Sailing in Tonga

  Neiafu, Tonga
Wednesday, May 6, 2009

We flew to the Vava'u Islands on a tiny airplane, like a flying cigar tube. Lots of beeping noises from the cockpit which were a bit alarming until we got used to it. The views down on the reefs and islands were stunning.

We picked up our yacht Finvarra, an Oceanis 331, she's a bit older than we had expected and has a number of peculiar quirks which we have had to get used to, but she sails OK - here we are under sail:

Tonga sailing

The Vava'u islands are beautiful, lots of small islands surrounded by white sandy beaches, coral reefs and covered in palm trees, as the following photos hopefully show:

Tonga beach

 

Tonga coral island

 








The water is turquoise blue, crystal clear and a lovely temperature for swimming.


We visited the Swallow caves to marvel at the natural features and to swim down into their depths to see shoals of thousands of fish swimming in tight formation creating changing patterns in the water as if they had been choreographed by David Attenborough:

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We went in the afternoon when the light shines through the narrow cave entrance, the floor of the cave is about 100 ft deep and the water is so clear that we could see the bottom.

We were invited to a Tongan feast at a local village - a spectacular meal with traditional dishes cooked in an underground oven.We didn't really know what most of it was (imagine Owen's face) but we ate our fill and it looked like we had hardly started!

Tonga feast

The local children performed traditional Tongan dances and songs.

Tonga feast dancing

The next day we left the anchorage and headed out to sea. As we entered the next bay, Carol sighted something in the water that she thought might be a manta ray. Knowing that I harboured a dream to swim with mantas, she tried to persuade me to jump straight into the water with it but I wasn't too sure, being concerned that it might be some strange shark or the dreadful spindly killer fish and that I might be it's breakfast. Once we could see it clearly it was obviously a manta so I jumped in and swam with it for a while (with mask and snorkel), then we swapped and Carol swam with it for another 20 minutes or so. It was an amazing experience, such a beautiful, graceful giant and it didn't seem at all bothered by our presence, swimming back and forth alongside the yacht.

We're now in town (Neifau) getting more food and water for the boat, we only have a few days left in Tonga (booo). The weather has been wonderful until today, now it's a bit wet but due to clear up again tomorrow.