Luangahu Island, Tonga

 Here we can hear well the Whales singing both through the hull and also when snorkeling. The singing is quite loud and the Whales must be very near.

Lifuka Island, Tonga.

Lifuka Island was hit by a category four Cyclone in January 2014 and suffered a lot of damage, with most buildings destroyed and many of the big trees were also damaged. They are trying to rebuild it with the support from the World Bank, AUS. and NZ. the Village has a sad look but the people we met were all friendly.

BBQ On The Beach.

The Crew of S/Y Blue Bird from the USA had a large fish, but as they don't have a freezer they offered to us and S/Y Tahimi from NZ. So I had Susi one evening and yesterday they suggested we make a Pot Luck BBQ on the beach, which we all accepted with pleasure. We came with meet, soup and potatoes and Tahimi made Lasagna and Blue Bird came with fish and salade. We had a very nice evening.

Nukunamo Island, Ha'apai Group, Tonga.

 Overtaking S/Y Tahimi on our way from the Vava'u Group to Ha'apai Group.

 At anchor at Nukunamo Island.

 The pass between Nukunamo Island and Foa Island.

 Soft sand.

 Strong current in the Pass.

 A few nice houses on Fao Island, but Nukunamo Island is uninhabited.

Ovalaou Island, Tonga.

We have now spend a few days at Port Morelles and it is a wonderful bay with clear water. We can hear Whales singing and that is very exiting. But we wish to move on to the Ha’apai Island group further south. The weather is not the best at the moment as we have strong south winds, so we moved to Ovalaou Island, which is the furthest south save anchorage in the Vava’u Island Group and can be considered a good departing point for our further south sail. We will have to wait a few days before the wind will turn to the east so we can set sail.

We had a walk on the island today and Kai had a good snorkeling trip back to New Dawn.

 Ovalaou Island.

The Last Week's Work Done And More Of The Vava'u Group, Tonga.

Friday 19.09.2014:

We have now been here for a week and all my time has been spend on sorting out boat problems. The batteries were very bad and I managed to find a shop that could order them from the main island and have them shipped here. They arrived Tuesday and we installed the three new batteries Wednesday. They are not the best batteries and I guess I should have taken 6 new batteries, but they could not deliver more than three. At least now the fridge and freezer are working again. But I will need to change all six batteries soon, so the 24 V bank can be good again.

Then I had a technician to try to repair the forward looking sonar, which has not worked since its installation in 2010. I had a technician wasting EUR 250 and my time while in Tahiti and he was incompetent. The chap here, after 2.5 h work found out that the control box was badly installed and caused a poor connection. So yesterday we fixed that and moved the box to a better location. It now works, I hope, again.

New Dawn has again been totally dismantled with tools all over and the floor boards up here and there, steering wheel off, etc.. A total mass and surprisingly Kai accepted the mess and even gave a hand with some of the work, which was appreciated.

I am just now sitting for the fourth time at Digicel office, as the Data SIMM Card (2 GB), I bought a week ago, was not activated correctly, so I have had no Internet and even the new photos seems to have been messed up.

All this work has caused me not to be able to visit anything here, except the small town. Well too bad and as the Visa to Tonga is only valid for a month, I will miss this island.

We plan to do the shopping today and then set sails for a couple of supposedly nice anchorages here in Vava’u, before heard south to the Haapai islands group.

The market in Nieafu is quite good and most of the prices are just OK, but some are expensive.

We moved to Port Morelle, which is not a Port, but a wonderful bay with a great beach and very clear water.

We took the tender to a tiny Nuku island. Apparently the King comes here to have lunch, which I doubt. The sand beach is very nice with soft sand, but the two houses behind the bush are nothing for a king.

That is me and my shadow.

Don't take and leave anything except ones footprint.

An interesting cave with loads of Bats.