Kingdom of Tonga

Kingdom of Tonga

After a 3 day sail from American I arrived in The Kingdom of Tonga! The people here are very friendly and giving. The main thing of my stay so far that will be in my mind forever s the memorial service of the old King. The church was so full and they had tents set up next to the church and people standing all around the church as well as sidewalks and streets full of people. The New King was there as well as the Crown Prince and his son and daughter. Well apparently you cannot inherit the Crown if you do not have an heir. So the new King did not have an heir and so he adopted the Crown Princes daughter as his daughter. This gets very complicated for sure. There was many royal party there and lots of royal chiefs as well. At the end of the ceremony we were some of the last to leave as we were taking in all the dressed up Royal's with their elaborate hand made lays. I was in amazement when they Royal's started taking their huge lays off and handing them out to some of the boaters, and yes I was lucky enough to get one. It was a great honor to be able to attend such a service and afterwards we met the Kings photographer from Tongatapu. He was very informative about all the do's and do not's and what the ceremony actually meant to the Tongan's.

The Friday before the memorial service the King, Crown Prince and his son had come in and actually the son of the Crown Prince involved himself in the Friday 1st annual Governors Cup regatta that had been put together in a short notice. Preparations for the regatta started 48 hours before the regatta was planned. About 11 boats in total were involved in this race, a 73ft schooner which I had the pleasure of crewing on. The Crown Prince's son was put on a Moorings sailboat with all his royal friends and ladies with him. The Captains meeting was a 1600 and the races started at 1700. After the Captains meeting was over we only had 25 minutes to get out to the boats and up anchors and be underway. To say the least we did not start the race exactly at 1700 but maybe 1710 and there were already 5 boats headed on the race path. We got underway, passed the start line and off we were. I think we started at being the ninth boat to start and we came in 4th, so we passed several boats to get this spot. It was very exciting and so much fun and very adventuress. It has been several years since I had been in a sailboat race. I had been in the process of building a new topside hatch and did not want to take a chance in someone falling into the hole so I did not enter Elysium, But next time there is a race she will for sure be in the race.

After the race ended their was a party with all sorts of prizes and food and drinks. It was the most cruisers I had seen together ia long time, people from all over the world that are currently sailing around the world and now in the Kingdom of Tonga waiting to head south to New Zealand to escape Cyclone season. So between now, mid October and the end of November these hundred so boats will be headed south. Of course , it is still winter in New Zealand so get your heavy coats ready and yes cold wind to sail into. Yipes, NOT for me. I have decided to Cyclone out in Fiji and continue to enjoy the islands. I will check for the best place to run to if a storm comes up but I will be in the Fiji Islands enjoying all the beautiful anchorages all to my self and guest's while all the other boats are on the hard or at a marina in New Zealand.

I plan to haul the boat in a few days paint the hulls and head to Fiji. I hope to be posting photos soon to go with the story here to show some of the dress and attire they wore.

To all, I hope you are well and safe, Me I am pretty close to heaven where I am. Thank God for this earth he has created and making it possible for me to be out here. It is such a great place to experience and explore, especially by the sea.

Thank you all for following my dream with me. It always has excitement and adventure as well as some very good relaxing time and meeting new and adventurous people.

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Pacific Adventures of Elysium!!!

hey there,

we have been underway now for 13 days non stop, still have 1300 miles to go...the sailing has been great and a wonderful time for both Tracy and I. the weather has been perfect breezy sunny days and calm breezy nights. We have tried many sail configurations from wing on wing head sails, wing on wing with the main and a head sail and the spinnaker -we have reached speeds of 13 knots, early one morning after having the spinnaker up for 20 hours a heavy wind came up and blew out the spinnaker, it was a big loss for this trip as the wind has been behind us and the seas swells (10m) behind us too. Twin head sails are still pulling us along although not with the speed the spinnaker gave us. We are averaging 125 miles a day(due to being overloaded with 14 cases of beer, 10 cases of wine, and 2 cases of rum!!!! as alcohol is very expensive in the S. Pacifc, one can of beer $8.00). The only other dilemma that has come up so far is we lost the water maker feed pump, other than that all is very well and good... Lots of sea life present from whales and dolphin to sea turtles. The fishing could not be better we are averaging 2 Mahi Mahi a day with a little tuna on the side!!!!

