Immigration and more boat maintenance in exotic places

And rhe saga continues.....

Wednesday, back to immigration.  Oh by the way, bring your own pen and exact change. 

Anybody out there reading this and coming to Tonga. Take note. You need  passports, their form, a letter written from the boat requesting an extension. To be safe include the boat name, all the names of the people requesting the extension and forvhow long. They didn't seem to care who signed it.  A passport photo of each person. And exact change is helpful.  We didnt need it, but an other boat had to give copies of their passports.  Kinda random. All that and come back on Monday to pick up. Yikes.

At least we spent the afternoon putting the toys in the water. Earl brought back full jugs of fuel and again the beer was cold. 

Pictures

Heading home after a cold beer at Mamas

22 May 2018

Searching for Boat parts in Paradise

So the rudder bearing. OMG what a mother to get out, but we did. Who needs specialised tools when you have Morrison ingenuity on board. I won't go in to all the details, but it did involve all the key components that make this life so glamorous - head down ass up, hot, dropping things (thankfully not all the way to the bilge because we taped a catcher cloth in place), swearing and finally after 2 hours the part came off the rudder. With all that in mind the thought of putting it back on is daunting.

The next step is finding a replacement part. The shuttle from Mama's took us over to town at 1100. We got a taxi to Tonga Cool where Allo (sp?) said he couldn't help but the bearing should just spin over and pop out. Go to Spare parts Zone and get a new one. SPZ sent us to another place to have the bearing removed from the housing - sadly they weren't exactly on top of the program and cracked the housing. Back to SPZ. The head guy there helped us (thank god) and knew what we needed - he has the bearing, but not the housing/plate it goes in. He called a guy - it will be here Friday (would have been tomorrow if we had made the 0900 shuttle). Dennis is not confident that it is going to happen - I will call tomorrow. Next stop Digicel for sim cards for our phones after almost 2 hours we sent our helpful taxi driver on his way for a whopping 15 dollars US - a deal at twice the price. FOOD! we were all hot and starving - spicey chicken and pork? curry for lunch - lots of food for 3 people plus drinks - $12.50 US. From there almost an hour back at Digicel setting up the phones so we can top up on line. Can't complain - 2 GB for $10 US. 200pm now - and on our way to immigration to extend our visas. Customs guy yesterday either an ass or doesn't understand english too well - I mean it was his handwriting that only gave us 30 day visas.... Oh well. We were given forms to fill out at immigration handed them in and the guy says - oh we don't process these after 2pm. Come back tomorrow morning and bring passport fotos to go with the paperwork. Sigh...... Next the market - nice veggies and some fruit. picked up some lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and green beans, apples and oranges. Went to the "US" mini mart across the street and did some costco shopping - Man costco is everywhere!!! I am very happy to have picked up some pasta and kirkland canned chicken (its the small things right?). We were done, stick a fork in us done. Taxied back to the dock and waited for the 4pm shuttle - which arrived right on time, turfed off the cruise ship tourists, loaded us on and headed back.

AHHHHH. a beer, a swim, a shower..... Life is good. Need to check with Earl what time the shuttle is going in the morning so we can tie up the immigration loose ends. Then the plan is to blow up the paddle board, put the kayak in the water and chill. We will be here until Monday at least as the part doesn't come until friday and we can't check out on the weekends. Next stop Ha'appai group.

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21 May 2018

TONGA!!!! We arrived Tongatapu - Nuku'alofa approximately 1500 hours. The run up from Minerva was nice - sailed for about a day and a half then motor sailed to ensure we arrived here in the daylight. It is picture postcard beautiful. We anchored at Pangiamotu in front of Big Mama's place. We had a swim, showers a meal at the table then a good night's sleep in a flat bed. Heaven.

Today we completed customs and immigration formalities. We motored over to the ferry dock and tied up at the cement pier. The customs office is strategically hidden in an unmarked building surrounded by containers. But we found it and it had a/c - wow! and it is warm so it was definitely appreciated. After filling out forms with the same information in at least 4 different places, we were good to go from customs. The customs guy called the health guys and the quarantine (biosecurity) guy and lo and behold, the first one was there waiting by the time we walked back to the boat and the Health guy was there within 5 minutes of the Quarantine guy leaving. Sorted.

