Vavau, Tonga, June 7 - 15 2010

After arriving in Vavau, the northern island group in Tonga, we spent 4 days in the main port town of Neiafu. While there we enjoyed many of the comforts of civilization such as internet cafes, non-internet cafes, stores and restaurants.

We also celebrated Fred's birthday with a very nice dinner ashore, what a treat! After dinner, we went for a few beers at one of the bars on the water, and then, after we returned to the boat, Tom, aka the birthday devil, tried to convince us all that we must have Jim Beam in order to celebrate properly. Fred is not a bourbon fan, so I helpfully suggested Jaagermeister instead, and away we went, thereby insuring that everyone felt at least one year older the next day. I may have forgotten to mention before that Tom also nearly killed our freind Sean on his birthday, which occured while he was with us in southern Tonga, by encouraging him to drink way more Jim Beam than is good for anyone. We notice that Tom has timed the extension of his stay so that he will be with us for Jeff's birthday but then gone before his own birthday arrives 10 days later. We think this is cheating and would like to lodge a formal protest with someone.

We spent about four days in town, more than we might have otherwise because, of course, we had some gear to repair. Unfortunately for us there was almost no wind while we were there, and the port is very protected with high hills on all sides, so it was very very hot, and some enormous jellyfish were visiting the port also, so we were hesitant to use our normal cooling method of diving off the boat and paddling around.

Because of the heat we were very happy when we finished our town errands on Thursday and headed out to the outer anchorages. When we pulled into Port Morelle, the spot we had intended to anchor at the first night, we changed our minds quickly when we saw that it was also protected by very high hills. Instead, we went another mile and anchored at Nuku where we could sit downwind of a sandbar between two islands so that our breeze was not blocked at all. Heaven!



We did a quick scan for jellyfish, and seeing none, we all jumped into the water. The guys got out the mini plastic football and commenced their game of jumping off the bow pulpit and trying to catch the ball on their way into the water. It seems to be a bit tricky to throw the ball accurately enough while you are treading water, so completed passes are rare enough to warrant wild celebrations.

Just as I was about to get out of the water anyway, I felt a sharp sting on the inside of my forarm. I looked around, but didn't see anything in the water, but got out quickly anyway. That evening a string of itchy bumps appeared on my forarm, but nobody else had been stung, and we didn't think too much about it, these things do happen from time to time. Next day Fred went for a long training swim during which he felt a bit like he was being stung also, but he didn't have any marks on him afterwards so he decided it was all in his head.

Later that day we moved to a different anchorage off Ovalau island. We detoured past Mariners Cave along the way and Fred volunteered to be the boat man while Jeff, Tom and I swam in. There is an underwater tunnel into the cave that you can snorkel through and then you come up inside the cave itself. The top of the tunnel is about 6 feet underwater and about 12 feet long. The trick is not to come up too early so you don't hit your head on the edge of the tunnel. We had gone in before in 2008 with our dive guides, but this time we were on our own, so it seemed a bit spookier. We got directions to the cave from the skipper of a very lovely 76 foot Swan that was circling around outside while some of it's crew swam in the cave. Fred offered to trade his 39 foot Swan for that fellow's larger boat, but oddly enough his offer was not accepted. Fred then brought us in close to the cliff and



the rest of us jumped off the boat and swam over to the opening. The swimmers from the other boat all came out of the cave as were approaching, so we had the cave to ourselves after we got in, which we managed to do with no mishaps. Once inside the cave we saw the fog effect that is created as swells come into the cave and compress the air inside. Tom Kollmer was not impressed by the fact that someone had left candles on ledges inside the cave, or he was annoyed that we didn't have matches to light them with, or perhaps both. I tried to swim down inside the cave to see the lower entrance to the cave, which is 65 feet deep, but although our free diving skills are increasing, I couldn't get anywhere near the top of this second tunnel. We do know people who have swam through it, and supposedly one of them went all the way to the bottom and d lost.

After we swam back to the boat, we headed over to Ovalau island. This was described in the book as a day anchorage with excellent snorkeling, and we thought we could use the settled conditions to our advantage and stay there overnight, since the winds were again expected to be very light. Jeff and I went for a snorkel and Tom swam ashore with his book while Fred filled the dive tanks and did not get in the water. Jeff and I could see that the reef here used to be quite impressive, but most of it was dead now, with a few patches of new growth which were home to some lovely but very small fish. Our Tonga guide book is a few years old, and we've been told that the reefs have been damaged by several large storms since it was written.



