Tropical Conditions in Tonga
Position: anchored off Vaka'eitu Island, Vava'u,
Tonga. 18 43.3S 174 06.0W
After our slightly crazy passage from New Zealand to Tonga, the worst bits are just a distant memory now, and it's hard to believe that we have been here for well over a week already. We are experiencing truly tropical conditions, and I don't mean blazing sun, blue sky, hats and sunglasses and regular applications of suncream. In fact, it's quite the opposite at the moment. It's hot and humid, with grey skies, and frequent squalls, complete with high winds and torrential rain. This is caused by a slow moving "trough" to the South of Tonga. The first huge downpour was a lot of fun. We stripped off (some more than others!), ran on deck, deployed shampoo and scrubbed ourselves clean, before giving the decks a good scrub. Minutes later, we had the water tank caps open and we were filling with lovely fresh rainwater. Victoria is so brilliantly designed that the water runs down the sides of the boat to the filling holes. All we have to do is block a couple of drainage holes each side and, hey presto, all the water that lands on the boat goes into the tanks. Eloise and George were stationed further back, with buckets, saucepans, bowls and mugs, catching every last drip from our cockpit cover. It was a real team effort and soon the tanks were full to overflowing. No water maker required for the foreseeable future.
The subsequent downpours have grown a little tiresome, and the real downside of all this rain is that we now have a huge amount of wet kit that we are struggling to dry. Towels, clothes, swimmers, lifejackets, coats, wetsuits, tea towels.. Every time we hang it all out it gets soaked again. And every time we venture out we also get soaked. We have 3mm cord strung up all around the boat below decks as washing line, and we can't see across the main saloon for towels and T-shirts. It must be 100% humidity, and we can't even open the hatches to let the air through as it keeps raining, so nothing is really drying. Hopefully we'll get a sunny day before everything starts growing mould.
For our first few days in the Kingdom of Tonga, we were anchored by Pangaimotu Island, off the largest island, Tongatapu, near to the main city, Nuku'alofa. There was a lot of arrival administration which ate up day after day. On the first day, having anchored at 2am, we couldn't go ashore until late afternoon when customs were there to clear us in, so most of that day was gone. Day two was a family trip into town for all of us, in search of Tongan SIM cards and ATM machines for Tongan Panga. We had success with both of those, and celebrated with some huge ice creams and a major splurge at the fruit and vegetable market on our way home. Day three was refuelling day - the rally organisers had arranged for a diesel tanker to park next to the quay at the main wharf, so we spent most of the day up-anchoring, motoring over to the main harbour, anchoring outside, waiting for our turn, refuelling, then getting back to our original anchorage again. We had read that rats would board the boat at the fuel dock the second we tied up our lines, so we put the children on rat watch. Eloise showed little interest and went down below in no time at all, but George and Jack stood by their cleats, poised for action, armed to the teeth with fishing rods and nets and winch handles. Luckily, we didn't see any rodents trying to board us, but George later admitted that he had lost concentration for a while, and was worried that one might have done when he wasn't looking, so we had the boys search the boat just in case! Day four was the skippers briefing, and the welcome feast, so all this admin left a few short hours each day for playing on the beach and snorkelling, and no time at all for the boat jobs left over from our passage.
We hadn't really been keeping an eye on the weather, or decided when to head north, but it became clear at the welcome feast that the time to leave was as early as possible the following morning, to get north and avoid the worst of some windy, rainy weather. And so it was that at 6.30am I was sitting inside our sail cover, re-inforcing the mainsail batten pocket repairs that I did in the dark on passage, and Angus was topping up the engine gearbox oil and looking for an elusive slow leak. By 8.30am we had the dinghy in its cradle, the kayaks lashed to the deck, the boat well stowed, and up the anchor came. We sailed 170 nautical miles north, missing completely the Ha'apai group of islands, where the shelter is not brilliant, and arrived the following lunch time in Vava'u. The first half of the trip was wonderful, with the wind on the beam and the early evening was magical, with the moon lighting our way, and silhouettes of perfectly shaped volcanic islands on both sides. The second half was harder work, with the wind on the nose, and stronger, with waves to match. Jack was sick when he woke up in the morning. Luckily it was just a one night passage this time.
