dreaming of the god of fire

i fell asleep last night...or was it last week? 

and i had the strangest of all dreams: i was walking up a hill so barren that no plant even dared to spread roots on it for it was the home of the god of fire.

and as i walked up i was brought back through time...10 years, a 100 years...maybe a many thousand years - to a time before planes flew through the air or music came out of little boxes, a time before running errands in the rain...a time before time.

and as i reached the top, i suddenly heard a loud voice shouting, screaming from a place so deep down, it sounded like the center of all things - a deep roar. even though i listened hard i could not understand what it said. that made the voice very angry. it threw rocks of fire at me with such a power that i all of a sudden understood my own insignificance, felt it with every bone in my shaken body, with every and each of my senses that i had no control.

and as i saw there was nowhere to go, no where to hide, i understood that i was defeated - nothing i would or could do would contain this force calling out to me. none of men's inventions would ever rise up to compete - as all that men could ever do was to destroy, where as this voice would forever create.

and so i took a deep breath, went a step closer to the abyss and smiled at the voice.

a lot of smoke and ash gently came from the deep as if to show me that my submission was accepted. and as if to reward me for my learning the god of fire rose from the center of all things and warmed me with his intimidatingly beautiful face, letting his firebirds fly through the air and show me, that he would make a new place which one day i could call home.

i closed my eyes and still could see his light until all of a sudden i found myself in a little village in the middle of a forest. 

little huts made out of palm leaves were spread all over the place surrounded by flowers and gardens filled with wonderful fruits and vegetables. and in these huts lived people with the biggest smiles and the warmest eyes inviting me to spend some time with them. they gave me to eat and to drink from their gardens, they let me sit in the shade of their huts and showed me how to weave baskets from leaves. they laughed with me and also at me for being so far away from what is the soil under our feet, the sun on our skins...the one home we all have in common.

and even though i should have felt ashamed for knowing so little - though i once thought i knew so much, they gave me their hands so i would feel no shame, and told me not to worry, as i was now back to learn again.

as the guys were playing soccer and the girls played volleyball, the pigs, the chicken and the dogs came to sit and watch with me while the sun slowly went to sleep and the darkest night i ever saw set upon us.

and as the laughs went quiet and the birds went to sleep i put my head down to rest on the soft pandanus mats and i could not help but to smile the most sincere smile my face had ever shown, feeling utterly happy and content, humbled and grateful for being allowed to be.

and with this smile i woke up as i found myself out at sea not knowing how long i had slept for. 

afterword:

we set off from vuda point in fiji on what was the worst trip, mark and i ever had.

in the first 24h we suffered from a bad bad bout of seasickness. funny enough, all the yachts we spoke to afterwards, who travelled roughly at the same time -  without any exception - suffered form sea sickness. i wonder if it had to do with a strange wave frequency.

in the first night out we almost got run over by either a fishing boat or a coast guard ship - i would not be able to tell. i followed their course on the radar, which seemed to go parallel to ours but in the other direction 6,5nm before i could see them. my prediction was that we would pass starboard to starboard with just under 1nm between us. to make sure they would know we are out there i called them on the vhf about 10 times without success. as they were traveling without an AIS signal i could not call them by name....i am pretty sure though they knew i meant to reach them.  as they were supposed to pass they turned and went straight for us. just as i was sure we would lose maloo, they turned behind us and  missed us by 20 meters. after a bit of distance to the event, i do suspect that the crew was having a bit of fun scaring the living hell out of us.

but the night went by and the seasickness got better. in the second night, the snap shackle on the top of our headsail broke. as a result the genoa fell into the water and was dragged under the boat. of course it was 1.00am and the wind had just freshened up - to add worse to bad. it took us about 1,5h to get the sail back on the boat. luckily we managed to keep it whole without tears which is a little miracle in itself. we lashed it down and continued with the main and the engine.

as the sea conditions were too rough to go up the mast and get down the halyard, that was all we could do.

in the face of all drama though, we were very lucky not to get hurt and to keep the sail whole. i am a little proud of mark and myself as we handled the situation well.

and on the up side, we now have a blue headsail dyed with antifouling from our hull....and an immaculate clean underwater boat without any signs of growth ;)

and to have the first small problem after 17.000nm of sailing without issues is amazing.

after three nights we arrived in port resolution on Tanna.

Tanna is the most magical place we have been to on our trip so far, not only because we went up mount yasur, the home of the god of fire. yasur is one of the most active volcanos in the world and nowhere else is it possible to get that close to the "action". a humbling, scary, wonderful experience.

the villages on tanna are some of the most traditional or "kastom" - as the locals call it in pidgin english  - you can visit in the whole of the south pacific. people decided to ignore the many missionaries and instead go back to their roots.

some villages are a bit more open to the western way of life, having found a way of implementing and coexisting our western lifetyle with their own traditions.

