Having a Whale of a time in Tonga.

We left Beveridge after a short stay there with our bow pointed towards the Vava’u Islands in the Northern Group of the Tonga Archipelago. It was a relatively short 390nm trip and the destination was one we were all excited about due to the fact it is the only place in the world where you are allowed to swim with whales. Our excitement was enhanced when whales swimming and playing around the boat as we were arriving greeted us; catching a few more fish at the same time was also a nice touch! The Customs and Immigration Gods also greeted us on arrival (either that or the fact it was after 4pm), and we found ourselves cleared in to the country within minutes of tying up to the customs dock (usually this process takes 1-2 hours per boat and like we witnessed a few days later, due to the lack of staff, if there are 5 or 10 boats waiting, then you can say goodbye to your plans for the day).

Some glorious sailing conditions on the way to Tonga.

Some of the fishing we did enroute!

Our greetings on arrival

After having a few arrival drinks at the bar, and speaking to a few other cruisers, we decided to organize our whale trip for the following day. We did the whale swim with Vaka Vave Tours, it was like any other whale tour you go on in the sense that you are on a boat looking for whales and when you see the whales you go over to them and look at them, however it was different in the fact that the skipper would get in front of the whales and wait for them to come to us, then would scream at us to get in the water and follow the guide (who was a big Tongan dude whose name was Izzy and played rugby in New Zealand, swimming after whales was just how he kept in shape in the off season).

We had a few really good runs with the whales, the power their tail generates was hard to miss as they glided through the water, one half push of the tail would push them off in to the blue ahead, whilst we were kicking our fins with Michael Klim-like vigour. Luckily for us, the whales seemed to enjoy our company and were gliding through the water showing us their stomachs and letting us get as close as we dared (at one stage after swimming hard to catch up to them, I had to quickly abort when one of their pectoral fins came a little too close to me!).

Mariners Cave

The swim in to Mariners Cave

On the whale trip we also met a couple from San Francisco, Don and Leslie from the Oyster 66 “True Blue”, whilst on the boat Leslie noticed Hannah’s toe all bandaged up. Hannah told her how she stubbed it 3 weeks earlier in Bora Bora and it had never healed and was still painful. That’s when we found out that Don was actually a quite prominent plastic surgeon in the States and he offered to look at it that afternoon.

That afternoon when Dr. Don looked at i he said that he needed to operate on it, with the sun soon to be dipping below the horizon,  Cowabunga’s cockpit was transformed into Dr. Don’s operating theatre. Without any painkillers, just some numbing cream, and a few generous Gin & Tonics (for Hannah not Dr. Don!) the procedure of removing a malteaser –sized lump from the side of her toe was soon done. Don needed to do a few more follow up procedures on the toe over the next few days so we went around the islands of Vava’u in convoy with True Blue. These days were spent snorkeling, Scuba diving and getting the kiteboards out at on of the nicest set-ups you could imagine. We lost count of how many whales we saw on the way in fact the Scuba session Andy, Bucko and Don did near the aptly named coral garden was gatecrashed by a few whales, whilst myself, Hannah and Salv were in the tenders above trying to do our own whale swimming tour (it just wasn’t as good without Izzy!).

Dr. Don and his new surgery, Hannah handled it like a champ.

 It was around this time that the Burning Man Festival was happening in the States, and with what seemed to be every second person we know at BM on Facebook we decided to transform one of our many campfire cook up nights into the inaugural Tonga Burning Man. We spent a good portion of the day setting up the Burn, even making our own effigy complete with coconut head, that night we enjoyed yet another campfire cooked fish before things all went Lord of the Flies. With Bucko on the fuel drum providing the beat, Hannah dancing like an inflatable arm guy and us guys providing some gut induced bellows and the occasional shriek, the Tongan Burning Man went off with a bang and was a roaring success.

Tonga FC

Salv doing the honours and getting the party started

Not a bad spot for a few days of kiting!

Salv and Trev got on pretty well too!

When the guys were Scuba diving the reef, this is what we saw above, and subsequently chased.

Meanwhile below they had this....

And this!

After a few days sailing around the group, and with a final dinner with Dr. Don and Leslie, we soon found ourselves back in the main town with our eyes on the weather looking at the next crossing to Fiji. We said goodbye to Salv who was flying home after being us for five weeks from Bora Bora, got some more fuel and did the final Port Clearance papers before leaving the inlets of Vava’u bound for Fiji.

Yep 200 litres thanks!