Our Tongan Pig Roast...

Actual Date of Events: Early November

Vegetarian’s you have been advised to not read on…

After spending a couple more days at anchorage, we felt once again that another adventure was necessary. Since meeting Doug, he had wanted to find a pig or a goat to catch for a beach roast. Whenever I would return from a hike or a day out and would mention that I had seen a pig in the bush, Doug’s immediate response was where I had seen it and if he could catch it. Unfortunately the opportunity never occurred to catch one and instead we had to settle for the purchase of two pigs from a local farmer.

That’s right, we bought two live pigs from a local farmer. The pigs lived in the cockpit of Doug’s boat for a day and a night while we arranged our plans to seek out a secluded beach for our own pig roast. The following day we sailed our two boats in search of the perfect private beach, which we soon found. As we began to anchor, a torrential rainstorm began and we thought that our plans might have to be postponed for another day but while going ashore the rain seized. The clouds broke and the beauty of the remote island in the midst of Tonga was stunning.

We searched the entire island gathering as much firewood as we could, most of which was driftwood or the scraps of an abandoned cabin we spotted ashore. I then shuttled Doug back to his boat to finish the pigs off and reload our supplies of shore beers. Just for your information the pig’s life with us, though brief was a good one.

The easiest was to kill the pigs was to tie an anchor to their feet and toss them overboard. I do think that the method used may have tainted the meat slightly, but it was the easiest and quietest way. Doug then cleaned the pigs on his boat before we assembled and shuttled all of the evening’s supplies back to the beach.

Once ashore the first step was the singeing of the pigs, which is the process of briefly placing the pigs in the fire and burning their hair off. After that we speared them and placed them across the fire on the spit where they cooked for several hours constantly having to be rotated. While they cooked I climbed a coconut tree and helped prepare a tuna that had been purchased at the local market. I also placed whole garlic cloves and onions wrapped in aluminum foil in the fire.

The evening was very fun as we all reminisced of the many stories and adventures that had taken place during our sailing passages. Doug told stories of his many adventures of diving sunken ships and near death experiences all the while singing pirate chants.

He told us about how his friend had been launching glass bottles off of his boat with the coordinates of his current positions every hour as an experiment. The notes in the bottle told of how to contact him so that he could study where the bottles had turned up and their relation to the ocean currents. Doug simultaneously had been summoned by a remote pacific Island chief and upon introduction was presented with one of these glass bottles. The chief wanted Doug to read the message it contained and as he did he realized it was a bottle from a friend he new in Australia. The story contained much more vivid details but was pretty funny.

We also laughed heaps while listening to the many fond stories of the pigs. How in the middle of the night Doug had woken up to one of the two pigs hanging above his bed through the hatch squealing. Or when one of them jumped over board in the night and started to swim to sea passing the immigration dock. With Doug in hot pursuit, the security guard ashore was surprised to see a pig swimming past him to sea being chased by a dinghy. I’m sure it was quite the sight.

The evening was just another day in paradise and was such a unique experience. The next day after snorkeling around the area we returned to the main anchorage in Vava’u. We had dinner together and said farewell to Doug, Campbell and crew since they were off the next morning towards Australia.