Malo from Neiafu

Enjoying an island to ourselves

Not sure what these are at the local market??

Neiafu harbour, looking south towards us

As I sit here on the shady deck of 'Aquarium' Cafe on the waterfront of Neiafu harbour, laptop at hand, free Internet and a cool banana and papaya smoothie....I think I should write some more about Vava'u.

It's such a quaint place, the town hasn't really changed much in 13 years; the grocery shops are VERY basic, there are four of them. And you sort of have to visit all four to get what you want, that is if they have what you want. You can't find chocolate of any kind, bars or blocks and yes Geoff has resorted to eating my cooking chocolate nibs! No chips, snacks, nuts, no ice creams or ham, etc. You can get frozen steak, sausages, bacon and mince...sometimes. You can get toilet rolls, paper towels and bread. Fresh fruit and veggies at the local market is pretty good, cheap and lots of banana's, papaya's, eggs, tomatoes, beans, cabbage and local taro, breadfruit.

How ever there are alot more bars and cafe's than 13 years ago! Mostly all operated by expat's from NZ or Oz. Our favourite is Aquarium, where we can see Sea Otter out front, but the Bounty Bar, Tropicana, Tonga Bobs, Mermaids, Vava'u Yacht Club, Crows Nest and Compass Rose and Coconet Cafe are all popular and worth a visit. In fact you could spend far too much time in all these places hanging out with yachties, talking yachtie stuff. Drinking the local beer, Ikale. Pretty strong stuff and Geoff seems to have got a taste for it!

But the islands are what really makes you love Vava'u. Do you know that in 1777 when Captain Cook was in the islands of the Ha'apai group south of here. He met the local Chief of Vava'u and when he found out the Chief was heading back to Vava'u, Cook asked if he could follow him in one of the ships. The Chief told Cook that the Vava'u group had no harbour or anchorages!! Now this must go down as a classic historical lie, as Vava'u is one large group of well protected and fabulous anchorages. Plus a main harbour that is considered the safest in all the South Pacific, Nieafu! It would be tempting to leave a boat here for Cyclone season and come back the following year to get even more time to enjoy the anchorages....but maybe home calls and maybe we want to do this again on a bigger yacht?? Maybe???

The last five days have been in the out lying anchorages and islands. Some are just plain pristine, idyllic paradises. Uninhabited, white beaches, clear water, just you - the beach - the birds and the fishing. Our favourite was an island you could walk around in half an hour, no one but us there. You can't anchor overnight as it sits on the eastern outer reef, surrounded by reefs and shoals and not a very big swinging room for one boat. But perfect for a few hours. We've seen whales and got some great video footage of one guy tail slapping only 200 metres from us!! Funny how at sea, the thought of a whale being so close gives you nightmares and yet here, you actually sail closer to get a better look!!

Tongans are very friendly people, easy to smile and yet seem quiet and shy. They love to laugh and they love to eat. They love fishing and talking....hmmmm sounds like my sort of people! I have spent so much time in the water, I think I look like a prune. I'm browner than I have been since my old surfing days, my hair is a bleached mass of corkscrew curls and I'm sure I'm breeding wrinkles to put a granny to shame!! But it's worth it, we are SO relaxed, well I am- Geoff has found another boat problem......algae!

Yep our fuel tanks are full of black algae, probably since Alameda. But the rough passage over to Tonga probably stirred it up off the bottom of the tanks. So now he is in the process of deciding to deal with it here or in Suva, Fiji? It will require a full empty of the tanks and somehow cleaning the inside of the black plastic tanks and filtering the fuel before it goes back in. The risk of leaving it in the tanks is a damaged engine. So poor Geoff, he now has another worry to add to a journey of worries. I'll let you know how this one goes?

So that's it for today, we could be heading off to Fiji at the end of the week or early next week? Thankfully it is only 430nm so that should be a quick 3 day passage.