Neafu Harbor (aka Port of Refuge

Neafu Harbor (aka Port of Refuge) 

This would be our home base for the next couple of months. It is considered to be one of the best hurricane ( cyclone) holes in the South Pacific, comparable to a lake and protected on all sides from the wind and waves. The town overlooks this harbor and is very yachty friendly. First of all it provides several well maintained mooring buoys at a reasonable rate of $7.50 per day. This harbor is quite deep and none of us like to drop anchor in water over 50 feet. That would require 250 to 350 feet of anchor chain at a minimum! 

The town is the main commercial quay for the northern group and we are quite impressed with the services that it offers us. Laundry is done by Vanessa at Bubbles at a reasonable rate and she even irons our sheets, pillow cases and David's shirts! Several businesses will take care of our garbage at $1 a bag. Duty free diesel at half price is available when we check out and gasoline can be purchased for the dinghy. There is a boat yard for haul out and storage during cyclone season, two sail and canvas repairs, custom made t- shirt business, several grocery stores and the best fresh fruit and vegetable market we have seen (Utukalongalu Market) - say that five times quickly! The variety in the stores is a bit limited but the locally grown produce is impressive. There are several very good restaurants around at reasonable prices. The fish and chips ( local fresh snapper) at Bonavista is excellent, the coconut encrusted snapper with mango sauce at Mangos is exceptional and taco Tuesday's at the Aquariuim is not to be missed. I can buy freshly ground coffee from Tropicana as well as homemade chicken pot pies ( for the freezer) and whole wheat bread.

View from Bonavista Restaurant and the place where we tie up our dinghy.

We spent our first ten days here as the weather was a bit rainy and cool. This gave us time to clean the inside of the boat, empty and clean out the freezer and fridge, restock and familiarize ourselves with the town. We were able to get a phone chip for the cell - French Polynesia did not have one that worked in our phone - and a small modem for our computers so that we can get wifi on the boat!  This has a lot to do with the efforts by the government to move Tonga into the Information Age, making it one of the few countries in the South Pacific that can brag about their advances in this area. It is wonderful to be able to sit here on our boat and connect with the people back home! The device was $50 with 1 GB of data, and ability to use in New Zealand and Australia when we get there. 

There is a local cruiser's net run by the local businesses every morning providing us with information about checking in, weather, special events and just about any service you might require. This continues to be a valuable tool for all of us to give and get help. Someone got n the other day and asked if anyone had a spare inline blower fan for the engine and miraculously someone else did! Other boaters have been able to acquire filters, screws, belts, sail tape, VHF radio, outboard motor (we needed that), solar controller (we needed that too)and various other necessities. It always amazes us that someone out there has the particular item in need.

Since arriving we have been reacquainted with several people that we have met along the way. So our social calendar has been very busy! I will detail our activities as we experience them during our stay.