The next morning poor Fred looked like he had the measles. He had stings all over his arms, legs and most of his chest. He said that he had barely slept the night before because they were so itchy. We knew he had gotten the bites during his morning swim because he didn't go in again after that. I also had gotten quite a few more bites, during my snorkel swim, but we were puzzled because Jeff and Tom, who had been in the same water at the same time, had nothing. We got on the radio and got some information from other cruisers. Apparently we were being bitten by either microscopic jelly fish or sea lice. Sea lice? Great. We were told that the effect of the stings could be lessened considerably by applying vinegar to them as soon as possible, which would be great if we were feeling the bites immediately, but we weren't and we didn't have enough vinegar on board for all of us to drench our entire bodies after each swim. We also learned that these things had never been in Tonga before. Apparently this was their first visit. Lucky us that we were here for it.

The next day Fred and I decided to go diving anyway. We have full wetsuits so we thought we'd be safe. Jeff and Tom stayed on the boat and circled around while we were down since there was no place to anchor near our dive site. We dove the south west corner of the reef around Euakafa island. It was a good, but not great, dive, and I saw two new fish that I hadn'tseen before, but they don't seem to be in my fish book. (Note to self - look for new fish book in Fiji). I got a few new stings on my hands and feet on this dive, but again didn't feel them till later so the vinegar was not effective. We are all now afraid to go in the water because these pesky bites are very itchy and they last about four days.

After the dive, we motored around to anchor off of Tapana Island, home to a spanish restaurant called La Paella. We'd heard wonderful things about this place when we were here in 2008 and were disappointed not to get there then, so we were determined to go this time. We were not disappointed. They serve a four course set menu that varies a bit based on availability of ingredients. Our dinner started with two courses of tasty tapas, followed by a very nice paella (which our spanish friend Irene says tastes just as it should) with some delicious ice cream to finish it all off. Entertainment is also included in the evening. The spanish couple who run the place sing and play guitar after cooking dinner. We understand that the duration of the singing varies quite a bit, based in part on audience participation and in part on how late the previous evenings performance went on. We only got a few songs We were basically there for the food anyway, and in this we were not disappointed and would highly recommend it to others. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we did see a first for us there that evening. There was a dog in the restaurant throughout the evening, which is something we've become accustomed to, but after dinner was over a goat wandered in also! It is pretty common here to see goats and pigs in people's yards even right in town, but this was definitely the first time we'd seen one in a restaurant!

Because of the small stingy things, and the huge jellyfish, and the fact that the reefs here are just not that impressive for snorkeling or diving, we have decided to leave for Fiji sooner than we originally planned. We have managed to successfully shanghai Tom Kollmer into staying longer and making the passage to Fiji with us. We expect it to be a three to four day sail and hope to leave at the end of this week weather permitting.

Haapai Tonga, May 27 - June 5, 2010

We had a great time in Ha'apai, the middle island group in Tonga. This group consists of mostly small, low lying, picture postcard looking islands set amongst numerous coral reefs. Think sandy beaches and palm trees and you've got the basic idea. A few of the bigger islands have small villages that run off generators, while the largest has a very small airport, a few stores a very small, very laid back resort, a dive shop and electricity.

We spent about two weeks in Ha'apai. Because there was no internet access, I've got a lot to report here, so I'll start with just a brief summary, for those who just want to know that we are still alive and have some idea of where we are. Basically, we were island hopping around Ha'apai and spending lots of time snorkeling, diving, spearfishing and fishing.

Most of the scuba diving has been on our own, as opposed to with a guide. Before we did much of this I was worried mostly about our safety during the dives themselves. This turns out not to be much of a problem - we just don't go super deep and we never push the time limits (mostly because we run out of air first anyway). The real challenges are figuring out where to go, and timing the currents right if there is current in the area, and not forgetting little details like taking your weights with you and having plenty of gas for the dinghy. But we're working out the kinks and having lots of fun while doing it.