We anchored in Port Maurelle and, unperturbed by the relentless rain squalls, we finally got our boat toys going. At our peak we had a spinnaker pole out to port, with a rope to swing out into the sea, the bosuns chair on a halyard for bow-to-stern boat-walk-jumping on the starboard side, three supersoaker water pistols, two kayaks, three body boards, and Angus and I got the windsurf sail rigged on our Stand Up Paddleboard. It was busy with so many activities going on! It was also quite cold with all the wind and rain, and the kids were all wearing their wetsuits. We spent hours playing in the water, and we also had some snorkelling trips in the dinghy, including to Swallows Cave, where there were bats overhead and more fish than we had ever seen in our life below the surface of the water. We were a bit idle with the on-deck tidy-up after all this fun, and so when the wind unexpectedly swung around 180 degrees and got up to 25 knots at 2.30am last night, and we thought we might need to move the boat, it was action stations. Angus and I were on deck getting soaked to the skin, despite our "waterproof" jackets, tidying away poles, halyards and bosuns chairs, bringing kayaks on board, putting away ropes, lashing paddles to the deck, retrieving water pistols from the aft deck, and rescuing laundry which was once again soaking wet. It wasn't the most peaceful night at anchor; we are hoping tonight will be better, and we are certainly better organised on deck just in case!
That's all for now. More detail about the Kingdom and the people of Tonga in the next update. Sorry about the lack of photos in the blog, but we are really struggling with 3G around here - we have bought lots of Tongan data but we can't use it! - thanks to Rosie for posting this for us again.. Angus has managed to post some photos to our facebook and instagram pages, see below. Thank you so much to everyone who sent us messages of encouragement and support during our trip; it means so much to us, and has been amazing to read them all.
For photos see our facebook page: www.facebook.com/snow.goose.940
and follow our instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/victoria_0583/
with Love from all aboard Victoria xxx
After our slightly crazy passage from New Zealand to Tonga, the worst bits are just a distant memory now, and it's hard to believe that we have been here for well over a week already. We are experiencing truly tropical conditions, and I don't mean blazing sun, blue sky, hats and sunglasses and regular applications of suncream. In fact, it's quite the opposite at the moment. It's hot and humid, with grey skies, and frequent squalls, complete with high winds and torrential rain. This is caused by a slow moving "trough" to the South of Tonga. The first huge downpour was a lot of fun. We stripped off (some more than others!), ran on deck, deployed shampoo and scrubbed ourselves clean, before giving the decks a good scrub. Minutes later, we had the water tank caps open and we were filling with lovely fresh rainwater. Victoria is so brilliantly designed that the water runs down the sides of the boat to the filling holes. All we have to do is block a couple of drainage holes each side and, hey presto, all the water that lands on the boat goes into the tanks. Eloise and George were stationed further back, with buckets, saucepans, bowls and mugs, catching every last drip from our cockpit cover. It was a real team effort and soon the tanks were full to overflowing. No water maker required for the foreseeable future.
The subsequent downpours have grown a little tiresome, and the real downside of all this rain is that we now have a huge amount of wet kit that we are struggling to dry. Towels, clothes, swimmers, lifejackets, coats, wetsuits, tea towels.. Every time we hang it all out it gets soaked again. And every time we venture out we also get soaked. We have 3mm cord strung up all around the boat below decks as washing line, and we can't see across the main saloon for towels and T-shirts. It must be 100% humidity, and we can't even open the hatches to let the air through as it keeps raining, so nothing is really drying. Hopefully we'll get a sunny day before everything starts growing mould.
