We will miss you Tonga
If we had only known what Tonga would give us, we would have come here sooner and stayed longer. Getting here was no big deal, just 49 hours at sea to transit the 250 miles between island nations – of which nothing of note took place. 
We ate. We slept. We sailed. In fact, we sailed all but the final couple hours as that mileage was spent motoring into and amongst the Vava’u islands and passes to the town of Neiafu, where we checked into the new-to-us country.
As we were navigating those final miles we began to feel the calm. The sea state was blocked out by the large areas of reef and land. The tree-topped land masses brought back memories of the Pacific North West. By the time we made our way to Neiafu, where a weathered and beaten concrete dock awaited us for check-in, we knew we would likely hang out in this area for a few weeks at least. In the end it turned into nearly one and a half months, which was so very welcomed by us both.
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- Approaching Tonga after 3 days at sea
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- Dramatic rocks litter the entryway into the islands
Officially in, we set straight to grabbing a mooring in the greater bay nearest to town. We would have liked to anchor but the depths and crowded mooring field prevented it. Nonetheless, the mooring allowed us to rest and begin the ever constant resupplying and provisioning for the much longer passage to New Zealand in our future. There were numerous small family run grocery stores in town, but they all carried the same couple dozen items from the same cargo ship. Not a huge amount of variety, but we managed just fine.
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- The mooring field outside of town
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- City dock and small boat marina
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- Walking into town
I kept myself busy on boat-chores while Kerri plugged away on her laptop. I dove into the lazarette to look into an odd noise in the steering system again – because this is just a weekly chore now, why not. I also did a major engine check and full rigging check, but over time I eventually fell into a more relaxed todo list which just included cleaning of stuff. Mostly a weeks long job of cleaning the bottom of the boat while in the water. I do this by snorkel, and with my old smoker’s lungs I cant get a lot done per breath. But, over time, and square foot by square foot the entire under water surface area of the boat was picked and scrapped clean. I eventually would run our jack-lines under the boat so I can pull myself to the bottom a opposed to swimming down, giving me a lot more time down there with oxygen. The days I wasn’t under water I was on deck hand buffing portions of our stainless which haven’t had any love since Mexico. Overall, Meriwether was looking and feeling like the sturdy work horse that she is, and my confidence in our ability to make the treacherous passage to New Zealand was increasing week by week.
It wasn’t all work and resupplying though. Over the course of the five weeks we stayed in Tonga we visited with many other cruising couples’ boats and had just as many come to hang out with us on Meriwether. A floating margarita and fish-n-chips shack got our attention once. Then there was trivia night again (our team won this time), at least four or five other occasions of dinning at the two waterfront restaurants, a beach bonfire, a local run pig-roast, a local Tongan trio rocked the house at yet another restaurant further out of town in which the whole fleet showed up to eat. There were few nights of solitude, peace, or quiet while in town or out at anchor. So, as our fourth week approached and the first weather window to attempt the jump to New Zealand in a few days, I put together an impromptu “guys night” where many of us boat-husbands headed over to the preferred watering hole for drinks, smokes, and a healthy game of dominos (it was too windy to play poker)
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- The “hideway” has fish-n-chips and margaritas
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- let the party begin
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- bonfire on the beach
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- Pig roast
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- The locals rocked the house while we ate dinner
We’ve been absolutely relishing our time here in Vava’u, an island group in northern Tonga. The protected waters and short distances between anchorages feel very reminiscent of the seas and passages of Washington, BC, and Alaska, and it is all a comfortable respite after months of the vast, open Pacific. We’ve enjoyed some of the best snorkeling we’ve had in the South Pacific, the best and cheapest restaurants and cafes, a Tongan family-hosted pig roast, flying foxes (a lifelong dream of mine to see in person), and far more large-group socializing than this introvert can handle… but most of all, we’ve just enjoyed the ability to rest.Because we arrived here so late in the season, we thought we’d be starting to look almost immediately when we got here for weather windows to New Zealand. Cyclone season is quickly approaching, and windows (especially with our luck) are narrow out here. But this place just feels too good to blow by. So we’re soaking up the as much “not going anywhere any time soon” as we can. – Kerri
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- Sleeping bats
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- And they sometimes fly too
The Vava’u islands is only a fraction of what Tonga has to offer, but we never felt the pull to make the overnight sail to either of the two other island areas of Tonga. Sure, we missed out on some things, but the more relaxed weeks in secluded anchorages among friends was exactly what we were looking for, and in need of after many months of hard ocean passages.
By the time we did leave it was already November and the majority of cruisers had already moved on towards Fiji or New Zealand. The mooring field was barely half full by November first, and some of the local shops were entering off-season hours. I’d have loved to just stay exactly where we were and just keep the relaxed vibe, but cyclone season had officially begun a of November 1st, so westward we must go.
Awesome!