Since our last post a few moons ago, we spent another 12 days in the Ha'apai group of islands of Tonga. We weathered a blow one night where the winds gusted to about 40 knots, we had moved from Uiha Island, north to another island called Tatafa, as it looked one of the few places in the whole group to offer any shelter in the predicted Northerly pre-frontal winds. We were joined by 3 other yachts the next morning and heard of their tales of survival in other not so protected anchorages. One of these boats a forty footer, had previously lost their best anchor and managed to snag some coral after a number of resets, with an old half sized plough anchor. We lent them our spare, an original 60 pound CQR, until they could manage to import a new anchor.
We moved north to the town of Pangai where we had to check in and out with customs with an inter island clearance process. This duty was carried out first, then we had a hamburger at a cafe and witnessed a dog fight between about 10 really mangy, mostly emaciated mongrels - Ugh! We bought some eggs then high tailed it back to Ambler. We then headed 3nm further north to anchor and await a better wind angle for the passage to the next group of islands called Vava'u. Over the next 5 days we snorkeled and explored nearby by kayak and also practised our eskimo rolls and kayak rescue techniques in the 26 deg crystal clear waters.
We then had a pause in the strong North Easterly winds and set out North around noon, for the overnight passage to Nieafu in the Vava'u group. We actually stopped at another island called Haano around mid afternoon for a snorkel and dinner before nightfall. We deployed our "Code 0" in the light south easterlies and watched 2 other yachts motor out of sight ahead of us. After sunrise the next morning we spotted some whale spouts ahead and an island to the west called Late Island. Soon after some lower islands began to appear ahead of us. These grew higher and more plentiful during the day. Around midday we sailed into the impressive Vava'u Group with its deep waters and taller islands. By mid afternoon we anchored just short of Neiafu.
The next morning we weighed anchor and sailed into the harbour to anchor at its southern end. This was a really nice quiet protected anchorage away from the busy port. We launched the dinghy and motored the 20 minutes to town with our paperwork to do our inter island customs clearance again and we also had to renew our visas for another month at the immigration office. These duties done we then had a good walk around and checked out the shops and market. We had another day of wandering about town and provisioned with fresh fruit and vegetables.
After a couple of days we headed out to explore the many and various anchorages and usually snorkeled and kayaked before moving to the next anchorage for more of the same.
Some of the highlights were the Hunga Island Lagoon where we negotiated a narrow, shallow gap over a coral ledge between rocky islands. From this anchorage we paddled over a shallow pass into another stunning lagoon called the Blue Lagoon. Another beautiful area was reached by sailing through a coral pass into the Eastern group where we had the place to ourselves for a week. We anchored in a few different spots including the old port of Nieafu and kayaked many miles exploring the shoals and smaller islands where keel boats wouldn't dare to go. We moved to Kenutu Island where we met up with around 6 other boats. Here we kayaked some more, snorkeled and walked over the island to stand on the sheer limestone cliffs above the crashing South East trade wind driven swell.
We have since covered the 425nm passage from Tonga to Fiji last week, arriving in Savusavu. It was a great 77 hour passage in the tradewinds.
Savusavu was a great, friendly little town. The Fijian people are always ready with a warm smile and 'Bula'. We got away from the port after a week of indulgence of the good, really cheap curries on offer and we stocked up on fresh foods such as meat and vegies. The port has 3 so called marinas, 1 with a real marina as well as moorings called The Copra Shed, the other two just have moorings with showers etc. We stayed on a mooring with Waitui marina. Joelene the manager arranged and transported all officials to our boat. She was fantastic and extremely helpful and we highly recommend her.
We spent several nights anchored off Costeau Resort in Savusavu Bay waiting for the right wind to sail east. From here we had several kayak, snorkeling and walking adventures and enjoyed the company of some fellow yachties. A 15-20kn southerly breeze arrived and we had a fast and boisterous beam reach to Viani Bay 40nm east of Savusavu.
Viani Bay was a large bay with a few anchoring options. The surrounding hillsides reminded us of anchoring in Banks Peninsula in NZ. The hills were high with a mixture of jungly bush and bare grazing land. We spent 3 nights anchored there waiting for a trough to pass over. We had heavy downpours that allowed us to top up our water tanks and more as well as giving Ambler a good scrub down. One day we had a good explore in our kayaks. That day began as sunshine and ended in rain squalls. However we did discover a good snorkeling spot a few bays to the north while the sun was still out.
Today we sailed north to Kioa island with light winds and are now anchored in a bay on its north west corner. After anchoring we watched the rain slowly envelope the high mountain ranges of Vanua Levu to our west before arriving to give us another dousing.
We plan to continue anti clockwise around Vanua Levu and the islands to the east of it.
All is well on board.
At 7/08/2016 8:23 PM (utc) our position was 16°37.7'S 179°56.0'E
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