9th August, Tapana, Tonga

We woke up to more grey overcast sky so had a lazy and relaxing day reading books and watching dvds. By mid afternoon the sun had come out so we had a swim before sundown drinks in the cockpit. A lovely peaceful day.

8th August, Tapana, Tonga

Our plan today was to head to one of the other anchorages and we did . but we didnt end up at the one we planned!! The anchorage we had planned to visit has recently had some mooring buoys put down to help protect the coral but unfortunately we couldnt find them!! So we decided to head back through the reef pass and go to a beach anchorage we had heard about. We got through the pass safely and headed to the beach. As we got closer it looked spectacular but we couldnt find the way in!! The book said to head to the south of the beach and then come up into the anchorage but there was coral everywhere and the depth got down to less than a metre under the keel!! We decided to give this a miss and head to the Art Gallery anchorage as they had buoys they said we could use for free as we had bought something for the gallery and swapped them some rope. Jonny was happier with this suggestion as the anchor windlas chain stripper had bent again and he wanted to fix it so it would be easier not to anchor.
After lunch Jonny managed to get the stripper off the windlas but it looks like it is bent beyond repair this time so we have taken it off and are hoping to be able to use the windlas without it until Australia where we can get a new one.
We headed over to the Art Gallery to say hello and ask advice about the beach anchorage and we know have the correct way to get in hopefully for tomorrow!!
The nice sunny day turned into a rainy day mid afternoon so we hid below and had a dvd afternoon afternoon which was lovely.

7th August, Old Harbour, Tonga

Our guide book said that it was a short walk over the hill from Old Harbour back to town so we decided to go and get some fresh provisions and catch up with some of the boats that have arrived since we left. It was a very short walk to town (about 5 mins over the hill)!!
After getting rid of the rubbish we found Ben (Silk Sheets) in the Mermaid checking e mails so we stopped to say hello and then Del and Gary (T Rex) arrived at Sailing Safaris next door so we went to say hello to them.
After getting some shopping we decided to stop at the Balcony for their lunchtime special burgers which were yummy before heading back to Newt.
We spent the afternoon doing more jobs and tidying up. With the old dinghy out of the cockpit locker we can now fit all the spare jerry jugs (apart from the petrol one) in the cockpit locker and Newt looks less like a gypsy boat!!

6th August, Old Harbour, Tonga

On this mornings net we heard about a Tongan ferry that had sunk overnight just north of the capital. There were still looking for about half of the 80 people on board. The ferry goes between the capital and the island groups and comes up to this area so many of the locals know people on board.
We had a sort out and took some spare food and rope over to the people at the Art Galley in exchange for a small painting.
We decided to head through one of the reef passes to explore some of the more remote anchorages. We had been warn that the charts were out and planned to eye ball navigate but set the tracker on our chart plotter to see where we had gone to assess the accuracy of our charts. When we got to the pass it was abit choppy and the small marker balls were hard to see so Jonny took the dinghy to check it out whilst i hovered at the edge of the reef and then we took Newt through. Looking at our path afterwards our Navionics Gold charts were spot on (although we have heard that the sea map and max sea charts arent).
We checked out a couple of anchorages but there were quite exposed and eventually ended up in the old harbour which was really protected with 2 other boats.
Throughout the afternoon we listened to the VHF as a rescue party was organised to head south to help with the ferry rescue. Unfortunately (or maybe it was for the best??) we were too far from town to offer our assistance - after over 12 hours in the water there are unlikely to be many more survivors so not going to be an easy rescue mission.
We had a peaceful afternoon and evening enjoying our tranquil anchorage ... with a naked single handed guy drinking beer and singing on the boat next to us!!

5th August, Tapana, Tonga

A windy and overcast day give us a good opportunity to do some much needed cleaning and some boat jobs.

4th August, Tapana, Tonga

During the night we had strong gusts of wind through the anchorage which after having not anchored for a while made us abit nervous but the anchor held and we were fine.
After breakfast we headed to the Ark Gallery - a floating art gallery in the anchorage. An American couple who had sailed through here in 1983 had come back and set up an art gallery which was also their home. The paintings were amazing and we bought a couple of small paintings of whales and turtles.
We had a relaxing afternoon on the boat as it was too windy to go very far and a lovely evening watching dvds.

3rd August, Tapana, Tonga

After a walk on the small beach ashore we headed over to say hello to the other boats in the anchorage. There were both New Zealand boats spending the season in Tonga.
From Lisa Beach we headed round the corner to Tapana which is another stunning and sheltered anchorage.
Once anchored we had abit of a tidy up and rearrange of some of the cupboards below and got the spare dinghy out of the cockpit locker to check it was ok before we sold it.
After a walk ashore we headed over to say hello to an Irish boat in the anchorage. They have been cruising for 6 years and are heading back to New Zealand for hurricane season.

2nd August, Lisa Beach, Tonga

After a Sunday morning lie in we headed ashore to drop off our garbage before heading out to the anchorages.
The Vava'u group of Tonga is made up of lots of small islands all within a day sail of the main town. According to the Moorings (yacht charter company) map there are 42 anchorages within the islands and we are planning to spend the next couple of weeks exploring some of them.
Today we headed to anchorage no. 10 - Lisa Beach which was a couple of hours from town. We saw whales on the horizon today making some big splashes but they weren't close enough to see properly.
The anchorage is one of the quieter ones with only 2 other boats in it. It is well protected from the strong tradewinds we have at the moment as it is surrounded by tall cliffs.
We spent the afternoon reading and swimming before having tea and watching a dvd.

1st August, Neiafu, Tonga

Since Niue the weather has got abit chiller and this morning we needed long sleeve tops on when we woke up. In Niue we wore long trousers for the first time since Europe and on the crossing from Niue to Tonga we had our mid layer kit on at night!!
Our plan this morning was to motor the half an hour back to town. As I was brushing my teeth I saw whales in the distance so we took a little detour on the way back to town!! An hour later after seeing 3 pods of whales we made it to town!!
We rushed round town to get our shopping before the shops shut at 12pm.
At 2.30pm we headed over to the barge. Our new friends on Chriselle had completed their circum navigation in Tonga after 8 years and they have some friends who have a barge here and said they could have a party on it. We headed over for drinks and nibbles in the afternoon and then a bbq. It was a great afternoon and evening.
At 8pm we headed back to our boats. Jonny dropped me off at Newtsville and he went to have drinks with a group of Kiwi lads on their boat (the first people we have met who are the same age as us!!).

31st July, Port Maurelle, Tonga

After a slow morning we decided to go for a walk ashore. On the way ashore we stopped off to say hello to a New Zealand boat flying an OCC flag – it wasn't their OCC flag but they were a nice couple to talk to anyway!! They have sailed to Tonga from New Zealand and are spending 6 months cruising around here.
As it was still quite windy we decided to postpone our visit to the cave and spent the afternoon on the boat reading books.