Cruising on Blind Faith

Yachting

By Sally Andrew

ONE recent Sunday evening five young women from the village of Falehau joined Lois and Kym for dinner aboard Blind Faith. Blind Faith had been anchored off the wharf at Niuatoputapu for more than a month and her crew (especially youngsters Hali and Quinn) had been

virtually adopted by the village of

Falehau. After consuming 56 tacos, four big pizzas, a huge pot of pele leaves (cooked with 1010, tinned fish and onion) and a mountain of boiled yams, everyone sat back and sang softly. As the sun went down behind Hakautu’utu’u Island with an explosion of colour, voices drifted across the harbour.

Blind Faith is a 33-foot custom built cutter designed by Keith Hankenson. She is constructed of cold-molded wood using the West System and her hull is painted dark green. Of particular interest are her Australian Float Pac Inflatable Bags which are designed to keep Blind Faith afloat in an emergency. Cap

tain Kym Knight and his wife Lois are on their way home to Hobart, Tasmania, after a lengthy stay in the United States. With them are their children Hali, six, and

Quinn, 3’/2. “The Mighty Quinn” was

only a month old when the family left on this voyage. A not-so-young salt.

Beginning their voyage in St. Paul City (Minnesota), the crew of Blind Faith sailed down the Mississippi River to the Tennes see and Tombigbee Rivers and entered the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Alabama. After extensive cruising through the islands of the Caribbean, they visited Venezuela before transiting the Panama Canal. Blind Faith's longest passage was from Costa Rica to Hawaii a passage of nearly 40 days.

They spent over a year exploring the Hawaiian islands and weathered Hurri cane Iniki at Waianae on the west coast of

Oahu, across the channel from storm battered Nawiliwili on Kauai.

South of Hawaii, Blind Faith made an inauspicious landfall at Christmas Island.

The lagoon at Christmas is very shallow and a difficult anchorage even with a shoal draft vessel and local knowledge. Unfortu nately, Blind Faith struck a reef twice, before making her way back to the roadstead anchorage. Christmas Island’s police chief

and his family extended a traditional i-Kiribati welcome to the entire Knight

family. Despite the near mishap, Blind

Faith’s memories of Christmas Island are all good ones memories of the islanders’

warmth and generosity, and friendly “gift

wars”.

In the Northern Cooks, Blind Faith stopped at Penrhyn and Suvarrow where they were again swallowed up by island hospitality. They watched 40-odd sea turtle eggs hatch on the beach at Suvarrow, a

rather unique and privileged experience.

John loane and his family had been collecting the eggs, reburying them in safer locations, and protecting and feeding the hatchlings until they were old enough to have a chance at survival a refreshing example of grassroots environmental inter est in the islands.

This season Blind Faith sailed - .to Niuatoputapu in Northern Tonga where she put her hook down and then found it real hard to move on. Hali and Quinn made many friends ashore, sending their mom into a baking frenzy to keep everyone supplied with cookies.

Niuatoputapu is a beautiful island sur rounded with clean white sand beaches. At the village of Hihifo there is a great

swimming hole called Niutoua Spring where freshwater bubbles out of the ground and fills a large crevice. Strolling round the island, one hears a constant exchange of malo e lelei’ s the local greeting.

There are a few motor vehicles, and life moves in traditional island fashion mostly on foot. There are less than half a dozen motor vehicles and bicycles are used for most inter-village visiting.

The women of Niuatoputapu make exquisite pandanus mats, the sale of which constitutes the main sources of cash on the island. The men help by cutting and collecting pandanus, and the women spend most of their day weaving mats with friends sharing time, laugh

ter and labour. Their hands are always

busy soaking, rinsing, drying and weaving

the soft pandanus fibre. These fine white pandanus mats are shipped to Nuku’alofa where they are sold to local Tongans.

At Niuatoputapu Kym and his family

were befriended by Tui, his wife Bessie and their two-year-old son Lars who live near the Falehau wharf. Tui and his two dogs often take cruisers up to the top of Niuatoputapu’s central ridge for a spec tacular view of her fringing reef, a shipwreck and the three villages. It’s not a long hike but quite a scramble for a three year-old. Tui carried Quinn most of the way to the top. Kym and Lois both agree that cruising with young kids has been fun.

It has opened up doors to new friendships and outlooks, and has provided their children Hali and Quinn with some

outstanding learning opportunities. □

Sally Andrew

At Niuatoputapu: Hali and friends