18.42S 173.59W Monday 16^TH June – Arrival in Tonga – the ancient Kingdom of Tonga!  Polynesia’s oldest and last remaining monarchy and the only islands in the Pacific never to have been colonised and brought under foreign rule.  How ignorant am I?  I always thought of ‘Tonga’ as one land mass but 170 odd islands are sprinkled over this vast area of ocean, although the actual land area is only 91 square kilometres.  Tonga is now divided into three main parts, the Tongatapu Group, the Ha’apai Group and the Vava’u Group in the North where we have just arrived.  

We left Niue at 19.30 Friday evening full of trepidation for the journey ahead but in fact although I have never know Anahi roll side to side to quite such an extent we were lucky not to experience even one squall.  The winds were strong from behind us all the way so we put up the ‘nearly Twistle’ rig (the twin sails without the poles!) and topped over 9 knots at times – great sailing.  The first thing you see of Tonga is dozens of little raised rocky islets, all very close together, some with small beaches, covered in greenery and palm trees – very different again to anything we have seen to date.  Richard from BWR was there to meet us and the kindly Tongan officials gave up their lunch to clear us in to their country.  Once again, by the skin of our teeth, we scraped in just in time to join the welcome party at the Paradise Hotel.

Tongan children dancing (plus an American boy at their school!)

 It was great to meet up with everyone again and hear all the tales of achievements and woes – poor Gaia had had engine failure during the storms and Zipadedoda had nursed them across the passage whilst Entropy who joined in Bora Bora (but most of us haven’t met yet) are still solving fuel contamination problems in Rarotonga.  Big Blue are finally on their way here but Tapestry are still back in Papeete hoping to join us in Darwin.  The evening was a huge success – a dancing display by young school children who genuinely put their whole heart and sole into every movement, followed by a buffet dinner, accompanied by a talented string quartet, topped with a disco where we could all let our hair down….. it must be a sign of age but although we were promised ‘dancing ‘till the early hours’ we mostly peeled off to bed by 10 o’clock!!  We were exhausted though having been up most of the past two nights, so that’s my excuse!

Bennett carried on to a nightclub and slipped over on some rocks on the way home, and cut the palm of his hand – back on the boat he fell asleep and it was only in the morning we realised the seriousness of his injury.  In fact he had punctured an artery!  He had fallen asleep, not realising the boat looked like the chainsaw massacre where the wound had been pumping blood, but very luckily the wound had congealed.  However, in the morning it suddenly ‘popped’ and blood spurted rhythmically filling an inch of washing up bowl in less than a minute, giving us all a shock…….. Hugh, our Rally surgeon, came over immediately and stitched the artery and palm there and then on our boat – hard to stitch through the pumping blood (somehow I managed to watch) and I felt very inadequate as the ship’s ‘doctor’ – there is no way I would have had a clue as to what to do or the ability to do it.  Imagine having a surgeon so close by at an anchorage in Tonga!!

Bennett looking amazingly happy with Hugh are saviour! 

A very lucky escape……Bennett recuperated on Spectra and Happy Wanderer, near the hospital, as we left on a mini cruise and dinghy race with the Rally……(but we caught up with him yesterday and he is well on the mend).

The mini cruise took us to Tapana village in Afo Bay – truly this is a very pretty area, with turquoise seas and golden beaches.  The dinghy ‘sailing’ race rules limited each boat to a maximum of three crew, one paddle and any type of sail except using an actual sail.  Unfortunately we arrived too late to participate in the start but the previously closely guarded secrets made a very funny sight as we rounded the corner into the bay in pouring rain – Stargazer using their huge Welsh flag as their sail, naughty Rascal with a paddle at both ends of their oar, bed sheets soggy and giving up the ghost….. and Marianne with Eric looking like two Cheshire Cats winning the race with a Mary Poppins golf umbrella!

The dinghy race – with BWR boat punishing Rascal for having two paddles!  

And then that evening the much publicised and long looked forward to Tongan feast!  What a pretty sight it made on long trestle tables – no plates or cutlery – with each ‘dish’ set in a hollowed out, halved bamboo stick.  Dozens of leafy parcels tied up with forest fibre strings had to be opened to expose fish, pork and chicken delicacies.

Tongan feast laid out ….…

                                                                                    All the children playing around us

Jennie with one of the girls

Tongan food has no added salt or spice and for us was what I would describe as ‘wobbly’ but many people on the Rally tucked in and loved it – others (?) sloped off back to their boat and enjoyed cheese and biscuits!!  Apparently the potent kava brew tasted like dishwater which then numbed the tongue and throat – I gave it a miss.  The string band played, the children danced and the basket ladies sold their wares until around 9.30 when the music suddenly stopped, the generator cut out and put us in darkness, the band pounced on the feast left overs and it was obviously our cue to get going!

Tongan children proudly wearing their traditional dresses made by their mothers…..

7 days in Tonga – that is all the time we have here and it seems such a long way to have sailed to enjoy for such a short time.  But, you take you choice – you can either sail at leisure as an independent or like us whiz around enjoying a ‘snap shot’ of each place along the way with a Rally…… and there is no doubt you do get an impression. 

Fiji, after a coup a year ago, is now under military rule and the regulations for yachts entering the country are stringent.  We have a list of requirements, with a threat of massive fines for non compliance, so we are busy filling in forms to send in advance of our arrival and preparing to leave Tonga on Monday morning.

We have now sailed nearly half way around the world!  Amazing really that this old boat has held up so well but that is thanks to hours and hours of maintenance.  We are now showing signs or wear and tear: the anti fouling has worn off; the anodes are eaten away; all the sails need re-stitching; the engine requires a new water pump; our running rigging is starting to look fluffy; two broken snatch blocks and the missing wind indicator need replacing and from a domestic point of view the saucepans have lost their non-stick!  All this was to be expected and hopefully will be rectified when we get lifted out in Fiji.