We were very pleased that we decided to sit out the nasty tropical depression on a mooring in Neiafu (Vava’u) as the wind clocked the compass and we saw 35kts even in the reasonably protected harbour.

 

 

It also gave us the chance to use our water catcher and fill the tanks as there was also a lot of rain involved which as is the Mustang Sally tradition involved going ashore for lunch.  We also got to celebrate Monty’s (from our cruising companion – Whistler) birthday so despite the heavy rain we all had a great day.

 

 

During our few days in Neiafu we have pretty much sorted the place out and now know what is available for when our guests arrive in June and July.

 

We departed from Neiafu on the 26th May and headed around to Port Maurelle which is a great jumping off point for our trip back down to the Ha’apai group.  We were lucky enough to briefly catch up with Kathy, Richard and Jim on Persistent Shift who we met out in Fiji last season.  We seem to be a bit like ships in the night as everytime they seem to be arriving somewhere we seem to be moving on however, we are hoping to catch up with them again when we return to Vava’u mid June.

 

It was up bright and early (around 4.30am) on the 27th May for the 70NM trip down to Ha’apai.  Our first anchorage was off the small island of Nukunamo which is a lovely spot and very close to the Matafanoua lodge -  Darren and his family are great and they offer kite boarding lessons so we are hoping to take him up on the offer when we drop in again when we are heading back north.

 

We spent a couple of nights in the anchorage and enjoyed some lovely swimming and snorkelling, we also go to watch Monty enjoy a morning of kite boarding as he is a little more advanced than us.  He did however, come a cropper at one stage and lost his board which very quickly escaped and made a quick exit out with the fast running current in the channel but luckily Darren was able to spot it and follow its progress with his drone and the Mustang Sally Rescue Team where on to it and were able to pick it up in our tender.

As we have the luxury of being able to spend a few weeks in the Ha’apai and with a forecast of calm conditions for the next bit we headed down to the anchorage in Uoleva Bay which is around 9NM south and we are still anchored in the same spot.  Our current position anchored off Uoleva is 19:50.973S 174:24.803W.

 

 

This is a lovely spot and the fringing coral reefs make for a very sheltered and calm anchorage.  During our stay we have seen a number of boats arriving in from New Zealand with many of them on the Island Cruising Association Rally.  We have heard from Brian and Lisa off Summer Lovin’ – who are also from Safety Beach Sailing Club who checked into Tongatapu a few days ago and are currently anchored around 15NM away so we are hoping we might get to catch up with them over the next few days.  We have also been on plenty of beach walks and have now totally circumnavigated the island, there has been a bit of snorkelling but unfortunately much of the coral seems to be pretty dead which is a shame and not 100% sure of the cause but there do still seem to be plenty of fish around.  We also managed to dig out the kites for a day of practicing as this is also a well renown kite boarding area although we didn’t elect to use the board and are saving that up for our visit to Matafanoua.

One of the boats in our anchorage was kind enough to give us a big lump of wahoo that they had caught which we cooked up for dinner but to be honest it wasn’t that flash although we are planning to use some of it in a curry tonight – we thought that perhaps our cooking technique was not quite right but when they dropped into the anchorage last night they actually apoligised and advised that they ended up chucking it overboard.  Maybe we shouldn't be putting it in the curry after all!!