Tonga: the sailor's playground
02/09/2019
A new school year has started and we feel as it is a race against time. 14.000 miles behind us, but still so many miles to go and still so much to see before the hurricane season.
We are on our way to Tonga and it’s once again a very unpleasant passage. We have learned that this part is called something like the 'horrible triangle or hyperactive ocean' as you have depressions from the north and the south converging towards this area. Now we understand why you have so many cross waves and changes in wind directions…
My seasickness gets worse and worse. A bit weird as I thought it would get better, but others have experienced the same ‘pattern’… But ok, we’re almost there 😋🙈
What’s really cool on this passage is that we cross the dateline! We will actually ‘loose’ the third of September 2019 and it will have never existed in our lives! Weird right?!
This also means we're getting closer to Belgium again!
*
While I’m on watch I ask Anna to look out for boats. She doesn’t even lift up her head and says:
“ Off course not, no one comes here to get sick and swirl around in these waves!”
And then a bit later she adds some edge to it:
“Why do we always have to travel with overnight ‘dodo’s’?! Do you like to be tired and sick or what?!”
She’s a real little bossy girl that one! But she makes us laugh so much!
*
We arrived the 4th of September in Vava’u. It’s only just 6 o’clock in the morning and a great time to enter a new country. There was one space left on the ‘big boats’ dock and as a merchant ship was coming in, we flew through clearance in less than an hour! Crazy how it actually can go fast … if they want too 😏
A huge difference between rich and poor...
These are not even the poor people. No pictures of those houses ...
Still they are richer as many islands in Cap Verde as they have quite a lush environment. Except they do not seem to use it's full potential. Apart from the plantations they are short on eggs! On other islands we have seen for exemple chickens everywhere. But here there are so few and none behind fences so I guess they cannot find the eggs 😳
We also have the Cap Verde feeling to it as they hustle for everything even after giving cloths or gifts for which we ask nothing in return, they will try and sell you their overprices goods… A pity as it just has the negative affect on me. I will spend more money in places where I feel I’m not treated as a milking cow. Not you?
Anyway the day after we left with friends to explore this amazing sailing playground. We started with Kapa island.
Anyway the day after we left with friends to explore this amazing sailing playground. We started with Kapa island.
Suddenly the sky breaks open and gives us this impossible shower! To quick to close the windows. 
Result: through this tiny little window we had a bed completely soaked up!!!
But the sunshine comes through as quickly as the rain shower so it dries very quickly! And we are always happy when the boat gets thoroughly cleaned after a passage 😎
Beautiful colour of the water!
We plan on chilling here for a few days and the area is so perfect to get out a new toy: the Dinghy Go inflatable sailboat for the girls!
Up till now our favourite moments are not the sailing, so maybe it’s time to change their perspective a little bit 😌😍
The new boat by the way is called Kevin (Bob, Kevin, minions movie … 😃). And hup they're gone!
Dad wants to have a go too 😂
Beautiful way to end the day:
Wonderful coral head just under the boat with Nemo!
A view from up above of Kapa bay:
School and some artwork in the morning and a cave visit in the afternoon.
The result:
It’s the most amazing underwater cave (Swallows cave) we’ve ever seen, but we should have been warned that it was completely ruined… It’s full, full of graffiti! Such a pity!
We have also been looking for the famous Mariners cave on Nuapupu island. You have to access it by diving 1 to 3 meters under the water, so it's hard to see from the surface. We followed advise from friends and internet, but didn't find it ...
This is how it looks from above!
So as a reward for a good school day we spend the afternoon on this magnificent beach!
If you look closely on the pictures below you can see Geoffrey swimming. He's once again trying to find the Mariners cave by swimming along the whole of the island now. I'm following with LouiseAnna which is a bit scary as I wouldn't be able to help him if he got in trouble. And he did!!! He got stung by this huge blue jellyfish (Bluebottle) over the head and in his face. He was making all sorts of gestures but continued swimming afterwards. Oef!
He didn't find the cave and came on board with the traces of tentacles over his face. A bit of 'antihistamine' and cream and a few hours later he got back to normal 😉😌
As the wind picked up a little, we went of to find a more sheltered spot and discover another jewel of Tonga's Vavau: north of Vaka Eitu.
We just chilled another two days here swimming, swimming, swimming, ...
13/09/2019 It's time to check out and explore a new part of the Pacific Ocean. We used another 'tactique' and went to visit the government officials while it was pouring rain outside. As expected they were quite happy to stamp the paperwork in their 'office' instead of on our boat (we didn't want to move the boat up to the dock again 😏). The police officer had grains in his 'office' so the girls could feed his chickens 😂
14/09/2019 We are leaving by sailing slowly along the north of Hunga as we hope to see a whale, but still no luck...
So ciao Tonga, hup to Fiji!!!
Comments