news from Wallis

The sail down from Asau was mainly 15 to 20 knots downwind, flying just the genoa for most of the trip. So a pretty easy sail, but a bit of excitement was added with a series of rain squalls. Rain squalls are a fact of life in these latitudes and when on watch, besides watching for shipping, we have to be alert for them. Black cloud patches gather upwind giving us notice of their impending arrival. We had quite a few squalls during this voyage, many were quite light, but we also experienced the most unusual one we have had on the whole trip. As well as the black cloud, we saw in the distance a band, like a wave, of turbulent water approaching and it was moving at a phenomenal rate and was upon us within moments. It blew 36 knots for about 4 minutes and shot off like an express train into the distance - very short lived thankfully. We got the genoa down just in time - fortunately we tend to be cautious and pull down some sail as soon as we get a really sudden high increase in wind in squalls. We do not want any ripped sails (they are 23 years old now!)

The entrance to Wallis Island was interesting. Just outside the passage, there were strange currents and huge areas of upwelling of water. It is a very large lagoon that empties through a relatively narrow pass. The good news is the French authorities have everything well marked with beacons - viva La France! It was a long slow motor across the lagoon, wending our way through coral reefs to reach our anchorage at Gahi, a very small settlement.

We crossed the date line just west of Wallis and are now back on NZ time. This meant that we arrived late Friday (lost Thursday) and most businesses were closed for the weekend. On Saturday, we thought we had better check in with the local gendarmes, so set off early with our passports and boat papers, leaving the boat in the safe anchorage of Gahi, to walk our way to the main town of Mata Utu, about 10 kilometres away. There are no buses or taxis here and we had been told that the locals are quick to offer rides. Not so!!! We walked 2/3 of the way before a local woman picked us up and delivered us to the gendarmerie. And it was closed!!! We had a look around the sprawling town and wharf area. It is difficult to find anything - no street names or signs and no maps or tourist information. Fortunately, on our way back from the wharf, we saw the gendarmes returning to the police station after their long lunch, and were able to get our passports stamped. We have to go back on Monday to see customs. One of the gendarmes had a flower lei around his neck and we really felt we were in Polynesia.

We walked miles trying to find a car hire agency and no one was able or around to advise us. We eventually stumbled upon an Australian oceanographer cleaning sea shells in a bucket outside a hotel. She, together with a French guy from Wellington, NZ, are over here studying historical evidence of tsunamis and unusual shell deposits on higher ground in the island. They were able to give us a few pointers of places to go, including the names and positions of 2 car hire companies. They were both closed, so will try again on Monday when we come back to complete our immigration process. We were pleased to get a ride back to Gahi from just outside Mata Utu in a pick up truck with 3 island men. We jumped in the back of the truck and sat down and they roared off at a great speed. It took a while for Denise to realise she was sitting on top of a large machete!! They must have been on their way to their plantation.

We spent the next day recovering , relaxing on the boat and watching the local activity in the bay. There are little boats coming and going all the time and people fishing with nets near the reef. There are some quite expensive looking runabouts here, much more so then the other islands we have visited, even some jet skis. We also saw several kite surfers in Mata Utu. There are some traditional outriggers on the beach but we have not seen them in use yet. The edge of the beach has a few large empty bottles of Vin Rouge lying there!

Tuesday

Yesterday morning we had luck hitching a ride into Mata utu being picked up by a local Rugby official who was most helpful and dropped us off at customs to complete our paperwork. We decided to hire a car so we can explore the island as there is no public transport or taxis. We have arranged this for tomorrow. We even found a basic internet cafe and after a long time without contact managed to catch up on some emails. A coffee and patisserie nearby and everything was looking good. We also found a supermarket well stocked with French goodies (an amazing array of cheeses and sausages, escargots, rabbit, quail and duck to name a few) but had not realised that everything closes for a long siesta at lunch time so only had time to buy a few necessary purchases. It is a strange mix here -some large houses but many basic ones of concrete builders blocks all with corrugated iron roofs. On the other hand there are also oval shaped traditional thatched huts with satellite dishes and big four wheel drive pick ups outside in the yard.

Some folk we met in Suwarrow and then again in Apia arrived on their boat today. It is great to have some company in the bay and catching up with them again and all their news. We plan to depart for Fiji on Saturday, but, as usual, this depends on the weather.

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