We all know the story – Leo the young rogue blags his way onto the ‘unsinkable ship’, gets drunk with some Irish types, sees Winslet in a corset , sharpens his pencil *cough*, draws a picture, and steams up a car window. In the mean time the ‘unsinkable ship’ hits an iceberg and does in fact sink, leaving Leo clinging to a lump of wreckage with his corset–clad-mews safely on top. Of course there couldn’t possibly be another piece of wreckage floating around somewhere after such a colossal disaster for Leo to lie on, or in fact utilise the same piece of wreckage as Winslet (as this excellent website proves) – no, he is really committed to playing that sympathy card, and so time passes, he gets cold, turns blue, and dies, sinking into the abyss of the North Atlantic. Winslet is so upset by this that she turns into an old woman and starts throwing jewellery about, and to finish it all off Celine Dion chirps up to provide a soundtrack for early 90s school discos everywhere
Should have tested the Titanic in the Pacific - much warmer...
I am of course talking about that most infamous maritime disaster, the legendary sinking of the R.M.S Titanic, and what better way to mark the centenary of this iconic event than by taking an extended voyage by sea? Exactly – that’s what I thought.
Travelling around Funafuti is simple, if you want to go to the shops, you walk, if you want to go to the post office, you walk, if you want to go a bit further afield, you jump on the back of a motorbike, (or realistically you can definitely still walk) and if you want to visit one of the islets across the lagoon there are plenty of small fishing boats and canoes you can get a ride in (and at low tide you can yet again walk to the closer ones). Getting to the other 8 islands which make up Tuvalu however, is a little trickier and relies on the two government owned ships, the Manu Folau, and the Nivaga II – don’t ask what happened to the Nivaga I – you don’t want to know.
If you live on the outer islands of Tuvalu, the Manu Folau and the Nivaga II are your slow, rusty, temperamental umbilical cords – attaching you to the rest of Tuvalu and the World; they are responsible for taking all the supplies to each island, bringing the post, bringing nurses and teachers, and are the only way to travel between islands and back to the capital Funafuti to catch an onward flight or boat to Fiji. To say the outer islands are remote and difficult to get to is a bit of an understatement, but then I like a challenge, so when I was offered the chance to visit Niutao in the Northern group and spend some time there supporting their Scout troop, I of course jumped at the chance.
The mighty Nivaga II at the wharf in Funafuti...
Being such a vital life line to those on the outer islands, you would assume that somewhere there would exist a shipping schedule which has been drawn up by a dedicated team of experts to explicitly direct each ship to the right island, ensuring a regular service to each, and avoiding lengthy gaps between visits. True to form, the reality is slightly different from the expectation, and instead of a well organised and structured timetable listing the destinations and dates of departure, when I visited the shipping office, I was given a piece of paper seemingly from another dimension where acronyms abound and numbers throw themselves around the page recklessly like an unsolvable dot the dot.
And so I found myself sitting in the offices of the transport and shipping ministry staring at the following options and trying to figure out which one I wanted to get on:
i) (Norm&Return MP) 07’/12 NKFTAU,VTP,NUI ETD FUN 100412 AM
ii) (Norm &Return MP) 08’/12 NMEA,NMAGA,NTO ETD FUN 170412 AM
iii) (Motufoua grils only) 09’/12 VTP ETD FUN 30512 AM
It turns out that trying to understand the shipping schedule in Tuvalu is a bit like trying to discuss the meaning of life in a nightclub – both parties ask the right questions, then follows lots of noise and wildly exaggerated hand gestures, but ultimately no one has a clue what is going on and so the answer is never reached. After peering into my crystal ball, consulting the Rosetta stone, and asking for some local assistance, I came to the conclusion that I needed a ticket for route ii) apparently the hieroglyphics translate as: Voyage is a normal route and will be taking MP’s back to their islands after the sitting of parliament last week, it is voyage number 8 of 12 for the current period, it will visit Nanumea, Nanumanga, and Niutao and the estimated time of departure from Funafuti is the morning of the 17th April 2012, simple when you know how! Being of limited means I settled on a deck passenger ticket, but splashed out for an on board meal which I was told apparently consists of “delicious” corned beef and rice, “when we can buy enough corned beef, otherwise it’s just rice”. This is also when I found out that I would be travelling on the mighty Nivaga II.
