Wednesday 6 June
Rough night of sleep - wind died down and its been pretty muggy. Then we had to close up as it rained in the middle of the night - I assumed my customary position in the cockpit and after being rained on my legs for an hour I was cool enough to go back to the comfortable bed.
Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day, so we decided to swim into the beach and walk to the village. Paul took the paddle board because its not proper to walk in the village in our swimsuits, plus we needed water, camera and shoes. After a hearty breakfast we donned our gear, packed up the dry bag and took off.
Too bad the snorkel over was part of the plan to get to the village. The reef between us and shore was pretty amazing. The plan is to revisit it today.
Not too much beach on the side of the wharf we swam to, so we tied the paddleboard up in the bushes and headed along the beach to the wharf. At some point it must have been pretty modern, but some cyclone at some point has taken care of that - and as we were to find out - only subsistence living on Ha'aFeva, so they are at the mercy of their government or aide from another country. The "road" into the village is an over grown double track, muddy in places from the rain overnight. So pretty though. First thing we noticed was the barbed wire fences. To keep animals in or people out? We eventually saw cows, so figured the fence was either to keep them in or as it turns out - keep them out. We passed a boggy spot, curved around and started seeing plantings of banana trees and yam/tapioca. I guess we had been walking about 20 minutes when we saw a man working in the trees and another man walking towards us. Both were friendly and the man on the road asked us if we wanted papaya - that was a definite "yes", so he asked us to follow him and so began the days lesson in appreciation.
Pita led us thru and to the "gardens". On the way he stopped and got a machete from his mother. Pita's english is not so good, and our Tongan is limited to Malo - thank you and "eyo" (sp?) - yes. But, we managed. We got to the Papaya "garden", which honestly just looked like more forest to me, but there lots of papaya trees. Pita cut us several papaya and then went to get us some bananas. OMG Dennis went with him and he said he was wondering how he was going to reach the bunch of bananas and "whack".... He cut down the whole tree, barely missing Dennis in the process. Meanwhile Paul and I were waiting in the clearing. Two small leantos, one covered with sides that had a bike in the back and one with just a corrugated roof made up the buildings there. Sadly with the ever present plastic bottles and soda cans littered about. This gave us some inkling that the village may have more in the way of modern conveniences than what we had seen so far. Pita brought me some yams (2 small ones, cuz I have no idea how to cook them), some spring onions and prize of the day - a watermelon. We offered him money, which he tried to decline, but at this point we had way more than $20 tongan dollars worth of fruit. I also gave him two of my granola bars - which I think he was happier about - those disappeared quickly into his pockets. We took pictures of all of us with him. It took a bit of doing, but we finally figured out he wanted us to print some for him. In the end we got his postal address - lol Pita Ta ufu'i Ha'aFeva. I guess with only 200 people on the island he won't be hard to find. He then asked if we wanted limes. We said yes so off we went to his "home". Pita may not be very tall, but man, he sets a grueling pace or maybe its the fact that we are boat bound and haven't spent much time on land in the last month.
We followed trails that barely qualify as such, but I guess there really aren't enough feet to keep the jungle at bay. Thankfully Pita knew where he was going. We passed cows and pigs (the pigs eat coconut, so bet they are yummy eating - can you say bacon? I know I am a terrible person...) We opened a fence, cut through a yard and boom we were on the main road in the village - on the opposite side of the island from our boat. Pita took us to his home. Running water and flush toilets, but no electricity in the "kitchen". We put our bags down, and finally said yes to a coconut. Pita has a stake in place and made quick work of the outer hull. Wish we could rig something like that on the boat. Then he sent us for a walk to see the village.
The village has a church, a medical center (about the size of a half container) manned by a nurse and with a generator running. When asked Pita said the generator was for a freezer - when I said medicine he said fish and laughed. We passed a building that looked like a school, but could have been a community center as there were no children there. There was also a big modern motor boat on a trailer. Of course we gravitated to the water. There we saw the remains of another wharf, some small fishing boats anchored - maybe some fish traps. There was a sign that said the work was done by Australia - must have been several cyclones ago. We caught up with Pita - on his way to the store to buy cigarettes for his dad. So we followed, curious to see the store. While we were waiting for the proprietress to open up Pita told us there are 3 stores - 2 Tongan and one Chinese. We were at one of the Tongan ones and the proprietress had a severe case of osteoporosis/scoleosis. We had a peek inside and besides cigarettes, she had nappies, cookies, oil, tinned corned beef, crackers, lollies, soda and lighters. There was another youngish woman with two small children there - I found a flower and gave it to her for her hair. Wish I would have snapped a picture. Her children were 2 and 4 and so cute. She said the school was further down the side street we were on. I guess that is where all the school age kids were.
Back to Pita's place to pick up our things. He showed us his hen with new baby chicks - I swear that hen was purring - never heard a chicken do that. cool. We took off back to our boat side of the island. Had a pit stop to drop off the cigarettes to his dad. Broken chain saw -and the tool they had didn't work - we promised a crescent wrench (had also promised a paint brush, lol should have taken more papaya, but we were loaded down as it was). They are building fence to surround a new yam garden. After looping back to the road, we passed a man cutting down bread fruit - dang I had to take one. They are a pain in the butt to cook, but I guess at some point we will have bread fruit fries.
Hungry and tired and thirsty we made it back to the wharf/beach. Dennis and Paul went back to the boat and I sat with Pita and our haul. Kind of difficult to make small talk, but I did discover that Pita (his wife is currently in Nuku'Alofa) has one son in school in Nuku'Alofa. I also told my share of little white lies. He wanted to know if we had beer - I said no, if we had waterproof torches - only one I said (this would have been to use getting lobster on the reef) and if our little boat (dinghy) was working - I said no. I hate that, but was easier than trying to explain why we were not going to give him beer or a torch or put the dinghy in the water just for him. I did however promise to go by the new boat in the anchorage and give them his name. Dennis made it back in the kayak towing the paddleboard for me. The wharf managed to get a bite out of both of us - I slipped and fell when we first got there and Dennis cut his fingers getting back into the kayak. Definitely time to get back to the boat. We did stop at "Libertee" to give them the scoop on Pita and Ha'afeva. Shared our grib info and headed to the boat.
The fruit and veg were a great score, but needed to be salt water dunked to make sure no critters came aboard with them. But the first thing we did after that was cut up some fruit. Papaya and watermelon. Yum. We tried the green fruit Pita called limes - yeah not so much. Not sure what it is but really sour. Thin green coating over a thicker white rind then orange inside with black seeds. Will have to ask someone that speaks better english at some point.
Of course can't have such a good day without something not functioning properly - the generator was out of coolant - fixable, but what a chore after such a big day. Dennis got is sorted though. We had the rest of the Mahi grilled for dinner. I did half with cajun seasoning and the other in garlic,olive oil and lime. Consensus is that they were both good, but the cajun was the best. Need to catch another fish now.
Well today will be a semi rest day. Dennis is replacing the kitchen fan as we speak, so rest is a relative term I guess. Making water, running the generator, tidying up and maybe a snorkel later. Will probably leave tomorrow as the wind is supposed to be SE. Its about a 20 mile hop to Uonukuhihifo, then Uhia,Tatafa, and Uoleva before we hit Lifoka and Pangai.
Wow long winded today.....
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