Different drummer offshore in Tonga's Vavau Islands

Tonga's Vavau Islands © Island Cruising NZ

As with our passage to Ha'apai I elected to do the trip from the Ha'apai to the Vavau's overnight as it ensures you can both depart and arrive in daylight. The wind was very favourable and again we had to reduce sail from midnight.

For a couple of hours in the early morning I had all the sail in and we were still moving at two knots, but then the wind died and the sail went out again and we were still hardly moving! We anchored off the reef at Ovaka, one of the outer islands mid morning and stayed until the next day when we moved on the Neiafu, the capital of the Vavau's, and the only town larger than an island village.

I am familiar with Neiafu from previous visits and know the few places you can anchor in less than 20m of water. Even though we have 90m of chain I avoid anchoring in deeper water if at all possible - apart from sufficient scope for unexpected weather you have big problems if the anchor gets snagged around coral. But the harbour was full of cruising yachts as it is the season and the Island Cruising fleet had largely arrived. Even all the moorings seemed to be taken. On the first attempt we finished up too close to other yachts. We lifted the anchor and an hour later managed to drop it again on a 13m shelf with pin-point accuracy so we finished up with sufficient swinging room.

The Vavau's are one of the world's great cruising grounds. There are over 40 recognised (and numbered) anchorages within a 10 mile radius of Neiafu, and many more to find when you are out moving around the islands. Pristine sandy beaches, palms swaying in the trade wind breeze, and villages and walks to explore are the norm. There are also a lot of coral reefs to avoid so you have to remain alert when moving around. Many are good snorkelling locations. We stayed four weeks.

Some of the islands have small resorts, which often operate only during the winter season. Those with road access seem to be well established. Resorts on islands only accessible by sea seem to come and go. The exception at the moment is those offering whale watching as part of the package.

At Malo Island we found the very friendly proprietor of the not yet open (for this season) resort. He must have needed a distraction from the not inconsiderable amount of maintenance in his face, or someone to talk to. He got two of his four daughters to take us for a walk around the island track and then insisted on making us a cup of the very nice tasting local coffee after we had got drenched in a tropical rainstorm. We were annoyed at the time that we had not left a filling cap off our water tanks as we could have easily filled them. As it turned out it did not matter as our small watermaker, normally only run when we use the engine, was largely keeping up with our consumption and we scored a rain tank fill later.

At Vakaeitu we found the track to the old abandoned resort on the hill. I first visited in 2006 which was the first year after it failed. It was in pretty good shape then. Today all that remains are the 6 concrete water tanks - in very good condition - and a few bits of buildings that were built in concrete block.

Hunga is a very sheltered anchorage with good coral. We took one of the moorings that belong to Barry, the 'resort' owner. The resort has two fales, no restaurant (but does provide meals for the guests) and no bar. Barry is a Canadian who built the resort from scratch about six years ago, and he told us he will be moving to Mexico soon. There was another resort here but it is no longer operating.

From Ano Beach we took the dinghy to Hinakauea Beach. There was no sign of the basic restaurant that used to be there. We got talking to a woman, Leigh, who was exercising her dogs. It turned out that she had owned the restaurant. As the story went the owner of the land had told her to get off as he had a better offer. She pulled down the building. Nothing else has happened. She was very bitter.

Fetoko Island is so small (and privately owned) that you will have trouble finding it on a map. It has a very nice resort owned by a young American couple who I met when we were there in 2013 when they were finishing the build and had just opened. Once again we were made extremely welcome and we spent several hours there at the bar in the beach side restaurant.

Euakafa Island is another very pretty little island. There is a very good quality resort here called Dream Island, currently not open - not even the bar! So we did a beach comb (only pickup was a nice length of light fishing line) and then tried to find the tomb featured in the cruising guides up the 'mountain'. The track no longer exists, we did not find the tomb, but we did get to the top where there were glimpses of the islands around.

Port Maurelle is a large and very sheltered anchorage and much favoured. The 'port' handle is a misnomer as there is no port, not even a village. It dates back to when it was used by the French explorer. Anchoring there has always been free, as it is everywhere in Tonga, but when we went there the first time we were advised there was an anchoring fee to be paid to a collector who called by boat from the nearest village. We paid it happily as it was a modest amount ($T15 for up to three nights) and the locals there would be getting little benefit from the many yachts that called.