well we are at 07 S and 117 W and have about 1300 miles to reach Fatu Hiva, Marqueses. Fatu Hiva is the most remote of all the Marqueses as well as the most beautiful and southern island. With 300 ft cascading free drop waterfall into a natural Olympic size kidney shape pool , wild horses, an abundance of wild fruits and vegetables and the most scenic uninhabited anchorages in the world. There are only 8 cars on the whole island with transportation being mostly on horseback!! The trip in total from the Galapagos is 3000 miles and we should do it in 20 days. The Galapagos was awesome, like land of the lost-incredible volcanic islands with huge diversity. we visited three islands, San Cristabol, Santa Cruz and Isabella. Isabella the most western and most remote island was by far the best. The others have become to touristy with not so much wildlife, Isabella on the other hand was extremely serene with an over abundance of wildlife(sharks, rays, dolphin, sea turtles, penguins, blue and red footed boobies, albatross, land tortoise, giant lizards and iguanas, the brightest flamingos your eyes can imagine, sea lions galore) and lots of natural areas(lava tunnels, beautiful beaches, hiking trails, volcanos, highland, lowlands). Tracy took a 12hr horseback ride up a volcano that had hot spots and views of 100's of miles!!!! The Ecuadorian people who live in the Galapagos are great, very kind and generous.

We have had a great sail so far, the first few days out of the Galapagos was slow and annoying, currents and light winds didn't help at all. There are about 15 boats in our group (these boats all left the Galapagos within a week of each other heading toward the Marqueses)sailing to the Marqueses. i run a radio net in the mornings and have 15 boat checking in with me...its fun..we will soon be enjoying time in the Marqueses, and all of the S pacific islands...a change of scenery for sure...I have enjoyed the Caribbean but I like the more unknown adventure provided by going to the lesser traveled remote areas, any body can go to a resort and set pool side but how many people get out there and live in the elements and travel to places only accessible by boat not even any airstrips much less that fake manmade Disney type "play land". No pink umbrellas in your drinks here!!! This is the "Real Cruising World" buddy!!! Adventure, adventure, adventure!!!!!!!!!

A Fish Story
I asked Tracy what fish she wanted today since we had been catching lots of Mahi's, her reply was I want Tuna, I stated aloud , Ok Lord we want a Tuna today..I told Tracy we would have Tuna buy the end of the day....

So here we are out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean not another boat seen for 12 days. Louis and I were setting up on deck playing backgammon and Louis spots a boat-he thought it was a sailboat-I grabbed the binoculars to take a peck and I said it's an oil rig he told me that was impossible-I hailed the boat over the VHF and got this Spanish speaking guy who talked to Louis and said they were a big tuna fishing boat-they talked for awhile then this english speaking guy gets on and him and I chat away-I told him that I was wanting tuna for dinner that night! Well 5 minutes later he gets back on the radio and says I am sending you some Tuna-mean while the seas are 20 feet and just rolling-the boat turns around we see black smoke in the air and starts coming our way-he calls us back and tells us to slow the boat down(mean while Louis is freaking thinking it is pirates so he gets the gun out and loaded) we luff the main, luff the jib and trhe mizzen... and slow the boat down that big tuna boat(170 ft) comes right to our starboard side drops a launch boat and brings us our present and what a present it was-three huge tunas one weighing at least 70 lbs as well as ice and some fresh sweet bread just bakes by the boats chef-all the guys were on deck waving and cheering the guys on the launch were all smiles -all this and we never even stopped the boat-!! Wait til you see the pictures!!! Louis filleted those tuna so fast we cleaned out the freezer and loaded it up-

anyway, it was a delight to see the vessel (aptly named Atlantis) and even a better delight to still be eating Tuna and we have a freezer full...

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Eco Tourisim at it's best, Plenty of Adventure around the corner

Here we are half way to Galapagos Islands on a 44' trimaran and no movie theaters to go to, no gas stations to deal with and no K-Marts to shop at, yes and no Walmarts either. Yes we are now underway from Panama CA to Galapagos Islands, where we will find plenty of wildlife in its form of living and not caged up.
The Galapagos Islands are located on the Ecuador and belong to Ecuador. Presently there are 4 of us aboard Elysium. Alex has joined the boat for the trip and she is from the UK and she is also a certified Scuba instructor and also Chris from Sweden has joined us and he is an engineer back in Sweden and also Tracy from Stuart Florida which has a fantastic friends and family taking care of her business while she is away playing and enjoying the cruising lifestyle, last there is myself, Louis the Captain. So far we have been underway for 18 hrs and have sailed about 160 miles and we have about 687 miles to go.

