Meet You at “Big Mama’s”!
“Meet you at “Big Mama’s”! Who or what is “Big Mama’s”? Neither of us know more than that it is the spot where all us cruisers whose end destination for the season is somewhere in New Zealand gather before we leave Tonga. Here we will hang out, prepare ourselves, provision ourselves and wait for that all important weather window for the final 1100nm push across the Pacific. With the Pacific Cyclone Season baring down on us, the rally cry of “Meet you at Big Mama’s” rings in our ears and imaginations. We are eager to get there.
Wednesday, November 3rd – Offshore we sail to our last island grouping in the Kingdom of Tonga: Tongatapu. In total land mass, Tongatapu comprises only about a third of Tonga, but two-thirds of its citizens live there. “Sacred Tonga” is what the name means, for here is the center of Tonga’s history, culture and political power.
0650: Drizzle. Need it be mentioned that it is drizzling as we leave our precarious anchorage on Kelefesia Island in the Ha’apai Group? Need it, also, be mentioned that winds are also blowing 25 – 30 knots and driving that drizzle into us? We raise and double reef the mainsail. It is going to be one of those miserable sailing days! Fortunately, we only have about 60nm to go.
1240: We are in the shipping channel leading into the port of Nuku’alofa. We round Monro Rock and turn south. This channel is one long channel! It is somewhat marked, but there are big differences between what our paper charts and our GPS charts show. As we approach the narrowest part of the channel, the buoys that are supposed to mark the safe passage are no longer there. Our speed is almost 9 knots and visibility is not great, so we take down the mainsail and turn on the engine to slow down and increase maneuverability. Once past the missing buoys, the channel opens up a little, so we turn off the engine and continue sailing until we have to change course almost directly into the wind. Back on comes the engine, and by 1430, we are motoring by the commercial wharf of Nuku’alofa to get a view of it and the fuel dock we will eventually need to use.
The harbor of Nuku’alofa is primarily for delivery of goods and for fishing vessels. There is a small marina with no services. Most cruisers do not even bother with it preferring to stay across the bay anchored off the island of Pangaimotu and below Big Mamma’s. That’s where we now turn, and at 1500, we are anchored. There are 15 – 20 other boats with us. Some we recognize. Some we will soon become friends with, for we are all here preparing for the final passage across to New Zealand.
We spruce ourselves up a bit and head ashore for dinner at Big Mama’s which, to our culinary pleasure, turns out to be the best hamburgers this side of the Pacific! What a treat!
How to describe Big Mama’s?
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First and foremost, Big Mama is a for real person. A wonderful, smiling b-i-g Tongan woman. This is her establishment, and she runs it quite well, catering to the needs and interests of her cruising customers from all over the world.
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Now to describe the place:
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Imagine, if you will, a very small island, somewhat isolated. A cluster of cruising boats bob at anchor below a sandy beach with a line of coconut and palm trees running behind as backdrop. There’s even the rusting remains of a sunken fishing boat sticking out of the water for added drama.
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A jumble of buildings with long, cool thatched-roofed porches. A rickety wood dock for dinghies and the “water taxi” that runs between Big Mamma’s and Nuku’alofa.
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Inside there is a long, roomy curved bar just right to lean against while waiting that cool beer or glass of wine.
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Tables and chairs are set in groupings on the sand floor. Huge stalks of bananas hang ripening from the beams while boat and country flags from all over this world wave gently in the breeze blowing through the open air building.
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Half coconut shells are nailed up with boat names and dates going back years and years. A chalk board displays the names of boats that have already passed through this season or are here now.
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With music from the 50’s and 60’s beating out all day, it is exactly what one would expect of a South Pacific cruisers’ retreat, and The First Mate laughs in delight. Hollywood could not do it any better! How quaint! How neat! How absolutely perfect! The First Mate is more than ready to kick back and enjoy this place.
