Tonga Part 5 - Departure from Neiafu

Caduceus
Martin and Elizabeth Bevan
Sun 21 Sep 2014 05:58

Position           18:39.41S 173:59.00W (Neiafu)

Date                Wednesday 25 June 2014

 

After our stay in Hunga and a couple of days at Port Maurelle honing our Stand Up Paddle boarding skills it was back to Neiafu, with the other ARC survivors, Chez Nous and Starblazer, to prepare for leaving for Fiji.  Whilst the bureaucracy involved is well defined it does take time.  So for a start have a few photographs of Neiafu

 

The waterfront at Neiafu with the Bellavista café centre right at the top of the white building

 

And the view looking the other way and to the left

 

And also to the right towards the harbour entrance

 

Chez Nous, Starblazer and Caduceus on the Customs dock taking on fuel

 

Quite apart from the formality of clearing out refuelling duty free and post clearance was in itself a challenge.  What you cannot see in the photograph are the two parallel parked fishing boats behind us and the shallow patch of rocks in front of Caduceus’ bow.  Suffice it to say with the aid of a spring we catapulted ourselves out of the gap and into clear water; phew!