5 July 2010 – Nomuka, Ha’apai, Kingdom of Tonga

I did a load of laundry - the difficult stuff: sheets & pillowcases. Now I only have one load left. Fortunately we've got great solar power these days & have been able to make a ton of water, so I can use as much as I want. Makes it easy.

Meanwhile, BB spent the morning on Kestrel helping Isolde set up the OpenCPN charting program & getting things sorted on her computer. Very nice of him to spend hours setting things up for her & teaching her to use the program, but she seems to appreciate it.

When he returned, we weighed anchor & sailed under jib alone the two miles or so across the channel to Nomuka to visit the town. A couple of teenage boys came to visit in their outrigger canoe & asked for snorkeling gear & cigarettes. Instead, we gave them a tour of the boat, took some photos of them, then told them we were leaving to go ashore. They then paddled over to Kestrel & asked for all the same things. Gabor gave them a snorkel. In exchange they gave Isolde a ride to shore in their canoe so she didn’t have to drop the dinghy.

We landed on the beach under a big tree where a scowling old woman was sitting & a pig was rooting. A couple kids joined us, one of whom ended up being our tour guide. 11-yr old Paea was very pretty & had the most beautiful smile. She smiled all the time & spoke to us in her broken English with an adorable accent. As we walked around her village, I identified things I knew the Tongan word for. She often smiled & said "that's very good!" We told her we wanted to see the freshwater lakes & wondered if she knew the history of Cook using that water to replenish his boats back in the 1800’s, but complex ideas in past & future were difficult to relay & comprehend, so we kept our conversations limited to what we were seeing & learning. She was thrilled that I was willing to learn new words in Tongan. She was an excellent teacher; when she discovered that spelling things helped me to pronounce them, she began simply spelling the words instead of saying them! She could spell as quickly in English as I can. Smart little girl. Other kids joined our parade, but none spoke English as well as Paea.

The village, whose name I cannot pronounce or spell - there are 3 of them in a row along this shoreline - was fairly ugly & populated by as many pigs as humans. A schoolteacher we spoke to said there are about 300-400 people living on Nomuka. She spoke excellent English & was very talkative, asking where we're from & how we like Tonga. The houses were simple & only a few of them were well-kept. The churches, all 7 of them, on the other hand, were immaculate - both the buildings & the grounds. Paea felt it was important that we learn to pronounce the name of each church we passed, & they were always 5 or more syllables! After we saw the lakes with only the pigs enjoying a swim, she asked if we'd like to see the store, so we set off in that direction. We stopped to peek into a house where a woman was weaving mats. She ran right out & got us a few lemons when we remarked upon a lemon tree in her yard. Very nice people.

Paea asked us if we'd like an apple india, but we had no idea what she meant. She described the fruit & we were still puzzled, so we walked to her house, & it turned out to be guanábana, also called soursop, one of BB's favorite fruits! She climbed the tree & brought down 2 very ripe ones for us.

We invited Paea out to our boat to thank her for giving us a tour. All the other kids were jealous & wanted to come too, but since Isolde’s ferry was no longer available & she came with us, we didn’t have enough room for all the kids. Paea was very excited & so cute as she jumped thru hatches, took a short nap on every bed, & she especially loved the nets on the bows. She made it clear she wanted to see the other boat too, & meet Isolde's husband (who had not come ashore with us), but we had to make that a short visit as they were rolling in the swell & she got that glazed look in her eye after only a few minutes. I took her back to shore & thanked her again with a hug for showing us her village & teaching me Tongan with such patience.

We returned to anchor at Nomuka Iki where the swell was cut down by the protective reef & enjoyed a nice dinner on deck during the pretty pink & purple sunset.

says ADR