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Thursday, November 4th – In the morning, we radio in to be put on the 8:00 shuttle into town. Even though we are checked into Tonga, we still have to check in with the authorities in Nuku’alofa. This checking in and rechecking in is common in many countries throughout the world, but a real pain for cruisers. Another 3 hours is devoted to this endeavor, but afterwards, we do some shopping and provisioning. One of the items on The Captain’s search list is a new gaff. People fish here. This should not be hard to find, but it is. An 18-inch gaff is found, but that will not work on the big brutes out there in the ocean. We do find some extra long gaffs with hooks that could bring in an elephant. The Captain nixes those. Where would he store one on the boat? The First Mate nixes them, too. She wants nothing to do with any fish that gaff was meant to hook. A whale, maybe? No way!
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There is a large fresh produce market overflowing with bright, colorful fruit and vegetables. That’s a joy to see, and the grocery stores, though small, are adequately stocked for our necessities.
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We spend a part of each day at Big Mama’s. Almost everyone is there at some point during the day. Not only is the action there, but that is where the cold beer and internet access are located.
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We find ourselves with several days to cool our heels at this anchorage below Big Mama’s. (Again, The First Mate laments the one extra day she so wanted in Niue.) Weather for our passage to New Zealand is not cooperating. A high is stalled out there, and there is too little wind. We will be becalmed. Great conditions for the motor yachts powering across with their huge tanks of fuel, but not great for us wind-powered vessels with smaller fuel stores capable of motoring only a fraction of the 1100nm distance. We have to have some wind for at least part of the trip unless we want to sit out there floating aimlessly around until a breeze fills our sails.
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So we wait, relax and play. What else to do? Here, leaning against that wonderful bar, Anamik and Ben from Blowe Pinguin discuss travel plans with The Captain.
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Fellow cruisers claims that, for sure, The Captain will be able to fix the windlass if he just takes the motor apart. Though The Captain feels that this will not help, with time on his hands, he decides to give it a try. He has nothing to lose. The motor shows itself to be beyond redemption. No one can believe the amount of corrosion that came out of the motor once the cover was off. It’s off to the junk heap for this thing!
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We hire Tiny, a taxi driver, to give us a tour of the island. Tiny, as the name implies, is anything but tiny. He is a Tongan of the old school: the bigger, the better — and getting bigger for, as he maintains, he has some catching up to do with his peers.
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As a teenager, the University of Oklahoma came over to Tonga and recruited him to come play football for their school. What a dream come true for a Tongan teenager! He goes there, plays football and then is drafted to play pro ball for Hawaii where the climate is more to his liking. There, unfortunately, he shatters his knee, and that ends his football career. Back in his island kingdom, what to do? A taxi driver is a natural fit for him. The pay is enough, the work is not too hard or too long, and his English is a definite asset in a country where few visitors can figure out how to say more than “hello” and “thank you.”
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We drive past the entrance to the royal residence. There in the distance keeping us peons at bay with a well-guarded gate is the dwelling.
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As with all such royal abodes, it is quite a contrast to the small hovels that most citizens call home.
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We stop at Captain Cook’s Landing. Yes, the good man made it to Tonga. He and his crew had a wonderful time in Tonga feasting on platters of food, being entertained and enthralled by all they saw. Some suggests that this was the Tongan way of fattening them up and mellowing them out before they were made into the feast themselves. That, fortunately, did not happen. Captain Cook left the islands proclaiming them “The Friendly Islands”, and the name has stuck to this day.
Standing there in the quiet bay, Tiny attempts to explain to us the growing discord that is occurring in Tonga. Though Tonga may be a constitutional monarchy, the king has absolute power. He can approve, dissolve and ban whatever and whomever he chooses. As more Tongans are being educated and with increasing access to the world through the internet, a growing desire for increased democracy is spreading. The unrest has gone far enough that a massive demonstration was held in the capital. The king has offered up elections and some reforms, but feeling threatened, he has not left his royal residency in months.
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Tiny, of course, wants his country to follow in the example of the United States, but in a poor country where the people have never paid taxes and where what little they do have has come from the beneficence of the royal family, that may be a hard and painful course to follow. Elections are coming up in a few months, and Tiny is both excited and concerned.
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The many cemeteries along our route are hugely decorated with flowers and large appliquéd quilts. These quilts are quite expensive and are signs of a family’s care for its departed member. Quilts are left up until they decay and fall apart, and then if the family is able, a new quilt is installed.
