Year Two
Date: 26/6/2009 18:00
Weather: Cold (that means a minimum of 24 deg celsius).
Location: Kapa Island (18 4.03' S, 174 01.86' W)
Author: Peter.

It is a cold day in Tonga today apparently. It is going to be 24 degrees celsius. The locals are all saying get out your winter clothes. Not bad hey. Believe it or not but if this is true the water is actually going to be warmer than the air.

We have been having some big spring tides at the moment and the coral heads are actually showing at low tide. So it was the other day at Ha'ano island when most of the local village came out onto the reef to catch some seafood. Some stood on the edge of the reef casting in handlines while others poked around the reef with long sticks and a bag collecting either octopus or clams. One young boy was even casting a net in the receding waters trying to catch fish. We saw him catch an eel. We also explored the exposed reef but were only hunting with our camera. The sea life was amazing with the largest nudi brachs (probably spelt wrong) I have ever seen (at least 15cm long), and of varying colours, the stand out being the bright orange. We also got our first look at Spanish dancers although as they were in the shallows they were not dancing/swimming.

Nudibraach

We then walked off to the small local village to discover there really was no one left, they were all out on the reef. It appears to us that the smaller the village the cleaner it is, and at Ha'ano the houses seemed much nicer on the whole. On the way back to the yacht we passed some wild mandarin trees and with Kylie on my shoulders we picked a few. Pity they were a bit sour. Hunter gatherer wifee then went and picked a few bananas to see if they would ripen off the tree and gathered a few coconuts. We are starting to become experts at opening these things with the machete we bought at the local supermarket at Lifuka. Overall a great afternoon.

We set sail at 03:30 the next morning for the Vavau group of islands and after an unexpectedly quick trip we arrived at our destination at midday. Kylie slept most of the way so by the time she woke up we were over half way there. We averaged around 9.5knots for the crossing and unlike most other boats, we had relativley smooth seas. Everyone we talk to says they had a rough crossing in a confused sea state. I spent the rest of the day relaxing while Kylie went exploring the bay in the kayak. We caught up with the crew of Navara and Airbourne at sun down.

Going back in time a little the night we had the strong winds into the 40's, up here in Vavau it was apparently a little stronger and in the main port quite a few boats dragged moorings or anchors with quite a few collisions and some damage.

Like we said earlier, today has been a little cooler and it has been overcast so it is no good for snorkeling, so while I did a little boat preventative maintenance Kylie baked bread and cupcakes. We then set ashore in the kayak for a quick look around and some more exposed reef walking.

The islands here in the Vavau group are much taller in height than the rest of Tonga. We spotted the islands at around 20nm instead of the usual 10 or less as with the rest of Tonga. The land goes much higher than that of a palm tree which means we will have some up hill walking to do whilst exploring and we should get some great elevated views back down onto the waterways. The islands also look different as they are now mainly rock down to the waters edge. The trees seem to be the same but with less palms. There are now also more boats around, this being area where the charter boats operate in Tonga. Our anchorage is also just full of Kiwi's. They all love their sailing, and most of them back in New Zealand must own a boat?? Most people we have met this year are Kiwi's!

We regularly see "funded by Australia" all over Tonga.

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