9 October 2024 –Tahiti – Niue- Day 8

Before I start I have another need. Someone now cannot make the New Zealand to Sydney leg in early January 2025 so I need ideally a sixth person. You would have to be in Auckland, New Zealand by about 3/4 January 2025 with a view to us leaving for Sydney, weather permitting, by about 7 January 2025. We should get to Sydney by about 14-16 January 2025. If anyone is interested please email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com  Thanks.

We started the night knowing that it was our last night before Niue. Sean and I did 8.00pm to 11.00pm watch and it seemed that the wind was pushing us a bit to the west which was not helpful for our course. However, as I thought about this I thought well we do not need to fight this but just go up the west side of Niue, rather than the east as planned. I therefore set a new waypoint which made our course easier and when we handed over to Carolyn and Erika we explained the new plan.

Sean and I came on again at 5.00am and we were only about 6nm to the waypoint east of Niue. It was still dark and we could not really see the island. However, within 30 minutes we saw the island and sailed up its western coast. It was a relatively low island being about 60 meters high and flat with some cliffs evident and a low level coastline. As we got nearer we could see trees and forests on its shore and waves crashing on the reef or rocky shore. We called Niue Radio and said hello and that we had reserved a mooring buoy and they granted us permission to proceed to our buoy and that they would arrange immigration formatlities etc.

We came to a stage where we took the sails down and motored on round the Northwest of the island and on toward the main town Alofi where there were a number of moorings and we had reserved number 6. We came into a large bay which greeted us with a big rain shower which passed quite quickly and then the sun came out and we continued to the mooring area. We motored in and found the Lat/Long spot and attached ourselves to the pickup line and buoy. It did not tell us the number as the buoy was submerged. However, it seemed to be correct in relation to the others.

We had arrived. The water was crystal clear and we could see the bottom even though we were in about 12-13 meters of water. Once moored we chilled and had a celebratory beer. See picture of the day. It had been a good trip, quite rolly but good sailing. We had sailed some 1,326 nm in 7 days 16.5 hours which meant an average speed of about 7.2 kts in some quite rolly and testing conditions. We were all safe and sound which was good.

We heard from Niue Radio that our check-in would be about 10.30am so we needed to be at the wharf then. This meant getting the dinghy down and outboard and having breakfast so we split up chores and achieved both including a full cooked breakfast. The issue here is when you take your dinghy to the wharf you have to lift it up by crane and put your dinghy on the car park! We headed ashore and hauled the dinghy out using a large crane. I had a harness which fitted to four points on the dinghy with one single ring in the center. We put the ring on the crane and were able to lift the dinghy which you place on a trolley and wheel it out to a place on the tarmac. The conditions were good today but you can imagine how tricky this would be in rough conditions or when there is a bad swell.

We were met at the quay by Keith Val, the Commodore of the Niue Yacht Club. He says he knew nothing about sailing which is how he got the job!  He came here for 2 years and has stayed 20. He looks after yachtsmen who visit the 20 moorings they have here. There was only one catamaran apart from us and one other boat arrived when we were here that day. Keith very kindly took us up in his van to customs and immigration and I had already filled out some forms. There were more to complete. There was  $50 NZ entry fee in total but a $150 NZ exit fee per person. Ridiculous – deep breath- we are here to enjoy.

Keith gave us a quick local tour of Alofi and we are due to do a whole island tour on Friday. This included showing us the shops, restaurants, airport, bowling green and local jail – where they can let themselves out to use the loo and may be allowed to hit a few golf balls in the morning as the course is near their block before they lock themselves again in their cells.

Kieth said there is about 1,600 inhabitants of which 450 are in education of some sort, 450 working for administration and 200 old people. The island to me seemed a bit odd and not like the others I had visited. It was Polynesian but not part of French Polynesia yet there are New Zealand symbols everywhere. There was a lot of English being spoken and the signs were in English and they drive on the left . It just seemed so different to French Polynesia.

Keith dropped us off at a café/restaurant and we had a drink and a sort of snack lunch and we then walked back looking at various shops etc on the way. We returned to the dinghy and had to crane it back into the water. We needed to do some washing and get rid of rubbish so some of us returned to the wharf to do this.

We then rested, swam and chilled and had a sundowner before we had supper of bread and cheese etc. We look forward to exploring the island more.   

I asked the crew as to why they wanted to do this trip and any reflections on the passage we had just done. Joyce said she always wanted to do this passage and go on to NZ and to visit Niue and potentially the Cook Islands so it was unfinished business as it were. Erika said her father had got a wooden model of a flying fish from this area and she has always wanted to sail to NZ. She  also wanted to do a long passage and enjoyed the passage and thought the human dynamics went well. Sean said he always wanted to do a long passage and if he was doing one he wanted to do it in this area. He thought the passage was more rolly than he thought it would be and expected to see more islands. Carolyn said she had wanted to sail the southern pacific and Niue and .Keith said he wanted to sail the southern pacific and to New Zealand as we he had not done so as part of the Royal Navy.

We had supper of cheese and bread and reflected on our day and we look forward to exploring more tomorrow.  It was nice to be flat again after a week of constant movement.

Opportunity Year Two

In year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025. I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we move through French Polynesia and beyond. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com