Our last night at sea turned ugly with Huey very cruelly conjuring up a massive thunderstorm. The wind swung dramatically to the north and we were buffeted with the fury of a full on gale, clocking mid to high 40's for several hours. Whilst we could easily furl our headsail from the cockpit, we could not drop any of the main as the whipped up sea state made it unsafe to try to head into the wind - a necessary process with in-boom furling, Was it just coincidence that we had crossed the International Date line, loosing Thursday and arriving on Friday the 13th?? As we drew closer to Tonga, it shifted SE and slowly eased down to a more manageable 25-30 knots allowing us to reduce sail and to also check on any damage sustained; we unfortunately lost the top sail batten and broke the second one which, given the conditions was a very moderate outcome. A call came in our our VHF SY Onyx, a 10M British catamaran who was 2.5NM further out. The skipper was concerned that with his small 10hp motor, he would be unable to get into the Faihava Passage in strong winds and may have to anchor in the lee of the island until the weather improved. He requested that we advise the authorities should he not make it into port by noon.

As we entered the channel, we dropped all sail and motored against a still strong headwind. Vava'u is a raised platform of ancient coral reef, thrust up by shifting tectonic plates. Legend has it that Maui, the all powerful Polynesian God, fished all the Tongan islands from the sea but put a little more effort into raising the 55 isles that comprise the Vava'u group. The dramatic limestone cliffs and deepwater channels, dotted with tall karst towers make for a very different and very stunning vista. With our Q flag raised , we arrived at the Neiafu Customs dock just before 0900 and proceeded to tie up to wait for the various agencies to check us in. The dock is not really pleasure boat friendly and the huge black tyres being utilised as fenders were very univiting but the location is excellent for both the town market and the fish market. Taitiki, a charming young man from Quarantine, arrived around 0945 and completed a cursory check onboard before completing his paperwork and removing our inorganic waste. Next was Amanaki, the Health representative who checked our vaccination certificates (a first for any authority since we started blue water cruising) before completing her "tick a box" worksheet. A fee of TOP100 is payable for the issue of a Certificate of Pratique and as we had no local currenchy, she arranged for her driver to take me into town to withdraw cash. How nice it was to see the "Hello Jill" message on the ANZ ATM! After returning to the wharf, Paul and I headed to the Customs building where a very chatty Laiona completed both Customs and Immigration duties while telling us all about his time training with Australian Border Security. Fully legal, we walked the short 300M into the town centre, organising new SIMs and plans for phone and Ipads and picking up a Tongan courtesy flag at the Cafe Tropicana. We stocked up with fresh fruit, veg and eggs from the market and had a good look at what was on offer at the fish market. Onyx arrived, Paul helped them tie up and we then happily dropped our lines and headed out to the anchorage and started to tidy up after 200 hours at sea.

Mother Nature turned on a spectacular sunset which we drank in whilst enjoying a very much deserved G&T out on the back deck. Malo e LeLei Tonga - it's great to be here!

All very well onboard.