Pretending to drive massive boats is excellent fun...
Where the Manu Folau is a specifically designed passenger ship which also carries the odd bit of cargo, the Nivaga II is an old fishing trawler which has been converted to take passengers. I say ‘converted’, basically they just leave a space on the back deck where one of the fish containers used to go and roll out a few mats – voila! You’ve got yourself a sea going passenger ship. Both the Manu Folau and the Nivaga II are a little old, and arguably past their best as they are both ‘donations’ from other countries who no longer have a use for them, but they say one man’s loss is another man’s gain, so I’m sure it’s fine. To put my mind at ease, I went to personally inspect the rust of the Nivaga II and discovered that one of our Scout leaders is the chief engineering officer, so he let me have a little look around the ship and play with all the cool stuff on the bridge (pretending to drive a massive boat is fun!). He assured me that despite its age and rust, she was very sea worthy and she hadn’t had to go for a service in Fiji for over 2 months (repair trips to Fiji are a regular part of these boat’s schedules) This is a slightly different point of view from the professional ship inspector sent over from America a few months ago who, and I quote “would rather swim [to the islands] than take that boat”…what do ship inspectors know anyway, at least we are unlikely to crash into any icebergs on the trip.
Real world 'dot-to-dot'...
The most important piece of information to take from the Tuvalu shipping schedule is the ‘ETD’ bit, and specifically the ‘E’ part. Standing for ‘Estimated Time of Departure’, an estimate is perhaps too grand a word to describe the voodoo which is necessary to find out when your boat is actually leaving or arriving at its destination. The only way to know if your boat has arrived at the wharf in Funafuti is to sit and watch the lagoon and wait for a large boat shaped lump to appear on the horizon and slowly get bigger. Even this isn’t fool proof as all boat trips in Tuvalu are subject to 2 types of weather:
1. Weather referring to the climatic conditions: wind, rain, storms, tides etc. and,
2. Whether as in whether the Captain/Navigator/Engineer/Crew/Drunken Sailor can be bothered to go or not.
Even if your boat does leave on time, it is difficult to say how long it will take to actually reach your destination, and almost impossible to say how long the boat will stay there when it does. Before I get to Niutao my boat will visit Nanumea and Nanumanga. Apparently it takes about 28 hours to get to Nanumea where the boat stays until it has loaded/unloaded all of its cargo. Then it’s back on the boat for a few hours to get to Nanumanga where the process is repeated. Finally the boat will arrive in Niutao and along with the cargo, I will unload myself, stand on the beach and watch the boat sail off back to Funafuti without me – there won’t be another boat coming to Niutao for another six weeks…
"er yes hello...my name is Andy and I appear to be driving a boat..."
When the Nivaga II disappears over the horizon I will find myself on an island a mile and a half long and a mile wide (the second smallest in Tuvalu). There are no other islets to visit, no airport, no bars, no nightclub, no government building, no hotel, no snack bar, and no vegetable garden. As far as the eye can see the only thing visible from the island is the big blue Pacific and its waves crashing on the reef which surrounds the island. This truly is a tropical island in the middle of nowhere, and I am fortunate enough to be able to spend six weeks there working with the Niutao Scouts, and doing something that visitors to Tuvalu hardly ever get to do. If the Pacific Ocean is the haystack, then Niutao has to be a good contender for the needle, and I can’t wait to get there.
So things are all set, I have my tickets, I’ve packed my bag, charged my camera, washed my Scout uniform, sharpened my camping knife, and even shaved my beard off in a bid to look more professional, (plus it was getting hot, and I’m concerned of developing a ‘neck-beard’ tan line) so the only thing left to do is to watch the lagoon in the hope that I will catch a glimpse of the Nivaga II arriving – hopefully on time.
Loading cargo onto the Nivaga II ready(ish) for departure...