23rd June - 3rd July 2003 - Cruising the Kingdom of Tonga aboard NEw Zealand based tall ship Soren Larsen :
>June 23, 2003 Nuku¡-alofa, Tongatapu.
Three days of ships maintenance and crew days off, finds us preparing for voyage crew once again. Thea and I wandered the vegetable market, finding a wonderful array of tropical fruits and veggies that neither of us had seen before, we were preparing the stores for a ten day voyage and with new produce to work with, we both looked forward to trying local recipies. When we returned from the market we found the new V.C.s (Voyage Crew) getting the ships tour from crew and Captain Jim ready to weigh anchor. He had originally wanted to let our new guests snorkel around one of the small islands, but because we have many 'repeat offenders' (or one who has previously sailed on board) Jim decided to head for the volcano Tofua. Needless to say we headed into the big blue for an overnight passage north.
>For the overnight passage Fraser Yule, deckhand and our newly found writer, gives us a different perspective of life on board;
>"The evening was clear and vibrant with calm tropical south westerly breezes lifting into miniature thermals. I was swimming enthusiastically enjoying the pressure that fluttered beneath my wings. Then as though God had sighed, I was flung into the air loosing all control of flight, ascent for descent to be met by a wall of oak and teak. There as I lay gasping for another breath I saw a new voyage crew, some grappling for another beer, some grasping to hold on to the fresh fish they had for dinner. They all sounded as though they lived in different oceans, and had converged on mine, to explore new lands and rediscover adventure.
They should try
swimming at night too."
.. A Tongan Flying Fish.
>So, there we have Frasers view on the first night aboard a tallship. The flying fish he is talking about, was later fried for fine afternoon smoko!
>June 24th Tofua Island, the actual site of the mutiny on the Bounty, and best kava plantations in Tonga! Just after breakfast we sat gazing up at the two land masses, one of which we would begin ascending shortly. Emil, a real volcano enthusiast began explaining in brief how individual each volcano is and at the call of boats ashore he and his camera bags were gone! The VCs sat patiently ashore waiting for the crew to get their act together, by the time Fraser, Marita, Daniel, Mikkel and I landed, everyone was eager to begin the hike to the top of Lofia Volcano, 558 meters above sea level. None of us had been ashore before and so in order to find a path there were a few attempts until we discovered palm trees with markings on them. These not only proved to be a path up but also had some nice look out points along the way - or maybe that was just all the places I stopped to gasp for breath! Nonetheless an hour and a half later we had made it to the top, a magnificant blue green lake and smoking crater set stage for the glorious view of the surrounding ocean life!
>As the dinghy picked us up from ashore we stared at our legs and laughed at the sight of them, as if we had been attacked by cats! Thea, Mark, Joel, Jacob, Lucy and Bobby got the quick rundown on our experience of scaling the volcano, and which path to take. An hour and a half later we received radio contact informing us that they made it and were on their way down!
>After an overnight passage, our voyage crew were now somewhat used to life on board a tallship and the way watch routines worked. We crawled into Vava'u and all were eager to head ashore to explore the local village, we even had locals rowing out to the ship to try and sell us their carvings!
>Jim manages to pick some of the most beautiful anchorages in the world to take us to. We dropped and weighed anchor three times in a 12 hour period so that we may discover as much of Tonga¡'s beauty as possible. Thursday evening brought us to "John's Place", the locals had Tapa cloths, wooden carvings as well as bone and shell carvings on sale, of which most of us found something to buy! We were lucky enough to experience some traditional Tongan dancing performed by a group of young boys and girls. While they danced, their mothers and fathers prepared for us a feast that I will never forget! We ate octopus, raw fish salda, taro, kumera, pork, and vegetable and crab saladk, all of which was displayed and served on banana leaves and seashells. We were about 50 people seated along wooden benches and all scooping the food into our mouths with our fingers while our eyes wandered back and forth for the next tasty treat we would sample! Later in the evening the locals serenaded us with fine guitar playing as well as Kava for those who wanted.
>Fraser and one of our voyage crew, Brian both had birthdays in the past two days. We celebrated with dress in your finest for dinner and I have to say most of the people who showed up I hardly recognized!
We spent the 29th at Mariner's and Swallow's cave. The first being an underwater cave, one must swim a meter down and approximately three across to get into the grotto, all the while tropical fish and sea life danced below!
Swallow's cave is a space large enough for the dingy to quite nicely fight in and allows for a 360 deg view of green speckled rocks, crystal blue waters along with the bats clinging to the ceiling!
>An overnight passage south seemed to not only find us great weather and wind but also humpback whales! We are in the midst of some awesome deserted islands full of coconut palms and hibiscus flowers, the perfect setting for a BBQ ashore! Everyone collected fire wood as Mark started the fire, and eventually cooked a fine meal of chicken, sausages and a fresh fish that Daniel caught off the stern of the ship! It was a delicious, but sandy feast and what a better way to finish off the evening, sitting around a fire singing sea chanties!
>We have spent the past few days sailing amid the islands, and everyone is becoming very familiar with the sail handling involved in tacking the ship! Voyage Crew spend the afternoons ashore beachcombing or snorkling and we are always so fascinated to hear of Vera's snorkiling stories or seeing the wonderful shells Daniel and Stefan have collected!
>July 1st, Happy Canada Day back home, Happy Birthday to Jamahl in New Zealand, and Happy 25th wedding anniversary to our couple this trip Ken and Jill! We celebrated with a fancy dress party and a few bottles of champane! The lovebirds were then invited to enjoy the starlight hotel, also known as the deckhouse roof, and were sent straight to bed! We weighed anchor at 05:30 to leave the Haapai group and head back towards Nuku'alofa. The majority of us took advantage of the warm sun and lounged around all day, occasionally jumping up to watch the humpback whales that we spotted.
The last night on board is very quiet as we are anchored just off Sunset Resort and the V.C.s along with Bobby, Mikkel, Thea, Marita and Jacob headed ashore to enjoy fine Tongan cooking and traditional dancing.
Next we sail through the Tongan Islands and head west for Fiji!
All th ebest
Noreen
11 votes 
This is a top pick!
