Birth of an Island

8/9/2019 Birth of an Island

1/15

Fredrik and Crew on Maiken

This is the chronicle of the adventures on the yacht Maiken.

Stone sea and volcano

Maiken cruising through a sea of stones
http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6650/2265/1600/pic2.0.jpghttp://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6650/2265/1600/pic1.0.jpghttp://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/


2/15
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6650/2265/1600/pic4.jpghttp://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6650/2265/1600/pic3.jpg


3/15


4/15

This volcanic island rose from the sea in front of us.


5/15
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6650/2265/1600/pic9.0.jpg


6/15


7/15
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6650/2265/1600/pic12.0.jpghttp://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6650/2265/1600/pic11.0.jpg


8/15


9/15


10/15


11/15


12/15


13/15

Thursday, August 17, 2006

http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/stone-sea-and-volcano.html

===============================================================

Tonga volcanic eruption seen by yacht crew

08 Nov 2006, 18:07

A YACHT sailing out of Vava'u motored into a strange "sea of stone" on August 12, and the following day its crew became

possibly the first people to witness the birth of a new volcanicisland that has been forming in Tonga.

The crew of the yacht 'Maiken' have recorded their observations ona web blog along with photos of the pumice rafts that they cameacross a day out of Neiafu while sailing towards Fiji.

After passing Tonga's Late island 'Maiken' crew member Hakenreported seeing streaks of pumice floating in the water, then, "Wesailed into a vast, many miles wide, belt of densely packed pumice.We were going by motor due to lack of wind and within seconds'Maiken' slowed down from seven to one knot. We were sofascinated and busy taking pictures that we plowed a couple of hundred meters into this surreal floating stone field before werealized that we had to turn back."

He said the pumice blocked their engine cooling system and theyhad to clean it out. They thought it must have come from a volcanoand since they didn't know the extent of the eruption and it wasgetting dark they decided to anchor in Vaiutukakau bay outside
http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/stone-sea-and-volcano.htmlhttp://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/stone-sea-and-volcano.html


14/15

Vava'u for the night.

The following day they identified the active volcano as the oneclose to Home Reef, and they sailed within two miles from itwhere they could see the volcano clearly. "One mile in diameter and with four peaks and a central crater smoking with steam andonce in a while an outburst high in the sky with lava and ashes. Ithink we're the first ones out here," he reported.

Frederik Fransson the skipper reported, "You might have heardabout the sailor's superstition that you should 'never leave on aFriday'. Well, we did and the sea turned to stone, it is hard to get astronger sign than that. It sounds like a bad joke, but just wait untilyou see the pictures. Floating stones none-the-less. When you pick them up, it is easy to see that they are really just volcanic ash thatis compressed into pumice stone. This experience mixed with aclose encounter of three whales makes you understand that theocean is full of surprises," he wrote. Maiken blog

Meanwhile, the pumice rafts from the Tongan volcano have swept past Fiji over the last three months.

Seen from Mounu

Allan Bowe, at the Mounu Island Resort, reported seeing aneruption on Late Iki that could be seen from Mounu Island

between August 9-11, "We could hear what sounded like

continuous thunder rumbling to the south and there was a huge plume of smoke and cloud rising up into the sky," he said.

Allan said that at the time they rang the tower at the airport inVava'u and asked if the pilots could have a look.
http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/stone-sea-and-volcano.htmlhttp://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/stone-sea-and-volcano.html


15/15

http://www.matangitonga.to/scripts/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=5&num=2351
http://www.matangitonga.to/scripts/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=5&num=2351http://www.matangitonga.to/scripts/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=5&num=2351

Birth of an Island

Documents

Transcript of Birth of an Island