Tonga is the only pacific island nation
that was never colonized and it is the oldest and last remaining South Pacific
monarchy. Besides having strong traditions it is also staunchly 'christian' and
on Sunday morning the turnout at church must surely be the envy of most christian nation throughout the world. But not only the numbers are impressing,
it’s the singing that matters ….
Tonga is bordered by Fiji to the west and
the Tongan Trench to the east, with 10632m depth the second deepest ocean
trench in the world. It is composed of 171 islands, clustered into 4 different
groups. Vava’u in the north with its magnificent archipelago is considered the
sailing centre of Tonga and is also well known for the presence of humpback whales
during breeding season. A mother and calf greeted us while going through the
pass into the islands.
Neiafu is the main town in Vava’u and
somehow reflects the islands south pacific attitude – it is so laid back that
it is almost falling over and everything works on ‘island time’, including all
the governmental offices. We spent almost 2 weeks there including a week of
boat maintenance and admin catch-up, necessary after having been almost 4 weeks
under way between French Polynesia and Tonga. We almost qualified as ‘locals’,
walking several times daily between the Cafés Tropicana and Aquarium checking
for the best internet connection.
Finally our new crew arrived – Helen and
Diana from [neighboring] Australia and Tilman from Germany, after a mammoth 50
hour flight around more than half the world [the same distance has taken us so
far only about 12 months … so, what’s your choice ????]
After the clearing-out procedure with
customs and immigration officials and victualing the boat at the local market
we set off to spend the first 5 days somewhere in the maze of islands … to get
the crew used to their new duties.
Before leaving Neiafu we organized to get
picked up at our first anchorage by a dive operator to experience the outstanding
corals and underwater lava architecture. Unfortunately we were at the tail end
of the whale season and the humpbacks didn’t show up for the ‘booked’ swim
along. However the corals we saw diving and snorkeling were outstanding.
It was easy spending the days cruising
between the beautiful spots in the archipelago, waiting for the right weather
to arrive for our passage to Fiji.
Some local fisherman came around to give us
some of their catch and we bulked it out with a conch shell we found snorkeling
in the Blue Lagoon.
Unfortunately the weather forecast never
quite promised the perfect wind conditions and after a rainy day and thundery
night at anchor we decided we might as well split.
The morning we set sail looked still pretty
threatening with more rain, but once we were out on the ocean it turned out to
be a great day for sailing with 15-20 knots of wind, coming from northeast to
start. By the end of the day we had the wind go to the north, then over
northwest to west and then to the south. We never had a dull moment with
setting and re-setting the sails.
Our destination was SavuSavu on Fiji’s
northern island of Vanua Levu, but we had our mind set to make an ‘illegal’
stop over in one of the islands in the northern Lau group in Fiji’s east. To
visit the Lau islands one normally needs a special and rather costly cruising
permit, but … we had a steering problem [we really did!!!] and needed to make an emergency stop on
Vanuabalavu, an island in the Exploring Islands group. Separated from the rest of the Fijian islands
by 120 miles against the prevailing trade winds it is really a forgotten and
hence isolated corner – but just amazing. In the early morning after 3 days of
better than expected sailing we negotiated a reef pass into the lagoon and
after not having had an anchorage to ourselves for a very long time we were all
alone in this wonderful place called the Bay of Islands. Although the sun wasn’t
really cooperating, the flora and colour of the water were still out of this
world and cruising with the dinghy through the limestone island-scape really
felt like no one was there since 8-8-92 …
In fact our stop over was not that illegal
as there were no beaches near our anchorage and the steep and sharp limestone pinnacles
prevented us from setting food on land.
We weighed anchor early the next morning
and left the lagoon via the Qilaqila Pass in the north, with no channel markers
in sight besides 2 lonely leading beacons disappearing in the glare of the
rising sun.
The wind was still somewhat elusive, but
the itinerary ruled and we had to do some motor assisted sailing. Dodging some
more reefs we soon saw the outline of Taveuni Island at the horizon. At 0330h
we crossed the charted east / west latitude line and 180 deg W became 180 deg E
- from now on we are ‘on our way home’.
We were also blessed again with 2 great catches,
a succulent tuna and an impressive mahi-mahi. We appreciate the gift of the
seas.
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