However the second time we stayed there was no collector, and no fee. Apparently the right of the villagers to charge to fee had been challenged in court. We went ashore and wandered down the 'road' (muddy track) to the Falevai Village and then to the coast at the Papa-Nuku anchorage. The village had a lot of empty houses, and was most memorable for the large Wesleyan church which was old but well loved inside, and the bank of solar panels, 54 of them, large, which we were told powered some communal freezers. Thank you again Japan, who also provided the two panel solar power setup on most of the houses in many of the villages we visited.

There are always little maintenance jobs to be done to keep all the systems running sweetly on the yacht. I had come the conclusion that the poor range on the AIS was an aerial problem as corrosion was visible at the plug. I did a bit more work on it. It seems we do not have a lot of good vhf aerials. Both the one on the AIS and the handheld emergency had breaks in the outer braid of the coax cable at the plugs. I was scared to look at the one on the vhf radio itself! I expect to be shopping. And then there is the routine maintenance. There are two days each cruising season I detest, and they are both oil change days. The oil has to be pumped from the sumps (there is no access to the plugs as is common with most small yachts), and it is messy and slow. One was done.

The dinghy outboard had started running poorly and this was initially blamed on water getting in the fuel. Craig cleaned out the carb but it was no better so without conviction I changed the spark plug. Bingo!

A mainstay of the economy in Tonga at the moment is whale watching. It is the season, and we were seeing whales regularly, though normally at a distance blowing or leaping from the water. At Sisia there were two whales quite close just outside the reef moving slowly with whale watching boats keeping a good distance. While at Euakafa, after dark, we heard a whale blowing and rushed outside. There were four whales swimming around, the closest only about 15m from the yacht. Even though the ambient light level was quite low each time they blew we could see them, sometimes the flukes in the air, and there was luminescent on the bodies. Quite an experience!

We received wonderful news while at Neiafu from my regular crew member Jimmy, who had his hand up to do the season with us before he had a health scare. It turned out to be just that. When he let me know I asked him if he was ready to come sailing. I got a quick email back 'coming next Wednesday!'

We have been taking opportunities as they have occurred to go for sightseeing walks. Mt Talau, near Neiafu, is the highest point of the Vavuas. It is not very far, maybe 3km, and not very high, only about 130m but very steep at the last as most of that height is gained in the last few metres. There were wonderful views from the three lookouts, over Neiafu and the eastern islands, the passage in, and out to Port Refuge to the west.

At Vakaeitu we walked to a secluded beach on the other side of the island. At the top of the island is a fishing float tied to a tree with a notice attached. The sign reads "Low tech tsunami warning. If floating climb tree". At a pretty little uninhabited island called Ovalau we did another beach comb and a jungle bash, and brought some drinking coconuts back to the yacht.

Hunga is unique with a steep concrete road from the rubble wharf to the small village. We came across half a dozen boys who disappeared down a side track each carrying a woven sack full of something that we could see was not very heavy. Shortly later they reappeared on their way back to the village without the sacks. We went down the track to see what we could see. It appears the sacks had been full of plastic rubbish and they had thrown down the cliff. There was a lot of litter around - a sort of rubbish dump. Back in the village we came across some other villagers burning their rubbish. I couldn't understand the point of the boys going to the trouble of taking their rubbish down to the cliff to throw it over.

Kenetu is the loveliest island in the eastern basin. We did the obligatory climb over the island to admire the ocean swells crash onto the rocks on the weather side. There are the remains of some fishermen shelters on the top and unfortunately quite a bit of litter left.

Island Cruising repeated the very successful rum punch lunch that had been held in the Haapais with another at Port Maurelle. The space age shelter tent reappeared and the selection of food on offer was amazing. Many mixed the day with swimming and paddleboarding in the beautiful setting on a beautiful day. Another Island Cruising function was the farewell dinner before about half the yachts departed for Fiji - another well organised and enjoyable evening. We also had a night on the town when Craig reached a big birthday milestone.

The fishermen amongst the readers may have noted there has been no gloating over our fishing success while in the Vavaus. For the reason you can guess.

At the end of July I returned to Auckland with a parts shopping list for a week to tidy up some business matters, and keep in touch with family.