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.
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