We've also been enjoying Tom Kollmer's visit quite a bit, and Fred wants me to give a little poke to those of you have said you'll come visit, but never actually show up. I don't want to name any names, but Tim Farley, John Dagelman and Robin in Canada all come to mind. Seriously people, get your act together and get out here.

That's the quick summation. The detailed version follows.

We spent our first two nights at Nomuka'iki (iki means little in Tonga, so to find Nomuka'iki on the chart you first find Nomuka, then look for a little island near it). This is where we made our first attempt at diving on our own this trip, but we had to abort after our regular outboard engine decided to stall on us inexplicably just as we got to the dive site, which was about a mile away from our anchorage, next to our island but downwind, with no protection and no other land between us and Fiji. Luckily, We got our small backup dinghy engine started after a few anxious moments (during which I realized that we had never actually started our new "backup engine" before this and - we did, however, have the hand held VHF along also). Once we got the backup started, we decided to forget about the dive and get ourselves back to the safety of the anchorage. It was a slow trip since it's a small engine and there were four of us and all our dive gear aboard, but Fred assured us that if necessary he would swim us in while holding the dinghy rope in his teeth. Happily, that wasn't necessary, and after unloading all our gear and determining that the regular dinghy engine just needed a bit of help getting back into neutral, after which it was fine, we consoled ourselves with a marvelous snorkel near the boat.

Next we headed to the island of O'ua which we probably would have skipped normally, but some north winds were coming and there are relatively few places in Ha'apai with protection in that weather, and it seemed like the best of the ones near us that did. We weren't particularly impressed with O'ua itself, but we had a very fun potluck supper on Catina one night which was attended by us and Paul from Scott Free and the crew from Sol Maria and a good time was had by all. The next day we tried the diving thing again with Fred volunteering to be the boat guy, since there was nowhere to anchor the dinghy near this reef. Jeff, Tom and I went down and although the visibility and coral were not great, it was still fun to get a dive in with Tom and to have some success getting ourselves into and out of the water on our own.

Also while at O'ua, Tom befriended some of the local boys who would paddle out on an ancient and definitely unseaworthy craft to visit us each day. Tom asked the guys if he could take a picture with them and we were all surprised when the kids flashed some gang signs during the picture. Gang signs? In Tonga? We spent much time speculating as to where they could possibly have learned about gang signs, but had to leave it at speculation as neither their English or our Tongan language skills (of which we have none) were up to a real explanation. Tom did, however, delight the kid thoroughly when he gave him the bandanna off his head after the guy said he liked it. Presumably because it is his gang's colors.


While at O'ua we read about some spectacular diving to be had at Wickham reef, just south of us, that was only accessible in very settled weather, which was what we were expecting after the north winds went away, so we stopped there and it truly was spectacular. This was the biggest and healthiest reef we had seen since Rangiroa, and, in my opinion, by far the best dive we've done in Tonga. There was a huge area of beautiful coral with valleys to swim in and wonderfully colorful reef fish everywhere. It was really, really lovely.


Next we headed to Uonukuhihifo island and had the good luck to arrive the same day a mess of fish had been caught by the other boats that were there. They had planned a beach party potluck to share the wealth - woohoo. Tom was fascinated by the cows roaming this uninhabited island after he got over being startled by them while walking down the beach in the dark.


The next day we went out to both dive and fish from the dinghy. Unfortunately we had trouble locating a dive spot that wasn't too rough or didn't have too much current. While looking we realized that we had forgotten our dive weights, but as we fished our way back to the boat to get them, we caught a blue finned trevally. Our fish book listed it as "excellent" food quality and we agreed. It was delicious. Fish really is better the same day you catch it!

The next day Jeff, Tom and did a circumnavigation walk around the island and did a little snorkeling from shore. Tom then continued on to circumnavigate the neighboring island and attempt to get a picture of the cows, but they managed to hide from him.


After that we headed up to Uoleva, where we had been before in 2008. I was keen to visit there again because the snorkeling was fantastic, and the guys were keen to go because a Tongan feast was being organized which was going to include pig. We are all about the pig on the God Spede! The feast was in fact a feast and was unusually good food, and the guys had a nice chat with the folks from Mariner's Cafe who organized it.

