Photo shows the beach at Ha'atafu on the south west coast of Tongatapu.


After the elation of arriving in a new place across the ocean comes a period a bit like doing the dishes. First there is the bureaucratic hurdle to navigate. Health, biosecurity, customs and immigration. All were over in about 20 minutes. It took longer to tie up next to British yacht Tin Tin which was just in from Niue (to the East) and Dutch yacht Vela, which left Minerva at the same time as us.

Then was fresh food to buy - we were out of anything fresh and down to tins. Nuku'alofa has a huge central market in town where you can buy almost anything the island grows and quite a lot it doesn't. Not all of it is cheap, but cheap enough.

The dirty diesel was a bit of a mission, but we pumped the bottom tank dry and let the diesel from it settle, while flushing out the remainder of the crap in the bottom of the tank. We are still not sure how it got in. We hired a car to pick up LPG, diesel, food and enjoyed a respite from chores with a swim on the south coast and a sticky beak at the blowholes and Kolovai Village's fruit bat colonies.



Kolovai's sacred fruit bats (flying foxes)



Impressive blowholes along Tongatapu's southern cliffy coast

Next was the purchase of a relatively short list of spares and bits and pieces for the boat. Nuku'alofa is hardly a huge metropolis, but that makes it easy to find what there is. Tonga's entire population is less than Hamilton or Townsville, although the majority live on the main island of Tongatapu (means sacred south in Tongan).

Last, but not least, was water and washing. Before we had a chance to fill our first jerrycans from behind the fishing club building, the trades piped up a bit and Saraoni started to drag while tied up in the little boat harbour. Just to make our escape that more exciting the engine cut out just as we were trying to wriggle out of the space we were in. One of us had turned off the fuel supply to the engine while fiddling with the filters. Oops. We executed the fastest fuel bleed we have ever done and just managed to get out before Saraoni's bum hit the rocky wall to leeward!



Saraoni still in place in the small boat harbour (Faua) in Nuku'alofa


We are now anchored outside the harbour, all neat and clean and filled with goodies. It's time to enjoy Tonga! Tomorrow we will do a snorkel fest around the reefs and islets within the Tongatapu lagoon and then watch the Heilala festival parade in town before taking off North along the Ha'apai chain, retracing our October/ November 2015 route south. Yachties have reported seeing humpbacks in both the Ha'apais and Vava'u, so we will be keeping a look out.

From Vava'u we will track west through the Northern Lau Group to Savusavu in Fiji then across the top of Viti Levu, exit Fiji from the west and then touch base in Southern Vanuatu before ending this year's cruising in Noumea, New Cal.