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Firefly - Limu, Ha'afeva, Koto, Oua, Luangahu and Uhia



Firefly has anchored in many beautiful places in the last week and we have really enjoyed the southern part of the Ha'apai Group of Tonga, it really is very special here.

Limu was a day anchorage at a perfect South Pacific deserted island. Taking the dinghy to the island we strolled around the perimeter looking out for clam shells, a good number of which had washed up on the beach. In the rock pools we saw a small eel peeking out and on the rocks there was a large group of Noddys, both common and black intermingled with a few white Terns. It was bit exposed to stop for the night so in about 15 knots of breeze we sailed on a broad reach for a couple hours to Ha'afeva Island. Arriving just half an hour before sunset and at the same time as the supply ship. The docked ship was surrounded by local panga's (launches) that were filled to the gunwales with locals, obviously the supply ship arriving was a big event.

The following morning we walked with several other crews from the ICA Rally about 1 mile along a woodland track to the village. The locals were very friendly and invited us in to visit the playgroup and gave us flowers from their gardens. In the evening we congregated on Malakite, a NZ catamaran taking part in the ICA rally, for sundowners and discussion about everyone's plans for the next few days. Of the 5 ICA rally boats Firefly was the only one to venture out the next day, with an initial stop at Koto island. We intended to navigate through the coral strewn lagoon to reach the island but after a half a mile we stopped and anchored, had a swim and lunch and decided to move on as it was just too stressful! being coral strewn and shallow in places.

The wind had been backing to the east for a few days and therefore for the next few days we were generally heading into the wind in order to get back to the north east. From Kotu we beat about 8 miles to anchor on the north side of Oua. On arrival the wind had dropped to about 10 knots and the tide (only about 1 meter rise and fall here) was out. This anchorage was quite a way off the island and we were tucked in between reefs on either side and it was beautifully calm. However, as the tide rose the wavelets managed to cross the reef and with the wind increasing Firefly started to rock and roll again and did so for the whole night. We have not had a still night since we were in NZ so are now quite used to it.

The next day we planned to return to Limu but were scuppered by a strong headwind, instead we sailed closed hauled for about 10 miles on starboard tack and with both main and jib reefed it was quite pleasant in the sun with a great view of Kao, the cone shaped Volcano and the famous island of Tofua to its southern side. This is the actual place where the 'Mutiny on the Bounty' took place, with Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers casting Captain Bligh and 11 other souls adrift in an open boat- which amazingly they navigated all the way to Timor in Indonesia - not stopping en route for fear of cannabals. Captain Cook also visited Tofua and is known to have landed and made it to the blue crater lake in the interior were he filled his water bottle.

In Tongan, Tofoa means whale, and the name is because there is a steam vent that creates a cloud which can be seen from the inhabited Ha'apai islands - this steam and the shape of the island makes it look like a spouting whale. This is something this area is famous for as from July to September Humpback whales visit here for both breeding and giving birth, the gestation period for a whale being 12 months. The don't actually eat at all when they are here - they return to the Antarctic each summer to feed on Krill.

We saw no whales but were visited by a friendly pod of Bottlenose dolphins who stayed with us most of the way to Luangahu. This was another deserted island which we circumnavigated on foot looking for papaya trees that were reported in our pilot book. We got no fruit but saw lots more Noddys and Terns, plus we had a long close encounter with a Kingfisher. Luangahu also had great coral and we snorkeled before pulling up Firefly's anchor and making a short hop to the island of Uhia where we had planned to meet up with Trillium, Starblazer and Malakite in order to go to the church service the next morning.

Plans for the 0900 service were made on board Starblazer over drinks during a breezy evening and we all met and walked to a dilapidated church in a well organised village on the following morning (Sunday 24th May). The 0900 service was in fact at 1000 and that was late starting so we looked around the village and found another church where the service was in full flow. We were made very welcome but could not understand the service at all, it was very 'fire and brimstone' and the preacher was very agitated at times - the singing however was fantastic - really loud when the whole congregation joined in and incredibly harmonious when it was just the group whom we assumed were the choir.

From Uhia we headed back to the Ha'apai Beach Resort to do an internal clearance ready for our departure to the Vava'u Group and will cover that and our latest stop at Nukanomo Island in the next blog.

Paul and Susie

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