The next day we did a drift dive in the pass with Lisa and Lester from Obsession and afterward Gavin from Sol Maria put on a spearfishing display. Gavin has competed in free diving competitions in the past and it shows. He can go quite deep and stop and wait for the fish to come to him. Fred got in with his spear gun also, but Gavin had already picked off the easy ones so Fred was left with only the smart ones to shoot at and they all survived to be shot at another day.

The next day we snorkeled in the anchorage and it was even better than I had remembered. I took a turn with the spear gun, but couldn't get anywhere deep enough to hit anything. Those fish were just laughing at me. But I did watch Lisa and Lester bag a crayfish (she spotted it and he grabbed it), so I learned something about catching dinner, even if I didn't actual do it.

Next we headed to Lifuka island with Ha'api's capital city of Pangai. We went on a shopping spree hoping to find some fresh produce, but the stores here have mostly canned goods. Well, to be more specific they have mostly canned corned beef. I swear to you that in every store at least one tenth of the aisle space is taken up by canned corned beef in an amazing variety of can sizes. Particularly amazing since there is not a variety of anything else. No other item comes in multiple sizes or brands, but there is always a huge row devoted to the canned corned beef. And let me be clear, I do not mean corned beef hash, it's just plain corned beef. Oh, and sometimes there are cans labeled simply "Corned Meat". I'm just not brave enough to read the label to find out what's in there.

In the end, after going to every store in town (which was easy to do since there are only six and they are all within a two block radius) we came away with potatoes, onions, frozen frying chickens and some good old American bacon, which we were very excited about.

Next we headed to Foa, where we went diving with a dive guide again. It was nice to have someone else fill your tanks and find the dive spot and lead you around to all the good stuff, although we do enjoy going on our own quite a bit too.


After that we spent one night in Ha'ano which had more really tremendous snorkeling and Tom tried his luck with the spear gun, unfortunately, again to no avail. The next day we motored to Mo'unga'one where I played boat person while Jeff, Fred and Tom did some diving right off the sail boat and I motored around in circles since there was no anchor spot nearby. They said it was a great dive with swim-throughs and a huge Napoleon Wrasse. After the dive we anchored off Ofolanga for dinner then left at 10 PM for an overnight sail to Vava'u, where we are excited to find cafes and banks and internet service. Ah, the comforts of civilization.

Southern Tonga, May 14, 2010

We made it to Tonga and have been here relaxing and enjoying Tom Kollmer's company for about a week now. However, I would be lying if I said it was a fun passage here. In my opinion it was our least pleasant passage to date.

Things started out OK, but a few days into the sail, instead of the 20-25 knot winds we were expecting we had 30-35 sustained winds and were having to sail upwind in it. This alone would be enough to make things unpleasant (sailing downwind is ALWAYS nicer and normally what we do), but we also had some technical difficulties on the way, just to make things worse. The new anchor locker hatches leaked so much that we burned out a bilge pump on the way up and had to replace it during the very roughest portion of our passage, and since we were so far heeled over from sailing upwind, we also had to hand pump water into the central portion of the bilge so that the electric pump could get it overboard for us. It was a lot of work in very unpleasant conditions, but our friend Sean, who sailed with us from New Zealand is an avid boater and his help was invaluable. He pumped and repaired like a maniac. Thanks Sean!!!

Luckily we were able to stop at Minerva Reef for a much needed rest on day 7. Minerva is a spectacular landless atoll, which means it's just a big ring of coral reef with no land on it in the middle of the ocean. Inside is about 2 miles across and the water is quite calm except at high tide when some of the waves sneak over the reef.

We were able to effect some more repairs here and when we left we basically glued the anchor locker hatches shut, thereby temporarily solving that problem. Then we had a two day trip from Minerva to Tonga with basically no wind at all, so we motored up in very calm seas and dropped the anchor off Big Mama's resort (which I've mentioned previously in this blog) and have been enjoying her fine hospitality since then.

We hope to leave in a day or two for the Ha'api group (middle Tonga) and will have no internet access there. We'll be there for a week or two, then up to Vavau in northern Tonga and will send another update and post some photos from there. These are short sails with lots of places to duck in if the weather gets bad, so we expect no trouble along the way.

Auckland to Opua, NZ, April 23, 2010

I am very happy to report that God Spede is on the move again. We just completed a meandering, relaxing twelve day sail from Auckland to Opua New Zealand. It is great to be on board and on the mobile again!

