Saved from the sea

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Touché is a 46’ keeler we had bought 4 years earlier and had made our home on since. Up till now we had sailed around the coastal waters of New Zealand over the summers and used her as a floating apartment while we worked over winter.

It was the sailing season of 2010 and this was our first overseas passage on Touché. We had made a quick had passage up to Tonga during the first week of May and five weeks later were cruising between the islands of Va’vau and Noumuka.

The skipper Den was relaxing below as I kept watch for other yachts on the stunningly sunny day. Sailing between the islands and reefs of Tonga required constant vigilance; the need to be on the look out not only for charted (and uncharted) islands and reefs, but also other yachts who came to watch whale that had come up from Antarctica to give birth.

I have to admit, my eyesight is not the best, but I was pleased to be able to report to Den when he came up into the cockpit, that, yes I had sighted two other boats. Out to our starboard several miles away was a yacht under sail, no threat to us or our course, and over to the port side was a local boat I could just make out with the binoculars. Neither, I reported were a threat to us on our present course.

Den, who has much better eyesight than me, took the binoculars from me to check out the vessels. He could see more detail and what he saw changed our plans. The local boat had people on board waving a white flag. We tacked and headed towards them starting the motor to help us make better time. It took us over an hour to reach the boat which had two females and a male on board.
Only one of the girls could speak a little English and she told us they had been adrift for over 24 hours. Their engine had died, they had no radio, food or water or shelter from the 30 degree sun. They had been travelling from their home island O’ua to a neighbouring island to visit with family. Neither of those islands had radio or cell phone coverage to alert anyone that the party were missing. They were considerably off course and drifting at such a rate they would have been well on the way to Fiji if we hadn’t responded to their waves.

Our only option was to take them under tow back to their home island. We had a cruising guide of Tonga which showed O’ua as a small island being surrounded by a massive reef with the path into the lagoon very windy and torturous. We never would have attempted to pass through the reef normally as the reef markings were barely visible sticks and the glare on the sea makes it hard to sight the dangers just below the surface. We had no option.

Initially we took all 3 onto our boat and fed and watered them while we towed them toward their island. Then the swell started rising and the tow rope kept jumping out of the fairlead so the towed boat would veer away and put extra stress on the towing points and slow down what was going to be a long trip. We decided to put Hami, the male boat owner back on his boat to stabilise the tow point, and we managed to keep her tracking straight behind us.

It ended up taking us 4 hours to reach the entrance to O’ua and here we needed Hami’s local knowledge. He couldn’t speak any English but we gestured for him to jump aboard our boat so he could guide us through the reef. As he jumped, he slipped and if not for a quick grab we would have lost him in the sea. (He was more concerned that his tobacco got sodden in the slip.)
When we got him safely back on our boat he went up to the bow and with simple hand signals showed us the safe passage into the anchorage.

When safely in we had the problem of getting their boat to the shore. Our only option was to tow the much heavier boat with our little inflatable. It's little 2.5hp motor which was temperamental enough at the best of time,s managed the big feat we asked of it.

Hami and the girls were very grateful for their rescue, realising they could have very easily been dead if we had not changed course and given assistance. We were invited to dinner on the island later that night.

When we went ashore later on it was almost dark. The villagers when standing on the rocks waving torches to guide us to them. As we walked up to through the palms and tropical plants, the children of the village swarmed around us laughing and chatting. We were led through yards fenced with corrugated iron to keep the pigs from the crops, to Hami’s house where 4 generations of his family sat around the edge of their modest two roomed home to watch us eat the meal they had prepared, just for us.

We were embarrassed that we weren’t sharing a meal but while being treated as special guests, we were expected to eat the food laid out only for us while the village children started hungrily through the windows and the family watched from the edges.

We gave them a gift of some spare flares so next time something similar happens (and it will) they will be able to signal for help. In return, to show their thanks, they gave us a massive box of bananas and plantain which were to last us weeks!

Later in the evening after taking photos and trying to communicate with our language differences, we made our way back down the hill with all of the people following us.

The day and destination where not as we had planned when we started out that morning but we feel very privileged that we were able to meet the people of O’ua on their beautiful island.’ Our only hope is one day we can get them copies of the photos we took, which is a little difficult as they don’t have a postal system.

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