Tuesday, 14 August
Our time in Tonga is drawing to a close. Hard to believe we have been here almost 3 months. It has been a great experience and as expected we have made new friends in the cruising and local community.
Surprisingly and pleasantly so, it has not been particularly hot. I mean I know it's winter, but I expected higher Temps. I don't think its ever been more than 28C (82 F). Yes, there have been a few nights with no breeze that were hard to sleep through, but overall surprisingly mild.
We left Nuku alofa, the main city on the main island of Tongatapu in June. I wrote at length about our time there. Next stop was the Haapai group.
The Ha'apai were amazing. Navigation was challenging at times, but its a beautiful group of islands. If we come back to Tonga we will plan to spend way more time there.
VaVa'u has also been great. Navigation is easy, provisioning is easy, internet is abundant and we have had a great time.
Josh came for 10 days. It was so good to see him. He enjoyed the break from Wellington winter. But probably the best part for him was that he got to come to the boat, enjoy a new place with warm weather and then go home. A vacation not a lifestyle. Haha.
Paul (our inepid and handy crew member) left us at the end of July to return to the states. He was great crew. Hope to catch up with him in NZ this fall (spring in NZ lol).
The water here continues to amaze me. It is so clear and the color is beyond pretty, it even photographs well! The snorkeling is good, not great, but we still enjoy it.
Speaking of the water, we had an Evergreen malfunction first in Nieafu. The watermaker was having high pressure issues - seems we sucked up a jelly fish into the water intake strainer. Funny in retrospect, not so much at the time. Honestly at that point there were so many jellyfish (moon jellies) that you could practically walk on the water. There haven't been anywhere near as many at any time since. Regardless, therehas been no watermaking in Nieafu since.
Whales. We expected to see more whales and i really wanted to do a whale swim. I am sure there is a human related reason, but we just haven't seen that many whales. We heard them loud and clear in the anchorage at Nuku (#8) and have seen them from a distance. Their singing is pretty amazing. Whale watching/whale swims are big business here in Nieafu and I wonder if that is not part of the problem or it could just be how it is this year. Either way I am not willing to take the chance of paying the big bucks and not get a swim with them.
So now we are back in Nieafu in the mooring field prepping to leave for Fiji. Its about 450nm. Hopefully only 3 nights. We will check in at Savusavu. Not a huge passage, but our first as just the two of us. I will post to the blog each day, and hopefully our position will come up as well. Exact departure is wind/weather dependant as usual, but these westerlies/south westerlies are due to clock back into normal east/southeast trades by Thursday. We need fuel and of course to get it duty free you have to get it on the day you check out. Yikes what a pain, but it is what it is. Right?
I will keep you posted.
