SV True North

 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.

 We had a single tack upwind sail from Ha’afeva to Ha’ano passing by several reefs and through a couple tight passes.  The sail went easily but we arrived after dark around 7PM.  The night was dark with complete cloud cover and there was next to no light on shore.  Our goal was to anchor in sand between two spurs in the reef.  It took two tries and an hour motoring around very close to the reef edge as marked on the chart before we were successful in anchoring.  I used a satellite photo to find the sandy spot while trying to correlate our position between the sat photo and marine chart shoreline.  Once anchored we were pleased to be able to rest after a very long day.  We made a quick dinner of spaghetti with pesto and garlic bread before retiring early to bed. The next day we took the dinghy and our snorkeling gear to the beach.  We walked to town chatting with some residents on the way.  One suggested we continue on the road to the nex...

 We departed Nomuka Ike at about 4AM, timed to arrive at the many reefs we had to thread our passage through to be in the early morning light.  Many of the passes were narrow and we had wonderful winds of about 18 knots so our passage was fast but safe because we could clearly see the waves breaking on the reef tops.  We arrived and anchored off Ha’afeva at about 7:30, had breakfast and headed to town.  We could see that the town dock looked to be under construction but when we arrived in the dinghy we found it to be destroyed by the same tsunami which decimated Nomuka. The town dock looking towards shore The remains of the town dock looking out from shore.  The dinghy is sitting on one of the old concrete slabs which made a good ramp to the water. We walked the dirt road from the dock across the island to town.  The town was mostly one dirt road which ran parallel to the shore with houses and churches on either side.  We were told there are seven chur...

 We anchored off Nomuka Ike our first island in the Ha’pai group of islands of central Tonga.  These islands had been ravaged by a tsunami three years ago.  Nomuka Ike is a smaller island south of the main island of Nomuka.  The tsunami wave came from the south and came across the extensive coral reef of Nomuka Ike before crossing the island and finally continuing across the channel to Nomuka.  Luckily the reef and Nomuka Ike greatly reduced the power of the wave and only one person was killed on Nomuka.  The wave destroyed the coral reef, stripped all,the trees from the lower section of Numoka Ike and destroyed the dock and many homes on Numoka. We took the dinghy to Numoka Ikeand went for a walk over the recuperating lowlands and then went snorkeling on the south facing windward reef.  The reef had been stripped of all coral cover.  Some fish were present and many small coral colonies were starting to grow. The regenerating island three years af...

 We arrived at. Uku’alofa at about 22:30 on May 14.  The entrance pass through the reef was easy with good charts and a full moon to assist.  We anchored off Big Mama’s resort at Pangmatu Island for the night. A bright full moon for our entrance to the Nuku’alofa harbour The next morning we were directed to a very derelict customs dock and another catamaran yacht was directed to raft up beside us.  We had every fender out to protect True North from the concrete dock. The s The sketchy customs dock Our neighbour “Island Time” rafted to us Customs processed both boats together.  The first person to visit was from Bio Securiy who had me fill out a long multi-page form and charged us to take our garbage.  The total was $26.00.  The next person was Customs/ Immigration.  I had to fill out another long form and we all completed personal arrival forms.  There was no charge.  The third person was Health who had me fill out yet another form and c...