11 June 2004

We left Nomuka Iki on Thursday last week after sitting out strong winds for the entire time there with about 8 other boats. Even going to visit people on other boats was a mission - wet weather gear and life jackets to go 200 metres in a nasty choppy sea.

From Nomuka Iki we had about a 30 mile sail to Ha'afeva Island. Had a nice beam reach sail and had a very big fish hook on to the lure but it broke the line before we could reduce the drag. We saw it leaping out of the water 6-8 times - he must have been really mad about getting a lure in his mouth. We were disappointed to not catch him but were a little relieved as I do not know how we would have landed it. Also saw a lot of flying fish - they have lovely coloured bodies and wings - blue and black mainly. I had always thought that they only flew for a few tens of metres but they were flying for 300 + metres, upwind.

We anchored off the west side of Ha'afeva Island. It was a very rolly anchorage because of the spate of SE winds - as noted by Colin Robinson (PCN) in the Tonga guide he lent us. We went ashore and walked around a lot of the island. Were surrounded by lots of children from 5 - 14 years of age that followed us everywhere. Got invited to the home of a family and were offered a plate of bananas to eat. She cooks on wood fire with stones in it to hold the pot, all on a concrete ledge in the kitchen which is a separate building to the living/sleeping building. They eat their meals in the kitchen. The kitchen is surrounded by a fence with step over low barriers at the gateways to keep the pigs out. Self foraging pigs and piglets are everywhere in Tonga, even Nuku'alofa. We managed to buy some bananas, breadfruit and paw paws from them this family but almost impossible to buy vegetables anywhere.