Vava'u

Hi everyone,

We spent a month in the Vava'u island group.  We alternated between moorings at Neiafu the main town and anchorages around the group.  We visited Pt Maurelle, Tapana Island and Lisa's Beach anchorages.  Lisa's was our favourite.

More than a dozen sailors in Zen Again's cockpit

Neiafu is a nice town.  Lots of small supermarkets, most of which sell the same items.  One really nice cafe in the middle of town with great coffee and food.  They also sell T-shirts, including custom-printed shirts.  Our favourite water-side cafes were Mangos and Kraken.  Both have dinghy docks.   Mangos makes town water available to cruisers.

Zen Again from Mangos in Neiafu

Great beer

We had two OCC & other get-togethers at Mangos, including Wandelaar and Walkabout the boats we sailed with from Nuiatoputapu.  The Maka beer is excellent, more IPA than lager.  Kraken runs a quiz night on Fridays and we won at our second attempt!

Socialising at Mangos

Kraken Bar

We had a set of T-shirts, long sleeve tees, polo shirts and bags made at Coffee & Tees.  They did a great job.  The do proper Aussie flat whites and their food is excellent.

Nicki models one of our new boat shirts

Our first foray out into the island group took us to Pt Maurelle.  It's a bit of a skating ring of an anchorage with thin sand over rock and quite a few bombies.  But the water was beautifully clear.  We started our big NZ hull clean here.  The NZ authorities are very strict on biosecurity so we are gradually working on thoroughly cleaning the hull including recesses and niches.

Clear 12m-deep water in Pt Maurelle

Our next anchorage was Tapana Island.  Our friends on sv Apres Ski were here and invited us over for a very nice dinner.  Everyone seems to have tuna in their freezers - caught en-route to Tonga.  Here we first encountered huge 'bait balls' of tiny fish hiding under the boat.  Hull cleaning continued.

Fish 'bait balls' at Tayana Island

Our third anchorage was Lisa's Beach.  More socialising here, including an OCC dinghy raft-up which became a 'how many people can we fit in the cockpit adventure.  Pretty cool picture (at top).  Attendees included Apres Ski, Nimue and Shimshal.  More hull cleaning.

Twilight at Lisa's Beach

After a week at anchor, and with water, bread and fresh supplies running low, we returned to in Neiafu.  The moorings were very busy but we managed to arrange a 'swap back' with the Aussie boat which had taken our mooring when we left.

Heading back to Neiafu

More socialising at Mangos

Several OCC and EBBYC boats we knew arrived during this week at Neiafu including Thestral, Moody Rudie, Island Kea and Deriska.  The sv Eyras were there too, who we last saw in Santa Marta, Colombia.  It was good to catch up with everyone.  With full water tanks etc we then headed back to Lisa's beach.  Hull cleaning continued.

"Metzi" evening sun-shade rigged

Starting another hull-cleaning session

The hull cleaning wasn't without incident.  I cut three fingers on a barnacle and Nic was stung by a jellyfish.  I also badly cut my foot while aboard.  So the cleaning alternated between us.

Bird feeding frenzy

Fish feeding frenzy

We hitchhiked with the Thestrals and Walkabouts from Lisa's Beach to Neiafu to do our domestic 'clear out'.  This is necessary when moving between Tongan island groups.  Unlike most international clearance locations in Tonga the boat doesn't need to go to the customs dock.  We rode in and back on the tray-back of a truck.  The owner Noah put chairs aboard for the ride back which was very nice of him.

Hitching a ride into Neiafu to clear-out with sv Threstrals

We had a great time in Vava'u.  Very relaxing, a very nice town and wonderful anchorages.

Trust all's well where you are!