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Firefly - Pangia, Nukanomo and a windy passage on to Vava'u



During Firefly's stay in Ha'apai the weather had generally been good but strong trade winds had always been present. When we left Uhia to return to the Ha'apai Beach Resort the wind had shifted to the north, reduced to a light breeze and the weather was just stunning. As part of the arrangements for cruising in Tonga we needed to go back into Pangai to do an internal clearance ready for our departure to the Vava'u Group.



On arrival back off the Resort we radioed Matt and Jodie to book in for pizzas that evening and we had a superb evening drinking sundowners on their terrace watching the sun set over Kao and Tofua islands. We were joined by American friends Dennis and Sherry from Trillium with whom we had cruised with since we started the World ARC in January 2014. They were heading off directly to Fiji the next day and ultimately heading onto Australia - based on current plans our paths should cross again in September 2016 in Cocos Keeling when we join World ARC 2016.



The following day Matt took several of the ICA skippers into Pangai in his ageing van in order to assist us to clear out and to collect what supplies we could. Pangai is a relatively small place and is undergoing a rebuild following a direct hit by category 5 cyclone, called Ian, 18 months earlier. It was an interesting experience and felt strangely similar to being in Greece way back in 1988 when we worked as flotilla skipper and hostess...the heat, the paperwork, the difficulty communicating and the general good nature and friendliness of the locals (Tongans not Greeks in this case).



Our final stop in Ha'apai was then at Nukanomo Island 7 miles north of Lifuka. Anchored in a beautiful shallow lagoon we left Firefly and went ashore to the superb Matofouna resort who were arranging for our first scuba dive of 2015. We were introduced to dive leaders Mindy and James, completed our paperwork and were all set to dive at 0900 the next day. They also pointed us in the right direction for some great snorkeling in the lagoon. Taking the dinghy several hundred meters up current of the pass we entered the water over some pristine coral - and then allowed ourselves to drift back to the pass towing the dinghy as we floated along - the water was quite shallow, really clear and the sun was shining and reflecting on the sandy bottom as we drifted from coral bommie to coral bommie, each one made up of different corals and populated by different types of fish.



As forecast the wind swung to the south east and strengthened overnight and the diving trip, although excellent became quite an ordeal as the dive boat was really pitching around at both of the dive sites. We had purchased our own dive gear before we left NZ and this combined with not having dived for 6 months meant we were feeling a little 'in experienced'. Mindy and James could not have been better guides and despite the conditions they got us into the water and conducted 2 superb dives visiting the Green Cave and Tunnels dive sites just off Ha'ano island.



Our 80 mile passage to Vavau started at 0700 on Wednesday 27th May. It was only just light and we used our tracks and GPS on both chartplotter and I Pad to guide us out of the lagoon into deeper water. The wind was already blowing 25 knots and with a northerly course we were set for a broad reach and a quick passage time. With one reef in the main and an increasingly furled jib we averaged over 8 knots for the trip seeing a maximum wind speed of 34 knots and some surprisingly steep waves. There were a number of squalls and the weather worsened the closer we got to Vava'u. We were glad to eventually get shelter from the islands and make our way to Neiafu to pick up a mooring off the town.



Paul and Susie

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