun activities and then we were off again.
3. Cave diving.
Vava'u, different again geologically anywhere else we've been, is uplifted limestone, a high(ish) flat table plateau eroded into butte like islands and riddled with caves. (It's a hundred and some meters high which is very low of course compared to mountainous terrain anywhere but high compared to the atolls we've been visiting where the maximum elevation - sometimes of a whole country! - is about 3 meters.) After a day in the town; obligatory hike to the top of the hill, restaurant meal, internet time, drop in at church fundraiser with traditional dancing going on, etc, etc... we were back on the boat and heading out to small uninhabited islands and gorgeous deserted beaches.
The highlight of this region was the caves. We did cave dive after cave dive. I regretted once again not having a gopro to record the experience. Inside the underwater caverns, looking up at stalagmites, down at huge schools of fish, and out to the impossibly turquoise entrances, was more special than I can describe. Some of the caves had multiple tunnels leading into them so you could swim in and out different ways, some had air above the water so you could surface and breathe, and others had branches leading off into the pitch black interior in all directions. It was simply amazing! We snorkeled into some caves, kayaked into others, and, of course, SCUBA dived as well. Heaven on earth for sure.
4. Night Sky
When we're sailing we don't see much of the night sky as there's a huge red awning over the cockpit that protects us from the sun during the day but blocks the sky at night too, and, also, it always seems to be cloudy if not raining at night at sea. But when we're at anchor and I get up to do a 3 am pee I always take 15 and go to lie on the hammock on the bow from which there is a fantastic view of the night sky. At this latitude the milky way is splendid. It spans the sky from horizon to horizon going directly overhead cutting the bowl of the sky into two equal halves. The southern cross, high in the sky in the early evening, is setting by the middle if the night, and if you wait long enough, of course, you can always see a shooting star.
In the water tiny dots of bright fluorescence blink on and off as if trying to mirror the sky above and it is so beautiful that words, again, fail me.
5. Uniforms
All over Tonga, well to the bits of it I've been to, the kids wear uniforms to school. Girls, of all ages, wear shirts with pinafore dresses. Boys wear shirts, sulus, and traditional wide woven belts. It seems so odd to me to see all the boys walking home from school, hanging out at the ice cream shop, chilling with their friends, in what look - to my western eyes - as long skirts. Also men in many professions with uniforms, like postal or telecom workers, are often seen going about their business in company coloured shirts and sulus.
P.S. Leaving Early
I'd originally planned to stay with Infinity till the end of August, to continue living with the family and teaching the kids until I had to go back to work myself, but all the other crew were leaving early June, it wasn't clear if the kids were going to be there all summer or not (long story), I sort of felt I'd had the Infinity experience (very long story) and in the end it turned out to be much harder than I had expected to be the member of the community that I'd hoped to become (very very long story) so when we got to Tonga I booked the cheapest ticket onwards that I could find... Fiji here I come!
I fear my posts have been a bit dry of late, and traveling without a camera (just my phone) doesn't help. Hopefully a change of pace will liven things up.