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A Sailors Dream

Setting sail for a destination is a very exciting time in a sailors life. whilst we all want to know where we are headed for, we always have the excitement of going to places of new and old. We set sail from Panama to Galapagos Islands thinking we could make it in 8 days. Yes 8 days underway and we would be in the Galapagos Islands, where Tourtoise's still roam free, Blue Footed Boobies learking around in trees and beaches, Sea Lions and Penquins are in their normal habitat.
It was a great start and we had some fun sailing and fun times with Alex and Chris aboard, altho we didn't make it to the Galapagos in 8 days it was still a great start to the Galapagos Islands. Any sailor will tell you that plans are not made in stone when sailing the seas. We ended up sailing due South to Salinas Ecuador and due to the time factor, Alex had to depart the vessel before reaching the islands due to her schedule. We pulled into Salinas Ecuador and decided it would be a quick stop to drop Alex off, get fuel and ice and be underway with in 1 day. We were there about 36 hrs total and during that time we also visited the Port Captains office to check in to the country and also check out of the port at the same time as well as take Alex off the crew list. While we were in the Port Cans office trying to get this done, I talked with 5 people explaining we only stopped for fuel, ice and take a crew member off the list and get back underway for the Galapagos Islands. It was too confusing to all five and turned out to be more paperwork than they wanted to deal with. I was advised to get back on my sailboat and head tote Islands as if I had not even stopped there. We did just that, shopped for fresh veggies and fruits, refueled all the tanks and got ice. We also was able to have 2 nice meals on shore for lunch and dinner before leaving the next day.
0600 the following day we were up, Alex off with her bags and after a short visit to the Yacht club where an old friend kept his racing J sailboat, we were underway headed for the Galapagos Islands. We are now sailing West at 02 degrees S and beating the SW winds trying to get 100 miles off shore to catch the S winds and then we are doing well. Yes the first 100 miles we were beating and once we reached 100 miles off shore, the S winds appeared. we are now sailing beam reach making an average of 6.5 knots. THis morning we were sailing along and out of no where, hundreds of Dolphins appeared and swam along with us for miles. Wow , what a sight it was to see Dolphins jumping and doing flips in their natural way of life and not caged up.

I have done a few odd jobs that needed to be done on deck, red light stopped working and the sump pump for the shower stopped working. All is well now and we are looking forward to a nice fish dinner underway. 2 more days until we reach the Islands.

Now is the time to start looking at your schedules and try and plan a trip to join us in our adventures around the world. Next stop after Galapagos is the S Pacific Islands. Hope you can get away and visit sometime aboard Elysium

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Going to SEA

Why do people decide to go to sea? We all have many reasons for taking to the life at SEA. Sailing the high seas, first of all has been around since Columbus days. I can now grasp why Columbus went out in search by boat. The new Adventure's of seeing new places and exploring the world. I have now been sailing since December of 1999 and just now actually realizing the most important thing of being at sea. It is not always the destination but by far the actual journey of it all. I left American Somoa's yesterday headed for Tonga. There was little to no wind and as I motor out of the harbor I knew I would not have much wind. I continued to motor for a few hours to get away from dangers of the islands, reefs and currents. I decided , there would be no wind, so I killed the motor to save fuel and went to bed. I drifted for 8 hours and It was a great nights sleep and when I awoke to the most bluest waters the next day, still no wind but what a sight is was. The sun was coming up and here I am in the middle of this big body of water and no pollution around, no sirens, and just me and the great creation of this world I am in. I miss my family very much and my life has changed so much since I have departed. I plan to stop for a month in the first few months of 2007 to go back and visit my family , mainly my son and his wife which I am very proud of. He has taken his life and has already started his own path. I hope and prey that he continues to make his decisions based on his dreams and not the many peer pressures that most of us live by. Since being out here, I have met some wonderful people, not only sailors but locals from the many places I have visited. I have also seen some of the most beautiful places that I would not have seen if I had stayed inside the box. If you have never experienced the life at sea, this is one part of the chapter of life everyone should experience.

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