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Paw Paw - Log Days 250 & 251: Tonga Goes "Green" - Inadvertently



Yesterday we spent most of the morning dealing with immigration and customs while clearing out, before heading to Port Maurelle on Kapa Island, where we spent the night after getting Paw Paw ready for our departure this morning. We topped off the day with an impromptu "bon voyage" party together with Nina on Raya (Ros and Rick) as Raya heads south and the rest of us head west.

As the afternoon progressed though, more and more yachts arrived in the anchorage, all with the same idea as ourselves - early morning departure for Fiji, having waited weeks for a suitable weather window. As such, we have a convoy!

Besides the forecasted weather window, we believe many yachts, including ourselves, decided to leave Tonga as the fuel situation deteriorated. In essence, Tonga has gone "green" inadvertently with the supplies of petrol and diesel running dry.

We had heard of the petrol crisis while still in Samoa, but when Roy tried to f ill our jerry cans last week just to top up our diesel tanks and they wouldn't fill them all, we started to suspect a larger issue. It wasn't until yesterday morning when Nina was told they couldn't have the diesel they had ordered, which resulted in a mad scramble to get them what they needed via jerry cans, that we knew things were definitely heading in the wrong direction. We were, therefore, not surprised at all to hear the announcement this morning that there was no more diesel either and no sign of a supply ship arriving any time soon.

This not only affects all the yachts arriving from French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, as yachts congregate in Tonga for the passage south to New Zealand or those who have decided to make the journey to Fiji before heading to New Zealand and Australia, but all the locals and the businesses.

This was not the best note on which to say our goodbyes to Tonga, but we are relieved to be underway with everything we need. We d id, however, give the Mango Café a gift as a thank you for the Tongan hospitality - A flag from one small Kingdom to another, Swaziland to Tonga, which is now flies proudly with the other flags from around the world on the waterfront. Although these two small Kingdoms are miles apart, they were similar in many ways!

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