Tanna is also home of the "cargo cult" called "john frum"  - wikipedia gives a well written explanation on that one...

we spent all in all 5 days on Tanna in Port Resolution and then moved on to New Caledonia. a fortunately again very uneventful 2nighter brought us to the last country before arriving in Australia. 

almost there!

after three bad days...a beautiful sunrise as a reward (on the way to Tanna) 

walking up mount yasur

safety instructions

flying lava

a magic banyun tree

Lea weaving a basket with me

success!

a kitchen

sharp toy!

passing the gardens

Bildunterschrift hinzufügen

the village well

fishing with bow and arrow

fiji - from the hidden paradise to queensland suburbia

i know....it's been a long time again, since we posted a blog. 

but this time round we have an excellent excuse: we had guests!

Pete and Shannon joined us for their first yachting-experience....and man, we've been very hard on our crew!

we first spent a few days in Savu Savu on the eastern side of Fiji. 

savu savu is a little, however buzzing town with a couple of restaurants (which make fierce curries where mild is almost too spicy for me;) hidden in a lush and green vally.

hugely excited we awaited the arrival of our crew we had asked to fly there. if we would have known what kind of airport and what kind of flight was in stock for them, we might have changed our minds....but as it was, we had nooooo idea! 

when the taxi arrived next to the runway, which was surrounded by plane-trained cows, we couldn't help but have the biggest laughing fit in a long time.

the airport was a tiny shed, the runway was paved in places, and the plane was coming in just missing the tree tops of the hills. once the plane had landed, the pilots came out, lit a cigarette and almost lost their heads on the still spinning props.

but our crew came out smiling and laughing as much as we did.

after a couple of rainiy days in savusavu, we headed off for the western division of fiji chasing better weather.

even though we had a couple of overnight stops, the amount of miles we did meant we arrived at places late and left early. so for the first 3 days our crew was not allowed on shore.

mark and i did not notice at first being so used to long passage making now...but at the beginning of our trip that would have been rather hard on us...so 10 bonus points for our land lubbers;)

Pete caught a beautiful yellow fin tuna which was sashimied first and then rolled in sesame and nut and done on the bbq later.

we stopped in beautiful places like the blue lagoon and waya island - hoping to find those well protected anchorages we were expecting because of all the surrounding reefs....but we simply did not find them.

one night had me airborne on the front bunk it was so rough - but the next morning: crew still smiling! (by that time i started to check on our kava-stash we had as a gift for the villages....maybe kava does that to you, I thought....but i am happy to report: no abuse of legal or illegal substances was found:)

so after a couple of great snorkels and a definitely not great night at anchor we looked for a calm hide out and found it in musket cove on malolo island

we had great meals out at the resort, had fantastic snorkels on the sand bar that appeared at low tide just off musket cove feeding colorful fish - and Pete and Shannon fulfilled one of my childhood wishes when they invited us for a parasail! 

we baked in the sun, got a little bored - as you should on a relaxing holiday - and just like that, the two weeks planned were over again.

we went to port denerau to drop our by then well saltwater proven crew off to fly back home. all our pleading and begging did not help it - they had to go back and we once again got our minds off the recent loss by indulging in boat work.

maloo got a nice little polishing rub and seven loads of washing needed to be done....by the time we wanted to head off for vanuatu the weather had turned against us forcing us to wait another week - but luckily with great internet and the america's cup on, there was plenty to do.

with port denarau resembling a shiny soap bubble of happy tourists and the surroundings of this bubble being full of big holiday houses surrounding a golf course, separated by artificial channels it is easy to forget that you are actually in fiji - which, different from what you might think when being around port denarau, happens to be one of the poorer countries in this world.

a security gate later, when taking the bus to nadi, you all of a sudden find yourself in a colorful but simple neighborhood that feels thousands of miles away from your bubble, and is yet maybe only 1km further inland.

the security gate is like a wormhole that beams you from somewhere up queensland to fiji in a matter of 5 seconds....crazy!

with clearing out procedures changing every day, as it seems, we had to move on to vuda point marina....one of the strangest set up marinas we've ever been in. we currently sit right in the middle of this round shaped boat-pool attached to a mooring buoy waiting to have customs on board tomorrow morning.

we will head for Tanna on thursday the 24th of september. another 3 nighter should bring us very far away from the western world for the last time on our trip. another couple of months and our dream of blue water will come to it's end. 

