Vaka'eitu Anchorage Tonga

Vaka'eitu Anchorage Tonga

Position: 18D43.290'S 174D06.069'W

Wednesday, September 14 - We have been sitting in this beautiful sheltered anchorage waiting for fair winds for a few days now. I couldn't really think of a better place to be stuck. Inbetween the snorkelling, fossicking and kayaking, Ian and I have been getting a lot of jobs done of the boat. Ian has scrubbed off a layer of barnacles and thick weed from the hull which took a few hours of hard work underwater with scuba tanks. The removal was necessary because the growth actually slows down your sailing and motoring speed. I polished all the chrome work up on deck and tidied up the cabin ready for the next passage. The winds are very light at the moment so yesterday we took the cruising chute out and practiced hoisting it up and down on the halyard in case we need to deploy it on our trip to Fiji. Ian also had to go up the mast to finish off a repair job on the spreaders. He thought it was a good idea for me to get some practice going up the mast so I grabbed my camera, clipped myself into the Bosuns chair and made it all the way to the top. The view of the anchorage from the mast height was incredible. I was happily sitting up the mast mid air when I saw Ian getting into the dinghy. He took off across the bay and I thought he was playing some cruel joke leaving me stuck up the mast. I soon worked out that he was off to take some photos of me but I didn't feel very comfortable swaying in the breeze with no way to get down myself. After 10 minutes he came back and lowered me slowly back down to earth. The coral reefs here are incredible for snorkelling and we have a few to choose from depending on the tide. We have seen schools of squid, needlefish, silver and blue fish shoals, eels, many species of anenome fish and reef fish and Ian even spotted a beautifully patterned crayfish that we left to live another day on the reef. When we snorkelled one of the outer reefs I saw a purple coral head covered in Christmas tree worms. There were so many worms that it actually looked like an underwater Christmas tree and the colors were absolutely beautiful. Ian has discovered 2 Tiger Cowry shells about the size of my hand (my favourite and the only ones we have seen on the entire journey). Unfortunately once back on the dinghy we discovered that they were still inhabited so Ian had to swim back and place them in their original position. At low tide the corals are exposed and the water is as clear and calm as a swimming pool. The blue of the water varies from dark blue in the deeper water to aquamarine in the shallower water and azure blue over the sandy areas. The little islands around the bay are cloaked in bright green vegetation and most have small powder white sandy beaches and limestone rock formations. The bay where we are anchored has a wild citrus grove on the hill and lots of banana and coconut palms planted by a guy who left the island due to illness. We went for a walk up the hill one afternoon and managed to collect some lemons and oranges for our supplies. We haven't seen any whales here although a neighboring yacht said they come into the bay at times and you can hear them singing underwater. I forgot to mention in my previous blog that it is illegal to snorkel with humpback whales in Tonga without a guide and there is good reason. The Skipper told us that the whales are often accompanied by large opportunistic tiger sharks swimming beneath them. A Tongan guy actually got bitten on the buttocks in 2009 by a shark while snorkelling and was lucky to be able to live to tell the story. Anyway the winds are gradually increasing so I think we will be heading off on our 4 to 5 day journey to Fiji in the next few hours.