Tonga days

We've had several grey rainy squally days here in Tonga but yesterday the sky cleared for long enough for us to find a beautiful anchorage at Avalau Island. 

Swimming from Tintin to the beach we found a clown fish family (like Nemo) and a couple of lion fish taking cover under a coral head. In the shallows was an inquisitive black and white striped sea snake.  In the brief window of sun we flew the drone above the white beach, palm trees and azure water. For memories when back in the UK winter!

Today the fleet has gathered from around this archipelago back at Neiafu, for the ARC prize giving dinner, our first full get together since the Marquesas in March.

It will be bittersweet for many as several boats will be leaving the ARC once in Fiji. Personally I'll be sad to say goodbye to many wonderful friends, but at be same time I'm very excited to be returning home in just a few days to be around when Bridget and James return from university. 

Pim will be leaving Tintin in Fiji, and Rob will follow me from Vanuatu in July, when Tintin will be handed on to Nicki and Richard for some more exploration in New Caledonia before they sail to New Zealand in September.

In Vava'u

We're currently on a mooring buoy in a small anchorage off a desserted
islet in the Vava'u group of islands. The weather is grey, damp and
relatively cool and we're having a very quiet morning hoping that the
weather will clear so that we get good visibility for snorkelling and
diving this afternoon.

After our arrival in Tonga, we had a happy evening meeting up with most
of the WARC fleet. Some of them we hadn't seen since Tahiti, so it was
good to chat and share a beer or 2. On Tuesday, we left the town of
Naifu and went to an anchorage called Port Maurelle - no visible
signs of habitation ashore, but quite a few non-WARC boats.
Generalising hugely, I think that Pacific islands east of here are
generally visited by yachts heading west across the Pacific whereas
Tonga and islands eastwards are often visited by boats coming up from
NZ for a season and the most common flag for yachts around here is NZ.

Yesterday, we visited 2 caves - both spectacular in their different
ways. In the morning, we hitched a lift with our friends on Charm to
go to Mariners cave. Invisble from more than 10m away, its entrance
required a dive underwater for several metres before emerging into the
airspace. I was first in and it was slithly unsettling heading into
the blackness with just a hope that I wasn't going into a dead-end
cave! Once in, as the water surged in and out, the pressure in the
cave changed
- very noticeably in the ears, and also by the sudden appearance and
disappearance of mist as water condensed and vapourised with the
pressure changes.

In the afternon, we went to Swallows cave - a much bigger cave
accesible by dinghy. The afternoon light was slanting in lighting up
thousands of little bait fish taking shelter in the cave. Free-diving
among them was wonderful as the shoals moved this way and that. Pim
goes deeper than the rest and it was something out of a nature
programme seeing him swim under and through the fish.

We then moved onto this anchorage and were joined by Charm and Aurora
B. We had a memorable evening on Charm with many laughs and even some
serious conversation. Apparently, the video of me trying to get an
After 8 mint from my forehead into my mouth using only facial muscles
is quite amusing. Hmmm.

