Gregory's Bar
(home of the Ballarat Goats)
Trip 4: Bareboat sailing - Tonga – Nov 2009
Hosts: Radar and Hurricane
The Tonga trip was a test to sail a 46 ft Catamaran in the Pacific waters without the aid of a crew.
It’s fair to say that some (nay all) were a bit nervy about this since only the trip hosts had any sailing experience and they had just recently come to realise that their last sail wasn’t two years ago (as they thought) but, in fact, over six years in the past! Nevertheless, with typical Goat Gusto we barrelled off to give it a bash on the high seas. I mean... how hard can it be?
We were off to sail the Vava’U group of islands which form part of the Kingdom of Tonga and are situated slap-bang in the middle of the Pacific ocean... a good chance we would spot some whales!
Even the journey to our port of departure was good fun as these photos will attest.
The sailing itself was magnificent. We anchored in secluded bays and witnessed stunning sunsets and star bejewelled night skies. On only one occasion did we share an anchorage with any other vessels – how exclusive is that?
Activity always brings adventure and several of our number made such prats of themselves that they earned new handles, something you can read about in the “who we are” section of this website.
Suffice it to say we enjoyed a brilliant, action packed few days picking up many new skills:
- Of course we did a lot of sailing as shown in these pictures and this video...
- ...as well as a lot of swimming here and movie here.
- Nofish gave it his best shot...
- ...while Anchor made a big leap of faith...
- ...and the Billies learned to swab the deck.
...we also enjoyed some very relaxing nights at anchor.
We packed in a lot of fun events like the Pirate day, the murder mystery party, the Tongan feast and some hard fought games of dominoes.
To cap off a great trip, full of activity, we took four days of secluded relaxation on the island resort of Fafa. We cannot recommend this place enough – operated by Tongans and managed by Germans...
I can’t think of a better combination – vorsprung durch mañana! Check out their website here and our photos of the resort itself and the magnificent sunsets we enjoyed.