Taking it easy Tonga style
Trip Start
Jan 14, 2006
1
16
44
Trip End
Ongoing
Vava'u,
Tonga
Monday, August 7, 2006
We sailed down to Tongatapu in the south of Tonga to drop off George, Nikki and John, who flew to Auckland and George and John took their Yachtmasters. Dad and I stayed in Nuku'alofa to clean the boat and do a bit of maintenance. Jack and Grace flew into Auckland on the 19th July and Dad flew down to pick them up as well as getting some much needed chandlery for the boat (its surprising how difficult it has been to find 12V light bulbs for the boat across the Pacific!).
We spent a little time exploring Tongatapu, which is no where near as picturesque as Vava'u but we saw some great blow holes on the East coast of the island where the breaking waves would force water against a coral shelf and send jets of water 30 - 50ft in the air; very impressive
Brothers and sister
!Grace and Jack were with us in Nuku'alofa for a week before Sophie and Joe flew out and the Shambhala was once again a full and busy boat. We left Tongatapu on the 28th with a very nice French girl called Catherine, who was in Tonga for a couple of months on a placement for her uni course - economics in developing countries. The association Catherine was working for has an office in Vava'u and she was heading up for a week's work so she jumped aboard; her first time sailing!
We sailed for 1 day to an anchorage in the south of the Ha'apai group (the middle group of the Tonga islands) where there were no other yachts. The wind gradually picked up through the afternoon and we ended up having to spend the night on anchor watch as the winds were a constant 40-45 kts! It was the most sustained wind I've ever experienced - great for Jack and Catherine as first-time sailors!!!
The next morning the wind was still howling so we set off with 2 reefs in the mainsail and half of the genoa out and headed for Vava'u making a good 7-8kts. We sailed through the night and arrived in Niefau at 3am and it took Dad and I about 20 minutes to pick up a mooring buoy in the dark
Sunset in Nuku'alofa
! It was a great to get back to Vava'u, I had the feeling of returning home. We organised for Jack and Joe to do their PADI openwater diver course and set off for an anchorage for the night (the same anchorage we had met up with Sohcahtoa and Bingo before leaving Vava'u). The wind was still blowing a hoolie and I unpacked the kite and had an amazing couple of hours on the beach in the strongest winds I have ever flown in; I was able to jump clean over Joe and Jack with ease (pics to come).A couple of days later we took Catherine out for a sail and snorkelled Mariner's Cave, which can only be reached by free-diving down about 1m and swimming 5m into the cave. It is a completely sealed cave so as the swell comes in, the pressure in the cave increases and a thick mist forms on the water, so thick that its difficult to see each other. A few seconds later the water level drops and the mist disappears - an amazing experience. After I snorkelled the cave I was free diving the coral shelf outside and I heard something that will always be with me - humpback whales singing! I couldn't see them but their songs were beautiful.
On the sail back to town we passed a large humpback about 4 boatlengths away that dove when we got close to it, but not before showing us its magnificent tail fin, which rose high above the water as we've all seen on the TV, but to see it in person just off the boat was a huge rush
Superman
!So we are now in Vava'u for the next 3 weeks, chilling out, snorkelling, diving, sailing and exploring the islands. Its great having the family on board we're all having a lot of fun.
I hope you are having a great time wherever you are and I'm missing you all loads.
Lots of love
Tom xxx
