Explore Sailing Voyages in Tonga 🇹🇴

After stocking up with delicious food and completing some of the never ending boat jobs, we set sail for Tonga. The weather on this passage was very mixed. Ranging from 25knts on the beam to 6knts dead down wind and then everything in between! Our greatest wind speed was soon after we had set off from Tahiti. As we passed Moorea, we entered the acceleration zone. Within seconds the wind increased and so did the sea state. Our lightest winds were just before we entered a conversion zone of two fronts. With the wind doing a 360 rotation over 24hours. Within that period we were able to fly Big Blue and keep our speed considering the light airs. On this passage we had one successful fishing experience. We manage to catch and land a beautiful skipjack tuna 10miles from Tahiti. This provided us with two delicious meals. Our next fishing attempt didn’t go as well and sadly we lost our brand new lure! - we didn’t fish after that!😂 Our biggest success was our practicing and mastering of the sextant. By the end of the passage, we were able to use the sun to create a fix position which was within 5miles of our GPS. Half way through the trip, we had a fantastic pod of dolphins who swam with us for over 20minutes. This was the first pod we had seen for a little while so we were thrilled to watch them play! The surf was big and they put on a brilliant show jumping in and out of the waves. An interesting part of our passage was the fact we would cross the international date line. This meant we were going from UT - 12 to UT +13. It took us a little while to get our heads around it but as a result we adjusted our clocks and lost a day! We went to the Vava’u group of Tonga, which had many inlets and anchorages to explore. We went to the main town which is the furthest up river and provided excellent shelter. It also had a fantastic cruisers community, with people often meeting at the Mango for a drink and to share stories.

We left Tonga in high spirits. Having throughly enjoyed Tonga and the cruisers community it had to offer. We also were headed to Fiji to meet Millie’s parents and receive our new main sail. Prior to leaving the UK we had our boat measured for a new set of sails. This was because our current sails are 20 years old and we were expecting to need to buy a new set on our journey. Having ripped our sail on the way to the marquesas, we have been sailing with reef two for the last few passages. We ordered a new sail back in April and it was due to arrived in Fiji a week after us! We were very excited to get this special delivery! During the passage, the wind was relatively consistent with one squally night which kept us on our toes. We were also very conscious of the reefs around Fiji. The South Pacific is particularly notorious for not being well charted and it can make navigation challenging at times. We sailed through the Lao Islands of Fiji which had many reefs around which could only be seen when fully zoomed on the chart plotter. This made night watches busy as you were constantly needed to monitor the course as we were worried about diverging off and sailing into a reef. On the last day of the passage we sailed up the west coast of the island. When the sun rose, a beautiful mist rolled down through the valleys to unveil the land. You could also see the surf breaking on the reef that surrounds the island. We arrived around 5pm and collect a mooring ball in Denarau. This was the most commercial port we had been in for a long time. It felt strange to arrive somewhere so busy. With party boats and day trips returning from a day on the smaller islands, it the most people we’ve seen for a little while! We plan to stay here and collect our sail and wait for Millie’s parents. Once they arrive we will enjoy some time cruising around and also some time on land!

Decent wind, but kinda bumpy due to confused seas, so elected to double reef to ease boat motion.

Motor out of the shallows and into open sea. Farewell to Tonga and warm weather. Heading back to a New Zealand winter, then directly to a HOT Northern California summer.

Good wind, not so good seas (lumpy, 2m and contrary). Ran off a 200+ day, including the 2 hours of 4-5 knot sailing whilst in the shadow of Tongatapu.

Beautiful anchorage off Tau Island, Tonga. In 8-12’ of crystal clear water. Love having a catamaran! Sailed back to “Big Mama’s” with good wind in relatively calm seas. Flat and fast! Great first couple of sails for our new crew. Watching the window for the return to New Zealand. Saturday looks good right now, but we’ll see…