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The First Mate asks Tiny to stop and return to where she saw a group of women working on a tapa cloth spread out on the lawn. Tapa was once made throughout the Pacific, but fewer islands groups now make this time-consuming product. It is produced from the inner water-soaked bark of the paper mulberry tree. Stripped from the tree, steeped in water, scraped and then pounded into thin sheets with wooden mallets, it is left to dry in the sun where it becomes a soft, felt-like fabric. Formerly, it was the fabric of the islands.
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Here in Tonga today, it is mostly used for decoration, made for the tourist trade or given as gifts for special occasions. Painted with the traditional red clay and black burned candlenut pigments, this cloth is impressive both in size and the amount of work that went into it. We learn that the women are making this “ceremonial carpet” as a gift to the king’s sister on the royal occasion of her birthday.
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At the end of a very enjoyable and informative day, Tiny returns us to the dock. The First Mate asks him to walk with her through the fish market where bags and woven leaf baskets of clams of all sizes and colors have got her eye. The clams she can identify, but there are so many strange fish and underwater lifeforms lying out there that she has never, ever seen. What are they? How do you eat them? How do you cook them? She is just itching to try something new, but unfortunately, her larder is full, and she cannot buy anything. She does plan to do some experimenting with new culinary treats from this market if we ever do return to Tonga. If so, her taxi driver and guide, Tiny, will be sought out for his words of advice.
Waiting for the shuttle to arrive to take us back to Avante anchored off Big Mama’s, we watch several youngsters swimming and diving off the dock below the outdoor fish market. They certainly are a carefree lot.
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Back on Avante, we spend the next few days monitoring the weather forecast and monitoring Avante as she swings around at anchor.
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The kaput anchor windlass is causing us more problems than just having to raise the anchor by hand. When we arrived, we found a spot in about 30 feet of water, right in the middle of the anchorage. This was much closer in than we normally anchor. This shallower depth allowed us to swim down to access the lay of the land and the anchor’s placement. With mostly rope down now, we do not want to run the risk of tangling on a corral head which could abrade our rope and cast us free.
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While we are enjoying our stay at Big Mama’s with parties and impromptu get-togethers, each day sees more boats arriving. The anchorage is filling up.
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The smaller and therefore lighter amount of chain and rope we now have down allows Avante to swing around her anchor much more than she usually does when dragging her usual weight of heavier chain. With Avante’s light displacement, we find that we swing and drift differently than some of the boats near us. The relatively light winds, shifting around 360°, are not helping matters at all. We have the anchor alarm set at a very tight radius, and like a newborn, it has us up every 2 hours for a recheck. We are not enjoying this predicament but can come up with nothing better to do than monitor the situation. A smaller boat who thought they had anchored a reasonable distance from us one evening decided they should move the next morning when our boats swung too close together. Another boat arrived and wanted to anchor next to his good buddy who was anchored near us. He squeezed in and parked his boat practically right on top of our anchor. At midnight that night, The Captain wakes the First Mate. Predictably, the two boats had swung differently and the new arrival was now within just a few feet of us. Although etiquette says that the new arrival should be the one to move, The Captain decides to “bite the bullet”. He adds more rope to our line, retrieves our anchor and motors out to 60 feet to drop anchor. The new arrival blithely slept through the night and never seemed to notice that we had moved. Avante is now away from the pack, swinging to her heart’s content.
Since we are all waiting for a good weather window for the passage to New Zealand, several of the cruisers decide that a 9:00 morning weather briefing held at a table over coffee at Big Mama’s is in order. Each man shows up with computer in hand and discussion proceeds. Pooling everyone’s knowledge and experience, the speculation proceeds. Some know more than others. Some are more risk taking than others. Each man knows his boat and what it can do. When will the best time be to set sail? Four days from now? Three days? Two? When? It looks like Wednesday, no Thursday. We will leave Thursday, November 11th, weather permitting …….
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One last night of farewell is planned. We have made good friends while we have been cooling our heels waiting for the winds to fill in out on the Big Blue. Most of us are heading to Opua in the Bay of Islands. To them we say, “au revoir”, for we know we’ll be meeting up again in a week or so.