Wednesday 18th June
Everyone is very slow to move this morning, there’s not much activity on the surrounding boats and channel 77 is very quiet for once! Ian is still suffering from what’s turning out to be a severe case of the Tonga trots. Ian and Annie go ashore to start the clean up and are soon joined by others. We clear away all our debris then there’s a few dinghy runs going on between boats with the lost and found. No-one looks like moving very far today but Tallulah Ruby and ourselves decide to head for another anchorage by Naupapu Island where there are coral gardens to snorkel.
Our Moon Handbook tells us that the ancient Kingdom of Tonga is “the oldest and last remaining Polynesian monarchy, and the only Pacific nation never brought under foreign rule”. It covers an area of 691 square miles and is divided into 4 main island groups, each of them very different. There are 34 islands in the Vava’u Group, 21 of which are inhabited. It’s perfect cruising ground; emerald green islands with white sand bays and numerous coves and caves to explore. We could spend a long time here so it’s a pity the weather has been so poor.
We motor very slowly as it’s a narrow channel to Kulo Islet, with reefs all around – Tallulah Ruby follow closely behind. Soon we’re anchored off Kulo in sand, with a depth of about 10 metres. Our cruising guide tells us there’s an excellent restaurant on Vaku ‘Litu Island opposite so we make a plan to head there tonight. Ian and Annie go ashore and have a walk along the beach – shelling of course! While there they bump into Harmony who are anchored in the bay across from us. Luckily they have already explored the island and are able to tell us the restaurant is no more – we guess it may have been damaged by the 2001 cyclone. We head back to the boat and snorkel in the surrounding coral gardens which are beautiful. The Tallulah Ruby boys are off spear fishing again but no catch, so, as they’re low on food and have a lot to do tomorrow, they head back into Neiafu. We decide to stay put; as usual, we have plenty of food and it’s just too nice to leave so soon. It’s another lovely sunset, the dusk chorus kicks off again and we watch the bats zipping around the boat in the bright moonlight.