21.10.2014

Good-bye Tonga

My season in Tonga was quite short, less than 2 weeks. Again I enjoyed every second of it, in the beautiful country with the lovely people that I already miss. I entered Tonga together with Her Majesty, the old mother of the King. I left Tonga 10 days later on Alita with Marcus, quiet at night, just when everybody else went to bed. We sailed almost every day. We saw whales, we had Dolphins check us out and play with us for a while. I saw Nemo and his family and friends and many other fish. On my last snorkel I even saw a turtle. We left on short notice. I did not even have time to prepare. But the weather predictions changed and we did not want to be stuck in Tonga when we know we have crew coming in Fiji. Our last act in Tonga, refueling the boat, was quite a challenge, which took us half the day. The wind with average 20 knots came right onto the harbor wall where we should have tied up to. We actually went there, but as we came closer we saw that the wall was coming out further on the higher part. Unfortunately we had low water 8 am in the morning. With the wind pressing us to the wall and waves swinging us up and down this construction would have damaged our beautiful lady. So we quickly needed to get away, which is quite difficult when the wind presses you against the wall. Marcus tried to hold Alita away from the pier while I tried to drive her away. Unfortunately the Bow Thruster did not help at all to move her away. So my chance was the wind that presses the bow to the pier making the stern come off a bit. I used the chance and with full gas I backed her up. Puh, that was exciting. Then we decided to go sideways to a fisher boat, which was moored along the wall which was in direction of the wind. That procedure took about an hour. And just as we had tied up, the fisher came and wanted to leave. That cost us another 30 min. and a scratch. Then Marcus was able to do customs, immigration (or ex-migration?), we did our last stock up with veggies and fruits and we waited for the diesel to come. Which happened about 3hrs later.  We left our anchorage at 7.15 am that morning and left the harbor about 4pm. After a short sleep and dinner we left the waters of Vava’u shortly after 8pm on the 17th of October.  It was time to say good-bye again to a country I definitely want to go back to. Not just to see the whales. I will miss you, Tonga!
Here are my good-bye photos.










Ohh, I am a happy cook. Brought herbs with me from back home.
 My piano in its travel case
 Backpacker's Paradise lodge on the island of Ovalu, south of Lifuka in the Ha'apais. Season is over and the people pray the don't have to build it up again next year. A cyclone destroyed quite a bit in the Ha'apais last year.
 Damages from the last cyclone - more from the waves than the wind.



 A cute watch dog.
 My composing studio on board.

Keine Kommentare:

Kommentar veröffentlichen