Photo shows Saraoni anchored in the wide open bay off Uoleva Island in unusually perfect weather. That's us - the tiny little white blob in the distance! The bay is not exactly crowded!

We're anchored off the little cyclone battered "capital" of the Ha'apai Group, Pangai, after two unusually calm days exploring the islands and their wildlife.

It's not common in the middle of the trade wind season to get calm weather. By calm, we mean less than 5 knots. It's a great time to see marine life and get up close and personal with small islets, of which there are plenty in the Ha'apais.

First stop after a rolly day in Ha'afeva was Uoleva, with its picture perfect white sand beach. We spotted a single turtle and a breaching humpback in the pass between Uoleva and Uiha.



Uoleva's beach must be one of the most stunning in Tonga, especially on a nice day!

Today we pottered up to a tiny motu called Luahoko. it's a nature reserve with nesting seabirds, mostly noddy terns, with a few boobies, frigates and reef herons. On the way, we kept bumping into humpback whales (well, 12 today!) who seemed to be enjoying life in the tropics as much as us. In ones and twos we watched for hours as they breached, slapped their tails, flipped their huge pectoral fins and made the most extraordinary noises. The males do sing, but these noises were more like rumbling African elephants!



Whales were everywhere west of Lifuka in the Ha'apais, simply enjoying themselves. Also shown here are noddy terns (left, centre), a Luahoko crab (middle) and a young booby (right centre). The islet behind the two whales in the bottom picture is Luahoko, a reserve for breeding seabirds



Kao Island in the Western Ha'apais at sunset from Ha'afeva

The coral around Lifuka is not in the best shape, mostly dead. We've heard that it's because of Cyclone Ian that swept though the Ha'apais in January 2014, but we can't see the sort of damage expected from a cyclone.



The coral is not in good shape, but there is always something to see. Here is a puffer fish, enjoying a parasite clean by cleaner wrasse in the reef at Luahoko.

Damage is certainly apparent everywhere else, on land. Pangai was badly damaged in 2014 by Cyclone Ian, the strongest on record in Tonga. There have been a lot of improvements in infrastructure, even since we were last here. It's a bit like Russian Roulette in the cyclone regions of the tropics, especially with climate change making stronger storms more likely. Who's going to get hit next? The only consolation is that weather forecasting, including cyclone tracking, is much better than it was. That means that communities like the Ha'apais can at least plan ahead and take preparations. Unfortunately, coral reefs can't.

We've heard that King Tupou 6th is coming to Pangai as part of an outer island visit. We were here in 1979 when his dad, King Tāufaʻahau Tupou 4th, came for a visit on his own boat. We had arrived ourselves from Nuku'alofa on a grubby cargo boat that had broken down half way and drifted for hours without engine power. We were told that anyone who wanted could travel back from Pangai on the King's boat for free. Despite the fact that it was low in the water from all the yams and pigs on board, this looked like a smart move, rather than try the cargo boat again. Unfortunately, the only two people who were kicked off the barge that loaded all the hopeful passengers on to the King's boat were us two palangi.

We had to camp out on the beach (the one that is now just a stone's throw from where we are anchored!) until they had repaired the grotty old cargo boat! Just as well we have a boat of our own this time around!