but until then, let us "sleep" a bit longer and explore what there is to explore!

local taxi

Captain Shannon

coral bommie spotting

musket cove anchorage

Pete's catch of the day

....and what we did with it!

what a facepaint

parasailing!

the kingdom of tonga - where whales and pigs meet for a chat on the beach.

wow - where to start?

we had a long nice break from sailing and waves here in the vava'u group...and a lot of things happened.

to start with: we helped pulling an aluminium yacht of a reef near lape island.

the poor couple somehow managed to get the yacht so high up on a reef that on low tide it was lying on its side surrounded by only 15cm of water.

thanks to Paul and Mary from Bela Via, who did the coordination and support for the two shipwrecked, Mark and Charles, who came up with the masterplan, the superyacht dorothea III who did the muscle work and a crowd of helpers, we managed to get "paje" (so the name of the yacht) of it's unfortunate drydock - and amazingly, she still swims! 

it was a real wake up call to see how quickly you can get into strife! as tonga does not have a proper coast guard rescue service in case of an emergency you are completely relying on the help of other yachties around, and it was reassuring and heartwarming how many were there to help and offering their gear.

luckily paje is an aluminium yacht - with a fiberglass boat like maloo there would have been nothing worth rescuing.

so much excitement for the first week.

we saw the king of tonga at the agricultural fair, which only happens every 5 years - we did a tongan feast on lape, a small island inhabited by the nicest and most humble people we have meet so far - we snorkeled the most colourful reef we have seen on our trip until now, while hearing the humpback whales sing and we also did one of those whale swimming tours - unfortunately we only got o short glimpse of a mother and her calf. after having seen though how these "shows" operate i am not soooo sure if it is all for the good. there are surly some operators out there that do it well, however, if you have the same people on your boat for the 4th time round paying lots of money and there has been no whale, then the 5th attempt could be a bit stressful for all involved parties as we experienced. we had lovely whale encounters with maloo though and i am still amazed by the sheer size of these animals.

what to say about tonga? to answer the question i asked myself in the last post: yes, it is a long lasting relationship - tonga is simply wonderful.

it is a quiet home with little excitement, a lot of peace and calm waters, where "time" is just a word.

the country itself is very poor and the villages very rough around the edges but still taken care of in their own means. rumors have it that the local wesleyean christian church has more money than the whole kingdom - and looking at the states the churches are in compared to houses and schools i am almost certain this is true.

the church definitely has a huge influence on everyday life. tongans are very religious and you can hear their beautiful singing at the church service almost every morning at the break of dawn. sunday everything is closed (something quite normal if you read this blog sitting in austria/germany and are older than 15 - something unimaginable if you read this blog sitting in australia or the us) and even on the hottest days, ladies are never seen in less than calf-long pants and elbow-sleeved t-shirts.

despite the little resources people make ends meet with growing their own crops and repairing cars to a state of an engine being ducktaped to 4 seats and 4 different sized wheels - but they go!  some foreign aid organizations from mostly NZ/AUS and the churches in the US are here to help out. china and japan support too, trading rights to catch a couple of fish in the tongan waters.

the old and strict system of hirachy with the king on top and then lots of nobles etc. makes progress slow, but maybe this is what keeps the local culture healthy and adapting.

children speak english at a very young age and are happy to try a couple of words whenever they see a "palangi"  - the tongan word for us non tongan-people, which at the moment still has a positive meaning here. and that might be the key to why we enjoyed tonga and it's people so much. 

and being greeted by locals in the streets who just know you for only a week like, as if you were an old friend, might add to that.

the chicken running around, like on all pacific islands are outnumbered here by the pigs roaming the streets and beaches,

heaps of dogs are around too, and like on most pacific islands, in desperate times... or really special ones, dog is on the menu as well.

lots of sailors got stuck here and started up businesses - some unfortunate sailboats rotting away in the harbor are proof of that and i can't blame them to make tonga their second home...i'm tempted too:)

all in all we had a great relaxing time in tonga. it was nice to stay at one place longer (and by far longer than we expected) as we for once had the feeling to really visit a place instead of just quickly stopping by.

after a rather uneventful (don't forget "uneventful" is generally good on a sailboat ;)) 3nighter we will arrive in Savu Savu/ Fiji this morning where we will hopefully find some internet to post this and a couple of photos.

and as usual i finish this post with the promise to myself that i will one day return to tonga - a place where the nights are calm, gentle breezes ripple the water's surface and the distant sound of a whale courting a mate is lulling you to sleep.

