16 October 2024 –Tonga -Vava’u Group

Before I start I have another need. Someone now cannot make the New Zealand to Sydney leg in early January 2025 so I need ideally a sixth person. You would have to be in Auckland, New Zealand by about 3/4 January 2025 with a view to us leaving for Sydney, weather permitting, by about 7 January 2025. We should get to Sydney by about 14-16 January 2025. If anyone is interested please email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com  Thanks.

We had a great still night and the water was like a millpond. I woke about 7.00am and enjoyed some tea whilst watching the water and the yachts. There are quite a lot of boats moored here mostly on buoys. We enjoyed a good breakfast of fruits and cereal and the stillness. Hap the guy from the diving school came at 8.00am and looked at the hull with a view to cleaning it on Friday/Saturday. We need a clean hull to enter New Zealand.

We needed to do some shopping as we proposed to go to some anchorages for a few days before we return to Neiafu to check out again. After breakfast we headed ashore and went to the fruit and veg market which was quite good and were able to buy quite a few things. The supermarkets were not that great but we managed to get enough for a few days.

We returned to Stormbird and headed off out of the bay and through the buoys which we had entered on the way in. Although the wind was light we put up the genoa and sailed along about 3-3.9 kts admiring the scenery as we slowly sailed past, which was cliffs covered in woodland and creepers with the odd house here and there. Our journey was not far and so within a few hours we pulled in the genoa and motored round to a bay called Port Mourelle. There were about 6 other yachts anchored here which was off a sandy beach with palm trees and other trees all around it with only one house hidden in the trees. It was quiet and very beautiful and the water was very blue in the shallow areas. We anchored and then all swam and chilled in the afternoon. The shoreline has quite a few caves along its base. The water was pretty clear and there was coral underneath although not as extensive as I have seen in other areas.

We decided to have a barbecue and had bought some nice burgers in Tahiti. We had some sun downers before the sun disappeared. We got the cobb out and got it going and initially we toasted the baps and then had the burgers and put cheese on the top which we the eat with lettuce and tomato. It was delicious. We then put some pealed bananas in tinfoil with some chocolate squares in them on the cobb and cooked them so the banana was soft and chocolaty. What a good meal.

We look forward to going to another anchorage tomorrow.

I had an email from the weather man Bob who is now starting to help us sail from Tonga to New Zealand and to hopefully avoid any bad weather. He said after the storm which is coming through on Friday/Saturday we should be ok going down to Tongapatu the main island on Sunday/Monday.

The picture of the day is the cliffs as we sail past toward our anchorage.             

Opportunity Year Two

In year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025. I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we move through French Polynesia and beyond. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com