Pics - from Tonga to Fiji

Kokamo's Pacifc Meanderings
Tom and Rachel
Wed 14 Jul 2010 10:41
A backlog of photos to catch up on.  So here are a selection from the end of our time in Tonga and passage to Fiji.  As you'll see I have a new toy (or rather relieved Chris of his new toy - cheers Chris), a waterproof camera...
 
 
Vava'u, in Tonga, has lots of steep cliffs like this.  And under this one you find this...
 
 
 
Mariner's Cave.  Chris is just diving back out through the entrance here.  If you duck dive down a couple of metres, and then swim forward 5 or 6 metres, you can surface inside the cave.  There is a great effect when the swell rolls in and compresses the air inside, you get an instanteous thick mist inside, lasting just a couple of seconds.
 
 
 
We set off for Fiji, running dead downwind
 
 
 
And before long catch our biggest fish by a long way yet!  A good size tuna - which took some butchering on the duckboard hanging off the back of the boat.  Filleting it while it kept twitching seemed to put Chris right off eating it!
 
 
 
The wind eases and comes forward, and we get some good use out of 'stealth drive' - the new gennaker
 
 
 
Before you know it, it's back to Pina Colada's in port (and you thought we were joking...)
 
 
 
We spent five or six days near the town of Savu Savu, hanging out with the guys in this band, who call themselves 'The Longbeach Boys' after their home beach in the background.  They could play an impressive mix of tunes, in a variety of mashed up styles (reggae being the favourite).  The chief of their village Chief Lemi, threw an amazing barbecue for a few of us on this afternoon.
 
 
 
We also went snorkelling...
 
 
 
and helped the 'Jacques Cousteau Resort' nearby spear the recently arrived 'Crown of Thorns' starfish which are destroying the reefs locally (as they have done large areas of the Great Barrier Reef apparently)
 
 
 
And generally had a good time (Dieter on the left from another boat we've spent quite a bit of time with, 'Sol Maria'), before Chris had to head back to the UK.