Our time in Tonga was too brief and quickly over. We departed Vava’u yesterday and expect to arrive in Fiji tomorrow morning.
Wind is good and consistent, but too squarely behind us so it is a little bit rolly, otherwise a great sail!
We left the Ha’apai group this morning after spending several days cruising in some very enjoyable locations. The weather even turned fantastic for a day or so! We celebrated by breaking out the BBQ…. great NZ meat supplied by Churchill’s…. delicious
The 60 nm sail from Ha’apai to Vava’u was in perfect conditions and we had a blast! Dave was very excited, but ultimately disappointed when the huge fish he hooked decided that he’d go in a different direction to where we we sailing. The evening sees us at anchor in a beautiful bay and looking forward to a snorkel on a nearby reef tomorrow morning.
The diving on the reef was worth it.
Dunno what day it is, maybe Wednesday, but does it regally matter?
We left Pangaimotu Island at 3am a couple of days ago and had a very enjoyable sail to Nomuka Iki where we hunkered down in 20+ knot winds for over 24 hours. As we were surrounded by reefs, the skipper chose to sleep in the cockpit just in case a speedy escape was required. Just when we thought it was a abating, wham! we were slammed with 90 minutes of 30+ knots which changed right through 360 degrees! The storm also brought with it torrential rain. It stopped just as quickly as it started and we enjoyed a calm (if a little too rolly) night.
This morning we had a quick swim and snorkelled some local coral reefs. Around lunchtime we picked up the anchor and motor sailed 20nm to the wonderful Limu Island… a pretty near perfect tropical island.
A quick walk on the beach (trying not to tread on any of the thousands of hermit crabs) and managed to open a few coconuts taken straight from the tree. We enjoyed a little picnic with Chris and Ingrid from the yacht Willpower before heading back to Mari at dusk.
Maybe tomorrow we’ll repeat….
Limu is one of those idyllic islands that I always picture when “tropical island” is mentioned. Crystal clear water, white sand beach and coconut trees.
We had sundowners and fresh coconuts on the beach with Chris and Ingrid from Willpower. It took some ingenuity to find a way of opening up the coconuts but the dingy anchor turned out to be up to the job.
