Tonga At Last!

We left Samoa on June 9, sailing along the northern coast of Upolu to the Apolima Straight between Upolu and Savai’i, the two main islands of Samoa. The wind died when we got into the straight but picked up again as soon as we exited the southern end. The seas also picked up and we were in 2.5 to 3 meter seas with the wind 18 to 23 knots, both on the port beam or a bit ahead of beam. We sailed the the entire passage with just our jib with one reef most of the time. We were still doing 6 to 7 knots in lumpy, uncomfortable seas.

We entered the pass at Niuatoputapu (which means “place of the very sacred coconuts”) at about 5pm on June 10. This is much later than I was comfortable with because after about 3pm the visibility into the water is greatly reduced. Looking at the charts, the pass seemed plenty wide and deep, but any new pass is an unknown and requires care. There was little wind and only about 2 knots of current and the pass was very well marked so we made it in with no problem. Soon, we were anchored in 25 ft with a sand bottom, about 1/2 a mile from the dock.

As soon as we were in, we took a swim, had dinner and went to bed. It had been a long day.

The next morning, we contacted Customs and Immigration on the VHF radio and learned that they would do check-in for us on the boat, as long as I could transport them from the dock. No problem. Except that the guy from Health fell into the water getting onto the dinghy. He was really embarrassed! But check-in still went well and was all done in about 30 minutes, although I think the Health guy charged us double, an extra $50 USD for the swim. You never really know what the ‘correct’ fee is. I do know that the Health fee in Vava’u (both places are part of Tonga) is $50 less. It ends up being whatever they say it is.

We went for a walk on shore and found pigs everywhere. Lots and lots of pigs running through the bushes, across the roads and rooting along the shore. There were many sows with groups of 4 to 6 little ones.

We also saw several horses, which is something we had not seen on the other islands we have visited in the South Pacific.

On the way back, we rested on a bench next to the dock. All made with rough local lumber but very functional.

The next day was rainy so we mostly stayed in, doing boat chores and computer work. There was a break in the rain mid-day, so we hopped in the dinghy and went out to the edge of the lagoon for some snorkeling. We walked around a small motu and picked up quite a bit of plastic trash.

The next day we took a long walk into Hihifo, the main town.

We did not see any restaurants or stores of any kind, although we were told that there is a hardware store and maybe a bank. We did drop by the hospital. It was quite nice.

I had stressed a bit when we entered the pass at 5pm when the visibility was not great. While we were there, the (much bigger) supply ship came in the same pass. Made me feel kinda silly, worrying about us fitting when this boat came in just fine.

There is not much going on here, but we did get checked in to Tonga and it divided our trip from Samoa to Vava’u into two shorter trips, which was a good thing. After a few days of rest, it was time to do one more overnight trip to Vava’u, known as a cruiser’s paradise in Tonga. We were really looking forward to getting there!