A Favorite

0800 Position 18-42S 174-02W. At anchor in Port Maurelle, Vava'u, Tonga

We motor sailed west all day yesterday in rainy weather and light winds. At noon the island of Vava'u poked its top up out of the ocean in front of us and rose higher as we approached. At 230PM we had a strike on the fishing line and landed a nice twelve pound big eye tuna. Fish for dinner!

Vava'u is a collection of sixty raised coral islands in a ten mile by ten mile area. It is protected on the east and south by a barrier reef and on the north and west by large islands. In the middle is a maze of deep channels and islands completely isolated from the open ocean. The water is calm and there are hundreds of great anchorages. Most of the islands are uninhabited.

The main entrance into Vava'u's maze of channels is a large opening on the western side of the group. We went around the group to the north, entered through the channel at 430PM, and had the anchor down in Port Maurelle at 530PM just as the sun was getting low.

Port Maurelle is one of my favorite anchorages. We had some great times here in 2014 hiking, snorkeling, and partying. I still smile when I think about Lori paddling the dinghy back to Moku pe'a all flustered after being chased into the water by a huge pig. She had been walking alone in the bush behind the wide sand beach at the head of the anchorage and somehow got between a sow and her piglets. I wish I could have captured it on film…

The anchorage here is flat calm and we had a wonderful night, quite a difference from the rolly open roadstead off of Niue. The tuna was great, and we all slept soundly.

This morning after breakfast we'll head into Neifu, three miles deeper into the maze of channels, to clear customs.

The date line is supposed to follow the 180th meridian and we haven't crossed it yet. Tonga does most of their business with the countries to the west though and decided to move the date line to the east so they'd all be in the same day. So we lost a day yesterday and it is Monday here.

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