SV True North

 I returned to Neiafu to pickup my next crew member Guy who was arriving from Pittwater NSW, Australia.  The harbour had filled up with yachts since I left with the arrival of the World ARC and the first few of the Island Cruising Rally boats.  All the moorings were occupied, luckily I had reserved a mooring by leaving my standup paddle board attached to it when I left previously.  The forest of anchor lights on all the boats lit up the anchorage at night. The lights are the masthead anchor lights on the moored yachts. Some of the Mini Globe single handed round the world race boats had arrived in the harbour as well.  See   https://youtu.be/-NROHpp4KV4  for an overview of the race. Mini Globe yacht close-up The tiny 5.8 metre Mini Global one design yacht We had a nice chat with three of the racers one evening when we met them at the Hideaway floating bar in the harbour.  One of the racers, Dan is a Canadian and the other two were Spanish and Irish...

 I departed Nuapapu Island early morning for a short sail to Hunga Island.  This island has an almost completely enclosed lagoon with just a very narrow entrance.  The entrance is made more difficult because there is a large exposed rock in the middle of the entrance and then coral bommies just under the water straight ahead.  In order to enter safely I needed to steer close to the southern side of the entrance and then turn about 30 degrees to the south as soon as I passed the rock to stay in the deeper channel away from the bommies. Hunga Lagoon entrance Closeup of the entrance with the rock in the middle I successfully passed through the entrance with about 4 feet of water under the keel at the shallowest point.  Once inside a searched for a shallow location to anchor since the lagoon is 200 to 300 feet deep,in most places.  I managed to find a good shallow location between two small islands to anchor. The anchorage has high cliffs on all sides providing...

 My last crew member Neil departed home to Australia and my next crew Guy was not scheduled to arrive from Australia for about a week.  I decided to go explore the Vava’u Islands a bit more while waiting with my first destination being Nuapapu Island to the west side of the Vava’u group (anchorage 15 on the Vava’u Map).  I chose this anchorage because it was well protected from the prevailing southeast winds and I wanted to spend some time cleaning the bottom of True North’s hull using my Hookah underwater breathing system.  After anchoring in a secluded location with no other yachts nearby, I proceeded to clean about half of the hull.  When I surfaced I found that three yachts who were part of the World ARC cruising rally had anchored nearby but they all soon departed over to the southwestern anchorage where about 20 other ARC yachts were already anchored. The next morning I took the dinghy to shore to explore the two villages on Nuapapu Island.  I left th...

 We returned to Neiafu from the Afo anchorage a day early so Neil could be sure of making his flight home on time.  On the daily morning cruisers radio broadcast a Canadian expat had asked for help from cruisers to bring his floating bar from the boatyard around to its Port of Refuge anchorage location.  We offered to help and along with two other yachties and their dinghies provided the propulsion to move the Hideaway to its mooring. The Hideaway Bar at the boatyard ready to go into the water Despite the strong winds and one dinghy’s motor continually cutting out we managed to successfully move the Hideaway the 2 1/2 miles to her mooring off Neiafu.  After some setup and resupply, the Hideaway officially opened for the 2025 season  https://photos.app.goo.gl/BJjqiRsxYdoLcPre8 The opening night was beautiful weather and a nice group of yachties including the True north crew enjoyed the evening. The Hideaway opening night Even the yachtie kids enjoyed the evening ...

 We departed the Neiafu harbour for the short trip to Port Maurelle (Number 7 on the Vava’u Map) after finishing our visit to town.  We arrived in the lovely Port Maurelle anchorage in time to take a short walk on the beach and along a dirt road for a short distance.  After our walk we returned to True North to enjoy a lovely sunset. Port Maurelle at sunset The next morning we headed out I. The dinghy for a short trip to explore Swallows Cave.  This cave can be entered by dinghy and opens into a large cave. Swallows Cave entrance  The interior of the cave had nice colours and structures. Swallows Cave Swallows Cave Swallows Cave  We stayed overnight at Port Maurelle and snorkeled at A’Ao Island which was not as good as advertised.  Next we explored the nearby small island of Nuku which had been used as the location for an Australian reality TV series Shipwrecked was filmed. Approaching Nuku Island Nuku Island Neil and I were the only two people on Nuku...

 We arrived at Neiafu in the Vava’u group of Islands early on May 21 after an overnight sail from Ha’Ano island of the Ha’Api group to the south.  The harbour at Neiafu is called Port of Refuge and is very well protected from most weather events. The Port of Refuge harbour entrance is at the background of the picture. Looking south down the harbour.  True North is on a mooring just right of centre in the picture. Once moored we immediately went ashore to investigate the town and resupply provisions.  There is an excellent dinghy dock at the Mango restaurant and then it is a short walk to town.  We passed the large Catholic Church on the way. Neiafu Catholic Church Once resupplied we were excited to plan our next destination out at the Vava’u islands. Map of the Vava’u anchorages.  The Port of Refuge anchorage locations are 1,2 and 3 on the chart.  Our next anchorage was decided to be Port Murielle shown as 7 on the chart.