ps.: in fiji we are delighted to take temporary crew on board - Shannon and Pete are going to join us for the 2 weeks we plan to stay. unfortunately that will most likely be our last longer stop between here and australia as we run out of time and the cyclone season approaches ever so quickly....can't believe that we're on the water a bit over a year now!

pps.: it took us a bit longer to get fast internet - we arrived on the 29th of ausgust in savusavu.

riding the whale....or taking care of the towing rope for the yacht rescue

paje at almost low tide - photo shot by Michael of  S.V. Galactic

Charles - sitting, Mark - standing and the owner Todd in the back as paje is pulled off the reef

....and she swims!

one of the many school bands

how to transport coconuts

playing solitaire...?

the famous kava-root 

kava-root made into powder 

going for a swim after school

the king of tonga

...and i am in heaven! 

the spit pig at the tongan feast in lape

schooluniform

beach pigs

at the agricultural fair

mhmmm - moray eel!

everyday's market

boring market day

drying vanilla beans 

vanilla plantation

humpbacks

the massive mahi mahi mark caught on the way to fiji

the first hours in the kingdom of tonga

at 9:00 local time on the 1st of august we arrived in neiafu, tonga.

on the way into the very protected bay of neiafu, we were rewarded for 8 days at sea by probably one of the most stunning sceneries we have seen so far on our trip.

the vava'u group is simply beautiful with lots of small overgrown with green islands dotting calm waters and beaches surrounding their shores

and as if organised by the ministry of tongan tourism supporting yachting a humpback whale swam past our boat gliding through that deep blue water.

first thing we had to go through, as always when entering a new country, was clearing in. this time we had to see 4 officials: quarantine: being a very friendly guy, asking us what kind of vegetables we have on board and asking us kindly not to bring it on shore, he stayed about an hour with us having a cup of coffee and telling us about tonga -  health: being even friendlier - staying even longer telling us even more - immigration: we had to visit him and he was as well super nice - and last customs, who came on our boat again and could not believe we had folding bikes stored under our bed until we showed him.

we then picked up a mooring buoy as the waters are very deep here, had a quick shower and a great meal on shore. my fish burger was the best i ever (EVER!!!) had.

a few glasses of wine, lots of laughs with Charles, Heather, Luca and Isabella of Chilli Cat - a rainy dinghy ride back to the boat and we fell into a well deserved deep sleep in a completely still boat after only having had 2h sleep the previous 36h.

the first little walk through neiafu gave me the impression that this is as close you can come to australia without actually being here. neiafu looks like a little north australian town reminding me of places like cooktown - the little sheperds pie mark had for lunch did definitely help that impression.

people are incredibly friendly here (don't think it is due to craving our ham these days;)) still wearing traditional clothing mixed with normal western street wear. the official uniforms for males, also school uniforms for boys are a shirt and a wrap around skirt, women and men often wear leaf mats or pareos.

after being in spanish and french countries we enjoy being able to communicate with the locals as everyone speaks very good english as well as their mother tongue tongan.

in the spanish speaking countries all the officials winced at our boat name with "malo" meaning "very very bad"

so far all the people we told the name of our boat told us how nice a name we picked with "malo" meaning "thank you"  in all of polynesia but especially with "maloo" meaning "very very calm and beautiful" in tongan. 

so far the first impression is wonderful and i can't wait to explore further. within 24h i have fallen in love with tonga...let's see if it will be a quick flirt or a long lasting relationship ;)

in total it has been a demanding 1300nm from bora bora to tonga leaving us with the feeling we were longer out there than just 8 days. 

we did not have to use the engine at all, saving lots of our duty free fuel from french polynesia. 

but even though the conditions were not the easiest, we had a great time and are grateful we did not break anything. 

maloo proved again to us to be a real ocean voyager not just a puddle duck and we are extremely proud of our floating home who got us here safe and sound and fast.

a highlight were definitely our daily visitors in the last 4 days. we meanwhile have learned that whale number one - by far the biggest - was a fin whale where as the others were most likely sei whales... being the third biggest baleen whales on earth. we were incredibly lucky to see them as not every boat sailing here got visitors.

a little bitter taste lingers though when i think about the japanese fishing boats we saw on our trip going in "stealth mode" without ais.

the tongan officials told us about the problems they have with the japanese fleets fishing illegally huge quantities of fish and unfortunately hunting whales in tongan waters.

with tonga being a poor country, there is only one patrol boat to check on territorial waters once a month.

the lack of the ability to protect their own waters almost seems like an invitation for foreign fishery fleets to exploit.

as tonga signed the whale protection legislation they sometimes get help by australian or new zealand coast guards, which is great but not nearly enough as also these big comparatively rich countries have the same problem with illegal fishing and whale hunting of foreign fleets.