Blog June 30
Kelefesia, Hapai Islands
We are sitting here off the most beautiful island we have visited so far. We are in transit from Vavau to Nukualofa to pick up Lily and Jackson.
We arrived dog tired after an overnight passage, a day of navigating coral reefs, and the slaughtering of fish. These coral reefs are scary things, you often can’t see them, lurking just below the surface, meanwhile being seduced by the coconut palm clad, white sand fringed islands just beyond them.
In any other country we could use our GPS to navigate around them but in Tonga the charts don’t match with the satellite derived GPS coordinates, so we have to work off paper charts only.
We nosed into a tiny anchorage liberally peppered with bombies, big coral formations flowing up toward the surface that can rip the bottom out of your boat or wrap your anchor almost irretrievably around them.
The island is largely uninhabited, just a shack that is occasionally visited. We wandered on the beach collecting coconuts, then snorkelled on the stunning coral reef.

I thought I’d summarise the different kind of days we have on this trip. They loosely fall into three categories, day at sea, day at anchor and day in town. At the moment these tend to fall in quick succession as we have been tied into visitor’s schedules. Later this month we’ll start spending a week at a time anchored in places.
# 1 Day at sea
Around here that means getting from one island group to another and usually involves an overnight trip. Starts with navigating out of whatever coral reefed rimmed place we are in. Sails up, take a bearing and off we go.
We do four hour watches but this does not necessarily translate into four hours sleep when you are off watch. The boat is moving around, the wind may be howling, waves crash on the side of boat, the person on watch is navigating and making food in the galley, downloading weather information or talking on the radio.
On deck the watch person is keeping a look out, checking the course, altering the sails, monitoring the weather, checking anchorages and tides for the next place, fishing, cleaning fish blood out of the cockpit, and has the occasional conversation or game of cards when we cross over.
#2 Day in town
This inevitably follows a day (or more) at sea. And of course the weather is usually still and blisteringly hot on town days. However town day also means fresh crunchy vegetables and watermelon that drips down your chin. It means cafes and internet, contact with home. We have to go to customs and check in and out of every island group, immigration to update visas, bank, phone top ups and of course the ever essential fuel and water. To our dismay there are very few places you can go alongside and get these, mostly we have to jerry can it under the blazing sun. Supermarkets are like our corner stores, and the prices vary wildly, so you need to go to several each time to find a good price. The fresh produce is abundant but different things are available each time we go in.
Then the inevitable repairs, sail, outboard, dinghy replacements! Then we stagger back to the boat for a cold beer and bed.
#3Day at anchor
This is the best one. We wake very early as we usually go to bed early here. Make coffee. This involves the daily grind. I misguidedly thought it would be better to bring beans up here than ground coffee but in actual fact with vac-packing ground would have been good. I borrowed a hand grinder to bring but it is hard work. Or we should have brought the electric one with us.
Next is a smoothie of some kind, usually watermelon and banana (we often have one at night with the addition of Bacardi), or slices of pawpaw or pineapple. Occasionally we have toast from David’s home-made bread with my homemade marmalade.
At Vavau we listen to the local daily net on VHF at 8.30am. This is very cool. All the boats around report in, it gives a good weather forecast, then a buy sell or swap, requests for information, and local events that are on like Waka arriving, or a street cleaning session.
Morning swim, one of the many great things about being in a yacht is that you can just fall over the side any time you get hot. The snorkelling has been fabulous. A few days ago we practised diving in and out of a cave with an underwater opening in preparation for a famous dive called Mariner’s Cave.
Then the daily boat activities. For me planning menus, use of provisions, shopping lists, you always have to think ahead as often we don’t get to a market for over a week, and things go off quickly as our refrigeration isn’t perfect. The food is great. Last night we had fish soup made with yellow fin tuna we caught, with kumara and rocket. Also constant cleaning and fixing.
Wherever we can we explore the islands and visit the villages. We collect coconuts for drinking and for making coconut cream. David is getting very good at husking them now.
We often have a cocktail at sunset or join other cruisers for a drink. Dinner then play cards or watch Outrageous Fortune and fall into bed.
Contrary to expectations we hardly ever spend any time just lying around.
July 3rd
We have been here just over a month now, but it feels much longer. After spending a day at Kelefesia we had a lovely day sail back down to Tongatapu. Around this time we both managed to put our backs out and David got a serious infection in his knee so we felt a little old and decrepit. It was glorious to arrive at Pangimotu again, to be somewhere familiar for a change.
We spent two hot days in town, provisioning etc before the kids arrived Tuesday night. Since they have been here unfortunately there has been a strong relatively cold Southerly (20 degrees) and we haven’t been able to go far. But there have been a couple of highlights.

More about Tongatapu when we get back up to Vavau at the end of the week
Cheers
Janet & David