Port Maurelle
27 May 2009 | V'avua Group, Tonga
Jackie and Michael
We left the Ha'apais on the Wednesday evening and sailed for the V'avua Group. We went overnight so that we would arrive there in the morning. We sailed north through the reefs and islands as dusk drew in. It was almost a completely windless night with just a small sliver of moonlight and the sea was alight with phosphorescence. As darkness fell we saw the lights of three other boats also heading north. By about 3 am they had moved off to the West to pick up the main passage into Neiafu, the main town in the V'avau group. We kept going North having elected to pick our way through the small islands and reefs to the South, heading for an anchorage called Port Maurelle. Once the light of morning had come we started through the islands. Navigating in Tonga is always a bit unnerving since the charts are not correctly aligned. This time our depth sounder was also acting up, giving a reading one minute and then stopping the next.
Port Maurelle is a delightful sheltered bay about 6 or 7 miles from Neiafu. You look onto a pretty beach and there is one mooring which is just adjacent to an attractive coral reef with loads of fish. We spent the day there swimming and kayaking. The next day we took the dinghy and motored about a mile and a half along the shoreline to the Swallows Cave. You can dinghy in through the narrow entrance into a massive chamber. There is quite a swell at the entrance but once inside it is very quiet and the water is clear deep blue. The walls of the cave have had graffiti, mostly names, written over them, but most of this dates from the whalers. However, this does not detract from the grandeur of the chamber. There are stalactites and other limestone formations and the rocks are a wonderful range of colours through green to red. The birds are not swallows but swiftlets and they live in the roof of the cave.
We then went into Neiafu itself to check in, visit the market and arrange Tamsin and Paul's airflight south to Tongatapu. The market is not as big as Tongatapu but has much the same stuff. A lot of roots, sweet potatos, a few greens, lettuce and the like, along with woven products and jewellery. The town is attractively laid out along a low cliffside overlooking the bay. We only stayed a few hours since the weather was good and headed off out again to a nearby island with a beautiful beach and reef running out of its west side. It was quite difficult to find a place where the anchor held but eventually we were satisfied. The next morning we went for a swim and discovered that the anchor had caught on a chain. An Australian yacht had put down a buoy for his own use near to the beach. We had spotted this and seen that he had lead a chain from the buoy to another buoy near to the shore. Thoughtlessly he had also put chain out in the other direction, tying it to some coral, without marking it. He turned up in his catamaran as we were struggling to get clear and it was relatively easy to release the anchor from his chain. However, we would not have had the problem if he had marked where the chain was with a third buoy.
We headed for a small island called Avalau. We anchored just to the left of a massive deep underwater coral cone. There is sand to either side of it. It was an idyllic spot. Again we were the only boat so we deployed both kayaks and the dinghy. you can snorkel on shallow reefs right round the island. The island itself is uninhabited except for a few goats. When we were there last year there were some large billy goats. One assumes that they had gone for the pot. After a couple of days at Avalau we headed for the blue lagoon at Foelifuka. We approached the reefs. The colours of the lagoon are an amazing variation of blues and greens. However, the entrance involves numerous zigzags around large reefs in rather swelly seas so we turned turtle.
Instead we went to Vaka'eitu. This is a popular anchorage where we have stayed before. Rather than going to the main achorage though we we went to a tiny cove at the end of the island. From here you can swim ashore to a tiny beach and also walk through to another beach on the Western side of the island. The Eastern beach is pretty and choppy. The western beach is shallow coral and absolutely quiet. Both beautiful in thier own way. Sadly we had to head for Neiafu again since Tamsin and Paul were due to leave first thing Monday morning.
On the way back to Nieafu we took the boat round to the North side of a famous coral garden. While Michael hovered in the boat Jackie set off in her flippers and snorkel, swimming over some of the finest display of coral she had seen. Unfortunately we did not have time to linger since we needed to be back in Neiafu for Sunday evening.
Tamsin and Paul's flight was early the next morning so we arranged a taxi to pick them up at 5.30. After a slightly nail biting wait the taxi turned up, only 10 minutes late, pretty good for Tonga apparently. Tamsin and Paul headed off back to England.
As they left it started to rain and cloudy weather dominated for the next few days. We had a rest and an amazing lobster meal the following night at the Dancing Rooster. A message came from the Swiss chef via the Tongan waitress - 'Do you mind waiting a bit for the lobster since they are too big for the cooker?' We said no, not fully understanding the implications until about 15 minutes later two whole enormous lobsters appeared, along with salad and rice. They had to be the biggest we had ever seen or eaten. So a temporary cure for any lobster craving.