The Rock

We finally arrived at Niue after our seven day passage from Penrhyn, and as a harbinger of good things to come, we hooked a nice mahi mahi just a few miles offshore.  Niue is known as “The Rock” as it looks like a big rock plopped down in the middle of the South Pacific.  Actually, it was created as a reef that was lifted up out of the ocean thousands of years ago. So, its origins are a bit different than the other volcanic South Pacific islands.  This gives it a really unique topography.

Niue is steep-to all around the island with no sheltered harbor or anchorage.  In order for visiting yachts to be able to stop, the Niue Yacht Club formed to put in heavy duty moorings in deep water for boats to tie up to.  The moorings are professionally maintained and put in and taken out each year for the cruising season. However, because they are not in a protected harbor, they are open to swell and wind waves and completely unusable in westerly winds.  

There is also no small boat harbor to tie up your dinghy when you go ashore.  So, all dinghies, fishing boats, dive boats, etc. are put in and pulled out of the water by a crane at the wharf.  We got quite good at getting our dinghy in and out of the water, but it definitely is a bit unusual!

After checking in and getting familiar with the main town of Alofi, we decided to rent a car with another boat to do some exploring.  One of the great things about Niue is that they have done a fantastic job of making all of the scenic sites accessible to tourists, with a tourist office, detailed maps, and well maintained trails and tracks to follow.  

All around the island are “sea tracks” which are trails that lead down from a main road toward the water.  Some of these sea tracks lead to small, sandy beaches protected by the reef, some lead to caves and chasms, and others lead to a mix of fresh and salt water pools that you can swim in.  Over the next couple of weeks, we will have explored almost all of them!

But, after just our first few days, the weather forecast was beginning to look a bit grim.  A low pressure system was going to be moving by Niue in a couple of days.  When these systems blow through, which they do regularly, they bring higher winds, rain, and wind that clocks around from East, to North, to West, to South and back to East.  As I mentioned above, you cannot stay in the moorings in any type of westerly winds. 

So, we had some choices to make.  All of the other boats in the mooring field prepared to depart for Tonga, Fiji or Samoa.  We were just not ready to leave.  We hadn’t seen all the caves and chasms yet and hadn’t done any diving, which we really wanted to do.  We decided that we would make the effort to spend more time in Niue by departing the moorings and heaving-to on the east side of the island until the westerly winds passed and we could get back onto a mooring.  At first we thought it would be about 24 hours, or maybe 48 at the most.  It ended up being 72 hours at sea before we could get back onto a mooring.

As the winds started to pick up and came from the north, we were the only boat left on the moorings.  The waves were picking up, making the boat pitch up and down quite a lot, so it was time to go.  We let go of the mooring and headed to the south of the island.  We drifted very slowly along the southwest shore of the island until after dark when the winds finally started to clock around more from the west, so it was time to head around the southern point and get to the west side.

The winds were blowing in the 20’s and rain was starting to come down.  I had gone down below to rest while Mike was on watch when I heard him yell down to me to come up.  We had been drifting at a speed of less than one knot with just our main up and had somehow drifted over a FAD (a fish aggregation device).  These FADs are all around the coast of Niue, but we weren’t expecting one a mile offshore! 

The FADs are unlit and uncharted. They are a buoy with a line to the sea floor and have a floating raft of sorts that are meant to attract small fish below them, which in turn attracts larger fish, etc.  The local fishing boats and charter sport fishing boats use them to fish near.  Well, somehow we had drifted over one and one of the lines was caught on our rudder.  

We tried maneuvering to get free of it with no luck.  The wind and waves were picking up causing or stern to slam up and down with waves crashing over the back of the stern into the cockpit.  It was quickly becoming a serious situation.  We weren’t able to raise any assistance on the radio and came to the realization that the only way we were going to get free of it was for someone to dive under the boat!

The last thing you ever want to have to do is go into the water at night (especially in poor visibility with the weather conditions).  But, we had no choice.  Mike grabbed his mask, fins and dive light.  He tied a line around his waste that was secured to the boat and headed over the side in the quickly deteriorating conditions.  I moved the rudder as Mike yelled up to me to do so that he could free the line that was tangled around it.  (I’m still not sure how he did it with the boat slamming up and down right over his head!).  And, we were free!

I realized we were free as the boat started moving forward.  We still had our main sail up and were suddenly sailing.  Mike was being dragged behind the boat by the line around his waste, and I quickly sheeted in the main sail to slow the boat back down to a crawl.  I’m sure Mike would have been able to pull himself in, but I pulled that line up as quickly as I could to get him back on board!  

I have to admit that this was one of the scariest things I think we’ve had to deal with in the last four years.  Of course, Mike’s reaction was, “easy, peasy.” I don’t think anything rattles that guy!  I guess that’s a good thing, because I probably do enough freaking out for both of us.  

The rain and and winds only lasted for about 12 hours.  The rest of our time at sea was really uneventful.  We enjoyed some sunshine and leisurely drifting up and down the east coast of the island until the wind switched around to the east again.  Soon enough, we were back safe on a mooring and ready to have more fun in Niue.  Despite our one little mishap, it was totally worth staying and getting another two weeks to do some hiking and the most fabulous diving we have ever done.  More about our diving adventures next time!

~katie