May 27th - June 4th Raratonga - Beveridge Reef - Tonga

We left Raratonga with a good weather hole although once underway we found winds lighter than predicted.  We managed to ghost along and reached Beveridge reef after 4 days.  It was impressive how little you saw until you were right there! The seas were calm so the breakers were not that big.  The pass was straight forward and we found the waypoints from Mr John's guide from the Club Cruceros website were all good.

It was magically working our way through this calm lagoon with beautiful turquoise waters.  We anchored in 12ft of sand and looked around us - sea met sky, not a palm tree or beach in sight.  We found the snorkelling to be fantastic on the reef side opposite the pass, near the pass it was less interesting.  The water was the clearest we have seen anywhere and the colours of both coral and fish were fantastic!  We spent 2 days snorkelling and experiencing this unique paradise.

Weather was changing so we decided to head off to Vavau, Tonga while we still had clear skies.
Our plan worked and although we had heavy squalls for most of the trip we did not experience high winds until the last afternoon coming into Vavau, Tonga.  The winds picked up to 25 and pushed us nicely along so we made harbour before dark.

As we worked our way through the misty islands we all thought of home and summers in the Broughton group and Blackfish Sound.  Just swap the palm trees for pine and cedar and it works!

It was straighforward entering Neiafu harbour and we found a mooring buoy to tie up.  Bad luck it was a holiday weekend so we could not check in for another 2 days.  We also crossed the dateline so lost another day somewhere along the way - time flies.  The weather we had been racing hit and we had strong gusts and heavy rain for the 2 days.  Good chance to catch up on school and get the boat tidied up. Nobody seemed to mind just hanging out and the days passed quickly.

We are really looking forward to exploring these beautiful islands!

Just a quick note of interest - our favourite passage food is POPCORN!! We make it anytime, night or day and gobble it up! Tinned butter is a godsend so we can even add those extra calories.  Even the heavy squalls seem to fade away while we munch our bowl of yummy bliss!