After 11 nights in Vava'u and 6 in Ha'apai, we are on our way to Fiji.
On Tuesday we came to Ha'afeva - one of the more western islands in the Ha'apai Group - as a preliminary to leaving. We had not decided whether to leave Tuesday - if the anchorage at Ha'afeva was not good - or Wednesday or Thursday. We'd had a day or two of northerly winds and the anchorage we first visited on Monday turned out to be insufficiently protected. We arrived at Ha'afeva in rain and thunderstorms.
The western anchorage at Ha'afeva was receiving the northerly swell so we moved to the east side which is better protected to the north by the reef, but less well protected overall. We spent Tuesday night there and went diving off the reef Wednesday morning. The wind was northwest.
Wednesday afternoon the wind switched to the south and it started to rain. About an hour later - at around 5pm - the wind and rain suddenly grew in intensity. I went outside to look and found the dinghy trying to get underneath the bridge deck -- we were dragging backwards towards the reef.
I started the engines and Ginger switched on the navigation equipment and closed all the ports. By then the wind was over 30 knots and it blew over 30 (with gusts to 45) for the next two hours! We had dragged north and were now over part of the reef. I was getting some occasional depth readings showing less than a foot under the boat. The sea had built to a 4 foot chop.
We waited for the 'squall' to pass but it never did. Eventually, as it was getting dark we decided to try getting the anchor up to get out of there. We had no idea how tangled it was in the coral, but happily it came up and we carefully left the anchorage.
Rather than re-anchor we decided to get offshore and head for Fiji immediately. The conditions are now calm. We stopped a few hours ago and I dived to inspect the hull. There were some chain scrapes and a few other marks that suggested a brush with coral but no significant damage.
After we left I got more weather data - I had looked at the weather sources earlier on Wednesday to decide when we should leave - the new downloads showed a frontal system just east of Tonga heading east at 10 knots that was not on the previous download. So it was a frontal passage not a squall. It was sudden fast-moving and intense but over relatively quickly.
That was an experience we do not want to repeat. Goodbye, Tonga.
PS The photo above is Tofua - scene of the Mutiny on The Bounty - as we passed.