Firefly - Cruising Vava'u, Tonga

Vava'u, the most popular cruising area in Tonga was our destination following our passage from Niue. Having arrived at night and immediately before a bank holiday we spent the first couple of nights anchored in a quiet bay called Port Maurelle. Since leaving Suwarrow, either at sea or on the moorings in Niue, Firefly had been rolling a lot therefore it was bliss to find a calm anchorage. We then moved to the main port, called Neiafu where we cleared in. We tied up on the customs dock and had visits from 4 friendly officials who were representing customs, immigration, health and bio security - the process was co-ordinated by World Cruising and was completed surprisingly quickly.

Neiafu was a World ARC rendezvous point, the first since Bora Bora and on our first evening we had an excellent meal and leg prize giving at the Mango bar on the waterfront. The following day we visited the botanical gardens located on the North East of the island. Created by Haniteli, a charismatic Tongan who was formerly a Government Minister for agriculture. Haniteli, gave us a guided tour and explained that his neighbours think he is crazy, bothering to cultivate things that he can't eat! We also arranged a two tank scuba dive trip with Beluga diving. The two sites we visited were called 'Fingers' and 'China Town', both had spectacular coral and interesting underwater features. Our guide showed us ghost coral - going from a mottled brown to a luminous white when it was brushed.

After a few days stocking up with food and water we set off to cruise Vava'u at the same time as the South Easterly Trades picked up - exactly as forecast. Over 2 days the winds gusted up to 35 knots and we chose to anchor in a sheltered spot near Nuku island along with Brizo, Seaduced and Chez Nous. Jane and John on Seaduced cooked a superb lamb (from NZ) dinner aboard and we had a great evening on their superb Discovery 55. During our stop we visited both Mariner's Cave and Swallow's Cave by dinghy, Mariner's was both a tricky one to find and to get into as the entrance is about 3 metres below the surface. Having swum underwater into the cave and surfaced, there was a large area lit by light coming in through the entrance. As the sea water outside surged in and out, the air in the cave went from clear to misty and then back to clear as the pressure changed.

Vava'u is a very compact cruising area and on leaving Nuku Island our destination was Tapana - less than an hour away. Meeting up with our friends from Ghost we had an evening out at La Paella, a rustic restaurant, run by Spanish Ex Pats. There are a lot of European and American Ex Pats who have decided to settle and run small business around Vava'u - some are quite eccentric! and they certainly were at La Paella. The Tapas and Paella were superb, the music show provided by the hosts was memorable and the 'live in' pet goat, Chakira was gorgeous but not quite house trained!

Firefly will continue cruising around Vava'u for a few more days before heading south to the more remote Haapai Group - and from there we will head to Fiji.

Paul and Susie