God Spede is looking better than ever. Fred lavished her with a big dose of TLC and she now has gorgeous new teak decks and a spacious anchor locker. The new deck was quite a project. It required every single deck fitting to be removed while the old deck was torn off and the new deck was laid down. Then every deck fitting had to be replaced and every screw hole checked for leaks and every leaky part removed again and remounted. It was a big, big job, but now the boat looks fabulous and is leak free - a big big plus when you live aboard.

Fred, Jeff and I have been back in New Zealand since January. We've spent some time overseeing and helping with the boat projects, and some time traveling around enjoying the scenery. And they've got some good scenery down here. We've also spent some time touring around with my Mom and Merv. Those crazy kids came down for 5 weeks and rented a camper van and toured the South Island. We had a really nice visit with them at the end of their stay.



We left Auckland on Sunday, April 11, after having a farewell dinner the night before with my Mom and Merv who had been touring New Zealand in a camper van for about five weeks.

We did a short sail out to Waiheke Island the first night and stayed in a bay we'd been to twice before on short shake-down sails. The next day we hooked up with our New Zealand friends Sean and Trace who were on holiday and were cruising in their boat, Heramana, with their niece Amber. We did a very relaxing day sail up to Kawau Island and spent the next two nights in a very lovely bay there.

Kawau Island is an interesting place. In the 1800s Governor Gray lived there and he was very interested in bringing different plants and animals to New Zealand in an effort to find new industries for his country to engage in. Apparently he had quite a few different animals brought in from Australia, but the only ones to survive the winters were the wallabies - those little guys who look like kangaroos. They not only survived, but prospered, and are all over the place still. I went for a walk there and saw six of the buggers in a few hours. They were really cute when they were sitting up on their big back feet with their little front paws hanging by their chests, but when they went to scamper away they leaned over and then they looked a lot like a big rat with their long skinny tails trailing along behind them. I'm really not sure if I'd want them in my back yard, but I did enjoy seeing them up close and free.

We spent a lot of our time in Kawau doing small projects, trying out some new gear, reorganizing cupboards and generally sorting things out. We also had Sean, Trace and Amanda over for dinner one night. Jeff and his increasingly talented sous chef, Fred, made penne with broccoli and garlic, ala Bon Apetit, with meatballs in red sauce on the side, and Trace brought home made bread and cookies. It was quite a feast! Six people is a squeeze for salon dining on the God Spede but Sean and Trace are the kinda people we're always happy to make room for.

After a few days on Kawau we parted company with Sean's gang, and we set sail for Great Barrier Island, about 25 miles away. We'd heard quite a bit about Great Barrier, since it is a big sailing destination in the summer here. We can certainly see why. The main harbor is huge and has lots of small bays within it, so you can always be very protected regardless of the wind direction. We tested that theory as we sat out a couple days of bad weather there. We were lucky enough to get the use of Ray Beale's mooring there. Ray had surveyed God Spede just before we left Auckland for insurance purposes, and when he heard we were going to Great Barrier he offered us the use of his mooring, which let us sleep well while the wind blew strong during our last night's stay there.

Ray's mooring was located one bay over from Smokehouse Bay which is a delightful little area created by boaters for other boaters. There was a big fresh water tank which fills up bath tubs, one inside for privacy and one outside if you choose to enjoy the fabulous view while you soak. There is a wood-fired hot water heater for the tubs and there was a big pile of driftwood that had been collected already behind the tub house. There is also a smokehouse to smoke your fish and grills to cook em up on, and a big fire pit, and picnic tables, and fish cleaning tables, and so on. I bet the place is a madhouse in the summer!

We discovered Smokehouse Bay on our last day on Great Barrier, so we didn't use the facilities, but we did take a short hike from that bay which went inland and over a ridge then down to the next bay which had pretty red rock cliffs.

The next morning we got up early and headed for Tutukaka. This is a very little town on the mainland which exists, as far as we can tell, as a base for fishermen and divers who want to dive the Poor Knight's Islands. These islands are 12 km offshore and are a protected marine reserve. We were quite excited to go scuba diving there because Jacques Cousteau had been there and given them two thumbs up, and because we wanted to try out our new dive gear while in the company of dive professionals before we go off into the deep blue yonder on our own. This turned out to be a very wise move since both our new gear and some of our older stuff needed a bit of professional tweaking before it would function correctly. Luckily, Craig at Dive Tutukaka was able to get us all sorted and off we went.