Tintin’s arrival in Tonga

Nicki here from Neiafu, the port of entry into Tonga's Vava'u group of islands. We are currently sitting at anchor opposite the wharf waiting for our turn to go alongside and receive the Tongan immigration officials for clearance into the Kingdom of Tonga - unfortunately there is a long queue as many of the World ARC boats have recently arrived; sometimes travelling with so many boats on the rally has disadvantages.
We had a good sail from Nuie ~ 250 nautical miles pretty much along the rhumbline with a decent sailing breeze most of the way, largely forward of the beam so we used plain sails rather than our downwind sails. After a glorious starry night departing Nuie we had mainly cloudy skies thereafter - with occasional torrential downpours (notably usually when I was on watch!)
On passage we enjoyed watching whales blowing and broaching, with the juvenile whales leaping spectacularly high out of the water; Rob was the eagle-eyed whale spotter on both occasions.
Pim requested to take on the role of skipper for this specific passage, to build up his sailing experience. He took his responsibilities very seriously and managed the boat speed carefully to ensure that we made our landfall into Tonga during daylight hours yesterday afternoon. (He also paid great attention to sail trim throughout - now nicknamed 'Pim the Trim' and is proving his extended range of skills by cooking pancakes for breakfast for us all right now).
As we sailed around the high limestone cliffs to make our entry into the sheltered harbour of Neiafu, Richard hooked a beautiful big =][wahoo which was quickly gaffed, bled out over the transom and then filleted on the foredeck with help from Pim. It tasted delicious for dinner last night! We anchored in a small quiet bay just outside of Neiafu and celebrated crossing the date line - thereby missing a full day (nominated to be Nuie's Saturday)with a few glasses of wine.Our arrival was on Sunday in Tonga, which is a very Christian country, and we heard church bells and people singing hymns, but otherwise it was very tranquil and quiet with few signs of life ashore. (Swimming is forbidden by law for Tongans on Sundays).

Today dawned grey and damp, with the weather forecast indicating more of the same with strong winds later today - so a good day for going ashore and catching up on emails etc. Jo flies back to UK in just over a week so we hope that the sun shines for us all later in the week so we can explore and enjoy diving/ snorkelling, before various WARC functions over the weekend prior to Tintin heading on to Fiji with target departure on Tuesday next week.

The fast pace of the World ARC is challenging - by comparison when I cruised in the Vava'u group with my own boat 'Rhumbline' 18 years ago (yes really it was that long ago!) Mike Forbes and I enjoyed doing 'nothing much at all' in the anchorage at Port Maurelle for nearly a week!

All is well on board Tintin - the only minor gear failure on passage was a cupboard door latch in our cabin: fortunately Rob and Jo have a job lot of spares.

Nicki

Over the date line

En route to Tonga we will cross the date line, even though we
haven't reached 180 degrees west yet. Tonga has chosen to lie
west of the date line so there is a bit of a kink in the line to
accommodate this!

So at midnight tonight we will be fast forwarding from Friday June 7th
to Sunday June 9th, with no mention of Saturday 8th of June in our log
book.

Tintin is romping along through the seas, well behaved in the gusty
winds with a reef in the main and the wind just forward of the beam.
It has been a great day. This afternoon Rob spotted a whale ahead, and
we saw a humpback whale breaching the sea three times, about half a
mile off. The whale came up vertically out of the water to its full
length, then crashed back with a huge splash. Sorry no photo!

We have been treated to a spectacular sunset so here is a photo of that
instead.

Leaving Nuie

We're currently on passage from Nuie bound for Vava'u in Tonga. It's
240nm - so relatively short by Pacific standards, but still we're
having to work for it.

Nuie is a slighly odd island. One of the smallest nations in the
world, it is still feeling the effects of a 2005 cyclone. Many of the
islanders were evacuated to New Zealand at the time, and thousands
chose to stay. As we drove around the island, at least 1/2 the house
were desserted and in various states of disrepair. Also along the
roadside were hundreds of well-tended graves - including one chap who
dies in 1994 who fathered 23 children. So they keep busy.

The anchorage in Nuie is completely open to the west, and the wind -
albeit light - was due to back from North to South overnight. We
therefore left last night just after sunset. It was a quiet night of
gentle sailing and motoring, but today the wind has filled in from the
SW, and we're bashing into it. Considering there is no land to affect
the wind for hundreds of miles, it's amazing how variable and gusty
the wind can be. We hope that the wind will continue to back so that we
can ease the sheets, and we should arrive sometime tomorrow

Getting ashore in Niue

Niue is a big sheer sided rock in the Pacific and there is no easy way to land the dinghy here due to the ocean swell.

So there is a crane on the dock, which has a huge hook swinging down. The way to get your dinghy ashore is to manouevre the dinghy under the hook, hook up to strips on the dinghy and get someone ashore to press the up button! Easier said than done when the swell is big, but our technique is improving 

Niue customs office