We did get off the boat for a meal at the Spanish Restaurant, La Paella, which was an excellent night and we plan to get back there before we finally depart from Tonga sometime in August.

 

 

As the wind was still blowing we headed back around to Lisa Beach (anchorage #10) for the night of the 23rd June as it is a much calmer and more protected anchorage than Tapana (anchorage #11).

We had a nice walk to the village of Pangai where we found the streets were being decorated with bunting and the entire village was doing a clean up for the impending visit from the Finance Minister who was due in to do a village inspection.

 

 

As the winds starting to abate on the 24th June we headed over to the anchorage at the Coral Gardens (anchorage #16) where we enjoyed some snorkelling, beach walks and even got Miss Amanda out for a run in the kayak.   We were hoping to get in some kite boarding on the 26th but the winds are far too calm for those types of activities so we went with Plan B which was to head into the resort at Mounu Island for a spot of lunch instead so no complaints from the crew.

 

 

 

As Miss Amanda is due to fly out on the 28th June we start to make our way back to town and head back into Port Maurelle on the evening of the 26th and as the weather was so calm and the skies clear we took the dinghy for a bit of a run up to the Swallows Cave which was a must see on Miss Amanda’s things to do in Vava’u.

 

We had a great farewell dinner out at Mango Cafe on the evening of the 27th and were joined by many crews in at Neiafu who were in to celebrate the Kiwi’s win in the Americas Cup – Go Glen Ashby

 

 

On the 28th June Amanda was packed up and voted off the island and deported back to cold old Melbourne.

 

We had a couple of days in Neiafu before our next guest arrived – Rick Potter from Safety Beach SC - who we have nick named Jacques from his previous trips on Mustang Sally when we have struggled to keep him out of the water.

 

Before we head out to explore the waters of Vava’u we did a bit of an explore of the city which is always interesting. 

Rick has arrived at a very busy time in Vava’u – his visit seems to have coincided with the Royal Visit from the King of Tonga who is also here to enjoy his birthday celebrations on the 4th July and take part in the conference that is being held at the Wesleyan Church (or the Kings church) so as you can imagine it is a very busy place at the moment.

 

 

 

We also went out to enjoy a Tongan Feast at the Ene’io Botantical Gardens with Hantanelli and his family.  The plan is to get there again to enjoy his very famous tour of the Botanical Gardens – which are the only botanical gardens in Tonga....

 

 

After watering and provisioning up we are out of Neiafu on the morning of the 5th July and head around the anchorage at Mala Island (anchorage #6) which is around 5NM so nothing too taxing.  The weather is awesome so there are plenty of water activities.  For most of the day we are the only yacht in the bay but are joined later in the afternoon by the 130’ super yacht Skarde – we think Mustang Sally might make a fine tender!!!  The toy of choice this season seems to be a drone and luckily enough people seem to like taking drone photos of Mustang Sally including the crew from Skarde who kindly took the photos below of the Mala Island Anchorage.

 

 

 

Before we continue our adventures in Vava’u we were lucky enough to review the Kings Flotilla when they did their sail past the stern of Mustang Sally. 

We are not sure but we think we may have received a bit of a royal wave from the King himself to his loyal visiting subjects.

 

 

We are now around in one of our favourite anchorages, Port Maurelle (anchorage #7) sitting out a little bit of wind and rain but as is the Mustang Sally spirit that will not stop us and we are already planning our afternoons activities of snorkelling around in the next bay so hopefully we might see a bit of sun soon...