We have just parked ourselves in Vavaʻu, and cooked up a celebratory brunch for our arrival.!

Our crew turned up to Silver Fern in Nukuʻalofa on Wednesday afternoon, all four of them! We have two seasoned crew coming back for more, Robyn & Chris, who have been sailing with us on Silver Fern for years! We also have two fresh-faced sailors joining us for our cruise around Tonga, Maisa and Uli, who wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

We had to tie up at the industrial pier in Nuku’alofa, as there was no space for us at any of the other wharfs in town and we needed to provision and refuel. After everyone met onboard we slipped lines and headed over to Big Mama’s Yacht Club, which is on a little island just outside of town. We dropped the crew off on the beach to have a look around, and I got to work back on the boat cleaning the fresh tuna we had bought from the fish market in town. (Huge shoutout to Pacific Sunrise Fishing in Nuku’alofa, I have become a regular in just the week that we’ve been in Tonga and I’m convinced it’s the best fish market in all of the South Pacific).

Yesterday morning, which already feels like a lifetime ago, we finished all of our safety briefs and a bit of winch and MOB training, and set off for Vavaʻu just before lunch. Vavaʻu is about 170 nautical miles North and slightly East of Tongatapu, and with the prevailing trade winds we were in for a bit of an upwind beat the whole way. We had fantastic winds the whole way up, averaging 8 knots sailing the whole way. With the steady wind came a considerable swell, which always makes things exciting when underway. Maisa made a delicious dinner for all of us, and we pushed on through the night and had arrived at our waypoint at the most southern reefs of Vavaʻu by 0800 this morning.

We put away the sails and motored into our anchorage here off Mala island. We’ve stopped for a quick swim and a big meal in the flat water, and plan to head to Neiafu in an hour or so to see what we can find. We’re hoping that there may be some celebrations on for Good Friday and Easter weekend.

We’re looking forward to having the next few days here in Vavaʻu before heading south to the Haʻapai group next week.

Cheers!

Liv

Vava Voom Vavaʻu!

Easter in Vavaʻu!

“If they get silly big, we get back into the boat.”