We mistakenly thought we had to go back to the customs guy - so we did. He told us we have 3 month visas - this is contrary to everything we have heard, so need to check that out tomorrow. Dennis asked him about fuel, and he directed us to the 2 fuel suppliers. No joy on having 400 litres of diesel delivered to where we were tied up. Seems they have no empty drums in the country and don't know when they will and won't bring the truck to deliver any less than 1000 litres (yeah not so much lol). So we walked back to the boat and got a taxi to take Dennis to the gas station to fill up the jerry jugs. 20 gallons down - at least 80 more to go........... An ATM was found and Tongan money obtained. Dennis brought back a cold diet coke from the gas station - OMG ambrosia from the gods. By this time we were all hot and hungry. It seems we forgot to have breakfast - we did have coffee, so at least we were awake, hot and hungry. Back to Pangiamotu where we managed to get the anchor down on the second try.

Nachos for lunch!!! The dinghy is in the water, the newly obtained fuel in the tank - YAY time to play. Met the neighbors (who also loaned us Tongan money to get through check in) and went in to Big Mama's for a beer or two. Sadly I am not all the way into cruising mode, cuz I forgot my camera :(. Oh well guess we'll have to go back tomorrow.

So Big Mama's. Yes there is a big Mama and her husband Earl. really only pictures can tell the story. There's a wreck out front that is used as the sign for the place. Gita did a number on some of the buildings, but the beer is cold and there is shade. They have pigs - 3 adults and 5 babies. Imagine a big pig running down the beach to cool off in the water. Crazy! Earl will help us get more fuel later this week.

Tomorrow the plan is to get up and remove the rudder bearing in time to catch the ferry into town at 0900. We will then try to obtain sim cards, fresh food and info on replacing the rudder bearing (cross your fingers there). If all goes well we'll get the 1100 ferry back and then relax in the water in the afternoon. I'll let you know how that goes.

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19 May 2018

another nice day. some sailing, some motorsailing. Will arrive Nuku' alofa tomorrow - using the engine to ensure that happens during daylight. Think the passage into the harbour is going to give us some new gray hairs. We are all looking forward to a new place.

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Friday, definitely Friday 18 May

We left Minerva Reef today - approx 0830. Beautiful sunny day, nice breeze and guess what? We are actually sailing!!! Wow this is nice. We are still heeled over some, but its a nice smooth motion. We are really enjoying the quiet.

Minerva was an awesome break I am so glad we were able to stop. At low tide the boat was so still i would have sworn we were tied up at the marina. We had a good rest, got necessary chores done and enjoyed being still for a few days.

So yes it is Friday here and we will not lose a day on arrival in Tonga. Big shout out to Peter at Northland radio. I don't know what the set up is, but he has been on the radio at 6pm (NZ) every night taking our position, answering questions (like will we lose a day) and generally mother henning the boats that check in. It is good to know he is there for us - so send some positive vibes his way.

We are back to our routine of watches etc., and expect to arrive in Tonga Sunday afternoon. We can't check in until Monday, but we will anchor, fly our Q flag, reinflate the dinghy and make ourselves presentable for dealing with the Tongan customs and immigration officials. I am really looking forward to the fresh food market. WE plan to stay in Nuku ulofa for a little while, we want to see what sights there are as well as try to deal with the rudder bearing. Hopefully the internet will be good enough to post some pictures.

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Thursday or is it wednesday??

17 May New Zealand time

It has been a really nice break - even if it has been a working one. MInerva is totally awesome and it has been heavenly to be still and sleeping like normal people.

So what have we done the last 2 days? The Forward head was rebuilt by Paul. KUdos to him for not jumping ship that was an all day nasty project. Dennis fixed/replaced a couple of fans investigated the rudder leak. seems the bearing on the rudder is loose - nothing to be done about it until Tonga - it is in no danger of falling off or not working. He also adjusted the packing gland around it. We'll see how she goes once we are back underway. Its not leaking much at the moment. Paul wanted to switch cabins (meaning a total resort of the food etc) which I did whilst he was slaving on the forward head.

Today was a little more laidback. Dennis added waypoints for Tonga into the navigation system (trust me not as straight forward as it sounds), topped up the engine oil and coolant. YIkes we motored more to get here than we did to get to NZ from HI. Crappy weather routing. so we also put all the diesel from the jerry jugs in the tanks. I cleaned and vacuumed the interior and the cockpit and made food (I am always making food). and we made water - the watermaker loves this clear water. THe filter I changed that only had about 5 hours on it from Russell was disgusting - in fact the water maker wouldn't work it was so yucky. Yep just boat maintenance in paradise - hahahaha. We all got a swim in today - the water really cleared up - you can see all the way to the bottom - 45 feet.

Toast and Dean sent some weather info which pretty much supports what Dennis is seeing on the gribs. We will leave tomorrow morning for Tonga (nukalofa sp??), hope to be there Sunday. ONce there I will figure out what the time difference is. I think we lost a day there somewhere - so its really yesterday and one hour ahead. Does my head in. We hope this next leg will be a little friendlier, but as always will batten down the hatches just in case. LOL.

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