For our first few days in the Kingdom of Tonga, we were anchored by Pangaimotu Island, off the largest island, Tongatapu, near to the main city, Nuku'alofa. There was a lot of arrival administration which ate up day after day. On the first day, having anchored at 2am, we couldn't go ashore until late afternoon when customs were there to clear us in, so most of that day was gone. Day two was a family trip into town for all of us, in search of Tongan SIM cards and ATM machines for Tongan Panga. We had success with both of those, and celebrated with some huge ice creams and a major splurge at the fruit and vegetable market on our way home. Day three was refuelling day - the rally organisers had arranged for a diesel tanker to park next to the quay at the main wharf, so we spent most of the day up-anchoring, motoring over to the main harbour, anchoring outside, waiting for our turn, refuelling, then getting back to our original anchorage again. We had read that rats would board the boat at the fuel dock the second we tied up our lines, so we put the children on rat watch. Eloise showed little interest and went down below in no time at all, but George and Jack stood by their cleats, poised for action, armed to the teeth with fishing rods and nets and winch handles. Luckily, we didn't see any rodents trying to board us, but George later admitted that he had lost concentration for a while, and was worried that one might have done when he wasn't looking, so we had the boys search the boat just in case! Day four was the skippers briefing, and the welcome feast, so all this admin left a few short hours each day for playing on the beach and snorkelling, and no time at all for the boat jobs left over from our passage.
We hadn't really been keeping an eye on the weather, or decided when to head north, but it became clear at the welcome feast that the time to leave was as early as possible the following morning, to get north and avoid the worst of some windy, rainy weather. And so it was that at 6.30am I was sitting inside our sail cover, re-inforcing the mainsail batten pocket repairs that I did in the dark on passage, and Angus was topping up the engine gearbox oil and looking for an elusive slow leak. By 8.30am we had the dinghy in its cradle, the kayaks lashed to the deck, the boat well stowed, and up the anchor came. We sailed 170 nautical miles north, missing completely the Ha'apai group of islands, where the shelter is not brilliant, and arrived the following lunch time in Vava'u. The first half of the trip was wonderful, with the wind on the beam and the early evening was magical, with the moon lighting our way, and silhouettes of perfectly shaped volcanic islands on both sides. The second half was harder work, with the wind on the nose, and stronger, with waves to match. Jack was sick when he woke up in the morning. Luckily it was just a one night passage this time.
We anchored in Port Maurelle and, unperturbed by the relentless rain squalls, we finally got our boat toys going. At our peak we had a spinnaker pole out to port, with a rope to swing out into the sea, the bosuns chair on a halyard for bow-to-stern boat-walk-jumping on the starboard side, three supersoaker water pistols, two kayaks, three body boards, and Angus and I got the windsurf sail rigged on our Stand Up Paddleboard. It was busy with so many activities going on! It was also quite cold with all the wind and rain, and the kids were all wearing their wetsuits. We spent hours playing in the water, and we also had some snorkelling trips in the dinghy, including to Swallows Cave, where there were bats overhead and more fish than we had ever seen in our life below the surface of the water. We were a bit idle with the on-deck tidy-up after all this fun, and so when the wind unexpectedly swung around 180 degrees and got up to 25 knots at 2.30am last night, and we thought we might need to move the boat, it was action stations. Angus and I were on deck getting soaked to the skin, despite our "waterproof" jackets, tidying away poles, halyards and bosuns chairs, bringing kayaks on board, putting away ropes, lashing paddles to the deck, retrieving water pistols from the aft deck, and rescuing laundry which was once again soaking wet. It wasn't the most peaceful night at anchor; we are hoping tonight will be better, and we are certainly better organised on deck just in case!
That's all for now. More detail about the Kingdom and the people of Tonga in the next update. Sorry about the lack of photos in the blog, but we are really struggling with 3G around here - we have bought lots of Tongan data but we can't use it! - thanks to Rosie for posting this for us again.. Angus has managed to post some photos to our facebook and instagram pages, see below. Thank you so much to everyone who sent us messages of encouragement and support during our trip; it means so much to us, and has been amazing to read them all.
For photos see our facebook page: www.facebook.com/snow.goose.940
and follow our instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/victoria_0583/
with Love from all aboard Victoria xxx
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