This was the first time Jeff and I had been diving in cold water, and I was not really excited about the cold, but I found that all the people who told me that the thicker wetsuits would keep your warm were right, but I also found that they had neglected to tell me how amazingly difficult it is to get those stupid thick wetsuits on! Not to mention that then you are still meant to be able to get the rest of your stuff on over it! Jeff said I looked like the snowsuit kid from A Christmas Story, and I certainly felt like him! Thankfully Fred and Jeff quickly realized I was struggling and were great about helping me get suited up and off the boat each time we went.

We did four dives in two days and I felt pretty spastic on the first dive each day, and then really enjoyed the second dive. We saw lots of short tailed sting rays and eels and there were cool caves and arches that we got to swim through. In between the dives each day the boat cruised around the islands for sightseeing and they are pretty spectacular looking, so that was fun too.

After Tutukaka we made the trip to Opua in two short day sails and arrived on Fri., April 23. The weather was so nice for this trip that we were able to sail through the skinny gap between Cape Brett and Motukokako Island (known locally as "Hole in the Rock"). Quite a difference from our last trip near here in 2008 when the waves were so big it felt like we were riding a bronco!

We'll be in Opua for at least a week while we finish provisioning and try to finish all our last minute repairs and check our spares list one last time. It's a bit daunting because once we leave New Zealand everything will be more expensive, and a lot of stuff simply won't be available, but at least this time we have a little bit of a clue as to what we might be able to find on the little islands and we know that you can often trade another cruiser for something if you really can't find it, which is all knowledge we did not have when leaving the US originally

We currently plan to head for Tonga sometime near May 1. Sean is going to sail with us up to Tonga if he can get his passport renewed in time, and Jeff's brother, Tom, is going to meet us there also, which we are very excited about. After Tonga we'll head for Fiji, Vanuatu, Palau and then maybe working our way towards Thailand while staying in the safe zone near the equator during cyclone season. I say this with the disclaimer that all plans are subject to change at any time!

Pangaimotu, Tongatapu, Southern Tonga, Nov 7 - 18, 2008

We did another overnight sail from Ha'apai down to Tongatapu. It is necessary to leave and arrive in all these places with the sun high in the sky, so unless a sail can easily be completed in 6 hours, you have to do it overnight and often wind up having to slow yourself down so as not to arrive at your destination before the sun is up high enough the next day. This time we left Ha'apai at about 3PM and arrived at the northern entrance of the big bay into Nuku'alofa at about sun up.

Nuku'alofa is the capitol of Tonga and by far it's biggest city. We had heard through the radio net that the marina in Nuku'alofa was not nice to stay in, but that there was a fun place called Big Momma's Yacht Club on Pangaimotu, a little island in the big bay near Nuku'alofa, and that there was a ferry you could take back and forth a couple times a day, so Pangaimotu is where we were headed. We knew, again from the radio net, that there were a lot of boats at Pangaimotu already, despite the fact that everyone had only bad things to say about Nuku'alofa. It happens to be a natural jumping off spot from Tonga to New Zealand, being both the most southern spot in Tonga, and it's biggest city (with therefore the best provisioning opportunities). It used to be a must-do stop because you had to get your New Zealand Visa before arriving there and this was the only place in Tonga to do so, but now the rules have changed so this is no longer necessary. We thought it was interesting that many people who encouraged us to skip Nuku'alofa because it wasn't necessary and wasn't nice wound up showing up here despite their insistence that we should skip it.

We intended to go there from the get go, and we're glad we did. Anchoring off Big Momma's Yacht Club on Pangaimotu was another big social scene, since many boats were grouped here waiting for a good weather window before taking the big jump across to New Zealand. We had a great time at happy hour there each time we went, and, of course, the boys befriended Big Momma herself, and I think she was geniunely sad to see us go when we eventually left. The pictures here are of the yacht club, and of Big Momma herself.

