Tonga … Far too little time spent in this lovely cruising ground!

November 2013

Tonga consists of 4 main island groups; the Niua’s in the North (“New Potato’s), the Vava’u Group,  (great sailing, beautiful anchorages, and quite crowded), the Ha’apai group in the middle,(less visited, and apparently lovely!), and the Tongatapu group in the south, which is also the capital from which the Kingdom is run.

Port Maurelle......a stunning anchorage

We arrived in the afternoon, and went straight into the easily accessed Port Maurelle anchorage.  Pretty, sheltered, but quite deep. We anchored in 18m, and were happy to have the extra 16m that we added to our chain in Tahiti!  (now 76m long)  

After breakfast, we motored the 8 miles round to Neiafu, to begin the slow and rather tiresome check in procedure. Customs officials require that yachts tie up on a very yacht-unfriendly commercial wharf,  in order to gain Quarantine, Health ,  Customs and Port Control clearance . Thereafter one has to visit Immigration, and fill in the same information on yet another set of forms which will never be read!

A traditional Tongan tourist cat

Fortunately for us, the wharf was full of boats, so we picked up a nearby mooring ball, and went to check in by dinghy. By the time we were attended to, and some space had been made on the wharf, the tide had also gone out, and we just told the Customs gent, who was the main “honcho”, that his jetty was too high and dangerous now, for a little yacht like ours, and he agreed! So he instructed the quarantine and Health guys to just collect our fees, and he would waive the inspection! (Basically it’s a Tonga Wonga $100 donation to their hospital fund).

View of anchorage from Bounty Bar

Architectural ingenuity

When we finally got back to the yacht, we were approached by a scruffy, elderly boat merchant, offering a trip to the church, loaves of home baked bread, plus an additional request for some rope to tie up his cow! Mary felt sorry for the gent, and agreed to order some madly overpriced  bread, for delivery the following morning. Days went by before the bread was delivered, by which time we knew what the price of bread was in Tonga! Nevertheless, we paid his asking price, and were given an obviously wood fired oven loaf, complete with charcoal crust…… but that was not all!! The loaf was surprisingly light inside, and quite tasty…. Especially with all those caraway seeds!!  It was only the next day that we realized that the price must have been due to the additional protein  added to the flour…… not caraway seeds, but crispy roasted weevils!

Mary's new best friend!

.Lunch with friends at the Poolside Bar......eating "floaters"

I had also felt sorry for the man’s cow, and given him an old jib sheet, in return for another two loaves of bread during the next week! Needless to say, he was not seen again!

1000's of non-stinging jelly fish in the anchorage

Just to prove it!

While we were in Neiafu,  Alan, a single handing vet,  in an engineless  junk rigged badger,”Zebadee”, who had earlier completed his circumnavigation in Panama, arrived on a mercy mission to sew up a local dog that had been hit with a panga! Alan‘s philosophy is to work for 12 weeks per year, and to sail for 40, on his understandably tight budget! No engine, and no fridge, no crew, and no hot water, all contribute to making this possible!! Must also cut down on the pleasure somewhat?

In Neiafu, we also met up with Tony, and his new Irish lass, Jessica, on “Ragin’ Cajun”, and learnt from him that we had just missed Alex Nebe, who had passed through one day earlier on his way to Australia.

Watching rugby with the locals

While there, we also got introduced to the Rugby League World Cup, with Tonga playing, (and narrowly losing ) to Scotland. All very festive, and even as a union follower, I must say that I enjoyed both the speed and simplicity of the league rules!

The Bounty Bar also overlooks the anchorage, and is a regular Happy Hour stop over spot, especially with all day long “Happy Hours” at times! He certainly has a great view over the anchorage, and it is an ideal spot to check out the safety of one’s yacht!!

All too soon, we felt the need to move on, and the weather windows accelerated our planned departure by a couple of days, so it boiled down to a hurried check out, and a drawn out departure…….. requiring about 2 days to finally leave the lovely Vava’u group, and head for Ha ‘Efeva within the Haa’Pai group.

Entrance to the Swallow Cave......sadly, we had to clean the bottom of the boat instead

Bye bye Vava'u

Once again, the weather did not play the game, and we entered the pass into the anchorage only to find that the island did not offer much shelter with the wind at the point at which we had sailed in! So it became a quick overnight stop, and on to Kelafesi island, the southern most of the Haa’Pai group, and only 45miles from Nuku’Alofa.  And yet again, we were unlucky there, as we arrived moments after a 4^th yacht, with the pilot books advising safe anchorage for 3, maximum 4 yachts. Together with Scott Free, it meant that we would be 5 yachts, so we elected to dribble on down to Nuku’Alofa in the 6 knot breeze, giving ourselves 14 hrs to do the 45 miles! At times, the 1.5 current was stronger than the wind, and the auxiliary autopilot (little Fredlet) became totally confused!  At one time during the night , Mary woke me up with a plea for help, as we were sailing away from Scott Free, and back towards Haa’Pai, 180 degs in the wrong direction!  

Dawn saw us arriving ever so slowly through the well marked , but zig zag passage , into the Nuku’Alofa anchorage, and make our way up to the famous Big Mama’s anchorage, past the Royal Palace.