The first thing that stands out was the snorkelling in the NE part of north Minerva. Stunning! Large crayfish, I mean really huge! Wow. And just the fact that here we were again, enjoying this tranquil lake in the middle of the ocean. We are so lucky.
Then our good friends, Bjorn and Lene arrived in the Ha'apai group to share 12 days with us. To live in our wobbly wavery world and to enjoy our glimpse of paradise. Lene loved the snorkelling and the fish the sun and the scenery. Bjorn loved meeting the local villagers, other boaties, resort owners and watching for various birds of the feathered variety. He also enjoyed fishing, even though we only caught a few small tuna and a jobfish while he was with us. Bjorn - keep reading this blog, there is more fishing news to come! A personal highlight for me (Heather) was swimming with a Spotted Eagle Ray. This curious creature swam towards me, with a clam shell in his mouth. He circled me and got a bit too close for comfort. I was glad his mouth was already full! For 10 minutes or so he was content to observe me up close and I could study him at less than arms length. Then he began to eat. His powerful jaws crunching through the clam shell. Tiny fish appeared and fed on the bits that escaped his large mouth. The crunching was so loud under water that I was glad I had kept my distance a little! We had many sunny days and a variety of great snorkelling spots. Pretty corals and hundreds of different fish in so many sizes, shapes, colours and patterns. It is mind boggling to take in all that we have seen.
We enjoyed our diving at Ha'ano, with wonderful caves and tunnels and swim throughs.
We have also been luck to see a whale, swimming north to the breeding grounds in Tonga.
We have met several very friendly people in villages. Notably in Haafeva and in Haano. Luckily these locals gave us papayas, coconuts, spring onions and bananas so we could enjoy the local produce. The market in Pangai was a disappointment, with little to offer apart from Taro leaves and Cassava, so we were very grateful of the produce from the villagers.
As always, we continue to be impressed by the yachting community. When a fellow yachtie is in trouble, there are always many others who are keen to help. The people we have met on our sailing adventures are genuine, friendly and warm people, who care about the environment we sail in and care about each other. We care when somebody ends up on a reef and we were very glad to learn that the 3 crew of vessel "Jungle" are all safe, having ended up on a tiny island that is inhabited by just three people!! Another yachtie, Villomee, was en route to assist and then the Fijian Navy came to help. Not sure why the NZ Navy did not go to the rescue as they were sitting in Fiji checking on cruising permits of yachts. Sometimes the paperwork gets in the way! In any case, we are just glad that the crew of Jungle are safe. We will all take heed of the lessons learned from the demise of their vessel, a 61 ft Oyster.
The last highlight we have to report from Tonga came today as we were sailing to Haafeva. We hooked up a Wahoo! It was quite a battle but we managed to land this 120cm fish. It took two of us to hold it down as it bucked on the deck! We were worried it would hurl itself overboard again like the tuna we landed the other day! This is our first ever Wahoo, so quite a thrill. Sorry that we could not catch one while Bjorn was with us, it would have been such a happy day for him! We enjoyed fresh Wahoo steaks for dinner tonight and have another 10 dinners in the freezer from this huge fish. So we have filled up our freezer again and have plenty of meals to look forward to. So many happy days in the last month since we left NZ. Tomorrow we sail away from Tonga and head to Fiji. New adventures will begin. Life is good.