Although there is nothing particularly charming about Nuku'alofa itself we definitely enjoyed it's many cafe's, some offering food items we hadn't seen in quite awhile (including the best samosas I've ever had!), and we really appreciated all the provisions there were to be had in Nuku'alofa's small but numerous grocery stores and at the huge farmer's market. We spent a lot of time at Friend's Cafe using their internet connection and enjoying their delicious coffes. But we really enjoyed the food at the Reef Cafe, which was on the wharf where the Pangaimotu ferry dropped us off and picked us up. Since this ferry ran on what can only be called a very informal schedule, it was a great bonus for us that there was good food to be had at the waiting spot.

Once we had gotten the boat and ourselves ready for the crossing we began waiting for good weather. The crossing from Tonga to New Zealand is a big one and there is a good chance of encountering bad weather since storms can go from start-up to fierce pretty quickly in these waters. We were glad (once again!) to have Susan, our weather-router to help us with the timing of this crossing.

Ha'apai, Tonga, Oct 27 - Nov 6, 2008

We did an overnight sail from northern Tonga to the Ha'apai group, which is the middle group and the least visited. These islands are all very low-lying with lots of reefs, so they were quite tricky for sailors before GPS technology made things easier. They are still tricky, because you can't completely trust the GPS since it works off of old charts (which are the only ones available for this area at the moment), but it definitely helps. We had to pick our way quite slowly at times, with Jeff doing lookout duty on the bow again, but this time we navigated through all the coral heads without mishap.

Our first stop in Ha'apai was in Pangai village. Jeff and Fred went ashore to check us in and to check out the stores. We were a little low on supplies because the supply boat to Northern Tonga was weeks late due to some technical malfunction, so there wasn't much fresh food in the stores there when we left. Things did not improve much at the stores in Pangai, although we did get some frozen chicken, but both Jeff and Fred said this town was the most depressing place we'd ever stopped at, and they wanted to get out of their ASAP. We had to stay the night to get good light for getting out of there, but we left as soon as the sun was high enough the next day.

Our next stop was at Uoleva island. This island was beautiful. We were anchored off a long sandy beach and could dingy over to some fabulous snorkeling. The coral here was the most spectacular we'd seen on the whole trip. It was very tall and there were lots of different varieties, some of which we hadn't seen anywhere else.

We spent three nights here. The first two were by design, the second was because it got very cloudy the next day and we didn't want to go anywhere in this coral infested water without very good visibility. During our stay we went to a beach bash for Tom's birthday. Tom is crewing on Anzac, and Les from Anzac really MacGyver'ed up some tables on the beach for the event. There were about 10 boats in the anchorage and everyone came and brought a side dish, and Leslie from Anzac cooked up a bunch of chicken and we all had a nice feast.

We made another stop in Ha'apai at an island whose name I just can't remember (I'm writing this from Idaho without benefit of the boat's log book which would tell me this information). This stop was also for provisioning and also not very successful, although Jeff and Fred did get an interesting tour of all the island shopping spots by one of the residents. When they told him they were looking for the store he showed them the way, and when it proved to have no vegetables and they asked him if any were available, he took them to a bunch of different fields where they were able to pick their own pineapples, mangos, hot peppers and limes. He seemed a bit surprised when they asked him how much they owed him, and they were a bit surprised that he was surprised, but although this gentleman was quite nice, the guys thought they had seen most of the island already and there was no real need to stay any longer, so we decided to head down to Southern Tonga the next day.

Vava'u, Tonga, Oct 24 - 27, 2008

After the haulout in Neiafu we definitely needed a bit of a break. We headed out the next morning for a little rest and relaxation in the Vava'u. This is the northern Tonga group and it is quite beautiful. The group consists of numerous islands, one large, several medium, and many small to tiny. There are lots of winding waterways to visit and many great anchorages. In fact, there are so many great anchorages, and their names are so foreign to visitors, that the local chartering company has given them all numbers and issues a chart showing those numbers. So all the cruisers talk about anchorage 7, 18, etc. It's a fairly unique system. Anyway, we headed out for a couple nights in these anchorages and had a very relaxing time. The headline event of this trip was that Jeff and Fred went on their first scuba trip on their own. It was a big success! I snorkeled above them just in case, but this proved to be a purely precautionary measure as they completed their dive successfully with no help from me.
On Sunday the 26th we headed back to Neiafu and spent the following day reprovisioning for our trip down to southern Tonga.