Tonga!
Internet since Bora Bora is difficult to find and very expensive, mainly because we are off the beaten path. Also, pictures uploaded via mobile data seem to come out distorted so we are not adding anymore pics until we get good wifi.
…so just a quick update.
We left Bora Bora a few weeks ago and stopped briefly at Palmerston in the Cooks. Due to bad weather we had to move on after only one day, skip Niue altogether, and quickly move on to Tonga. Palmerston was definitely a highlight of our trip across the Pacific. I would have traded our time in Bora Bora for a few more days at Palmerston…what an amazing place!
We have been having a great time here in Niuatoputapu Tonga.
New-ya-tow-pu-ta-pu, is wonderful, beautiful, the people are fantastic. It took us a few days to get checked in but we are now legally in Tonga. After a six day passage we arrived late afternoon on a Tuesday. It was late so we anchored in the lagoon, cleaned up, had a nice dinner and got some proper sleep. The next morning we went to get checked in but everything was closed…because the King of Tonga was here! We asked the police if we could stay and see the king, they said no-problem! We had a great day, we got to see the king, watched the community presentation and headed back to the boat. Thursday we went in again to check in…everything is closed. We were hitching back to the wharf and got a ride with a very nice lady who turned out to be the customs officer! Long story short she apologized for the delay but they have been very busy with community events in the past few days. We got checked in the next day, took a walk across the island, and now we are stuck on the boat while a storm blows by. There are four boats here including us. They are from Germany, UK, and New Zealand, and there is at least one diver on each boat! We all went for a dive the other day out on the reef, it was amazing, probably the best dive I have done. It was a little overcast but the scenery was amazing, it was deep coral canyons winding around in different directions. Some of the canyons were 20-30 feet wide some were little more than shoulder width apart, just spectacular.
The weather is terrible right now, it actually started around midnight. This weather is no surprise, we have been watching it’s approach for days and it hit right on schedule. We are in a wonderful anchorage with excellent holding. We’re protected by the island and surrounding reef so we are good for now! Winds hit 44 kts last night, we held fast but a big catamaran in front of us dragged across the lagoon. I don’t know how they missed us or the boat next to us but they did. At 3:30 AM they were in front of us, at 06:00 they were behind us heading for the reef. I tried hailing them in VHF but no answer. Again, long story short they woke up and re-anchored. All is well.
Due to bad weather we have had to cut-short or change plans altogether. One stop we really don’t want to miss is Vava’u Tonga which is south of us. It looks like we may have a window to head south on Tuesday so that is the “plan”.
If we make it to Vava’u we will probably spend a week there, move onto Savusavu Fiji for a week or two and then onto New Caledonia. We will see what the weather allows us to do.
We will update when we have decent wifi…