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Firefly - Two weeks in Tonga



Firefly's stay in Tonga ended when we checked out of Neiafu, Vava'u on Monday 16th June. We had planned to visit the Haapai Group of islands to the South but the weather forecast never looked right within our timescales so we decided to leave earlier for Fiji and spend more time there exploring the eastern side of the archipelago.



During our time in Tonga we found another anchorage, in the lee of Nemoto Island on the eastern fringe of reefs that we rated as highly as the Blue Lagoon. Very remote, crystal clear aquamarine blue water, a fantastic beach and some more eccentric ex pats. The first we didn't meet - but having taken a winding path through the forest to the windward side of the island we found the empty camp of a german who comes and spends years at a time on Nemoto. As well as a very basic hut, he had built an impressive lookout position where he could (and we did) climb up, sit and look out to sea.



At the other end of the beach there were a couple (we did not meet them either, but waved at them as they were on their catamaran) who appeared to be boat builders - their cat was polynesian styled, with incredibly narrow wooden hulls that looked beautifully finished and very fast but strangely the cat was fitted with a gaff rig. On the beach was a wooden launch, again a polynesian style almost finished and complete with an outrigger. A couple of another yacht anchored off Nemoto said that the 'boat builders' were actually planning on buliding a 'Glamping' site (posh camping) on Nemoto.



A few days earlier we had some calm days and anchored off Avalou island, in the south of the Vava'u Group. We were settling down for the evening when there was a terrible smell wafting across the boat. Avalou, was uninhabited except for goats and this smell was somewhat fishy - we eventually agreed it must be whales. Vava'u is in fact a prime humpback whale site for breeding and calving - the whales moving North up away from the Antarctic winter and being seen in Tonga normally from July to November. On the informative Vava'u cruisers radio net the next morning there was a report of a siting of a whale pod the previous day - so the whales had arrived early.



While the weather was calm we visited all of the places the whales are normally seen according to our pilot book, going out to a remote island in the far south east called Fonuafo'ou where we found a colony of birds, mainly Black and Common Noddys and some Black Naped Terns - but sadly we saw no whales despite looking really hard.



The passage to Savusavu on Vanua Levu, the large eastern Fijian island is about 430 miles and we were hoping to go fast enough to limit the trip to 2 nights at sea. However, despite storming along in a rough sea for the first 24 hours and clocking up 185 miles, we have now slowed down to a more sedate 6 to 7 knots, running wing on wing in 15 knots of breeze - more comfortable but it will probably mean another night time arrival.



Paul and Susie

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