Tongatapu & 'Eua cruising guide
Tongatapu is Tonga's main island, low and triangular, with the capital Nuku'alofa on its north side behind a wide spread of reefs. Ava Lahi is the principal way in. 'Eua, the high island 10 miles to the south-east, has an open roadstead and a Customs port at 'Ohonua. NGA also warns of old mine zones around Tongatapu and an occasionally active submarine volcano north-west of it.
- 1Tongatapu approaches: Ava Lahi & Piha · Approach channels
- 2Nuku'alofa Harbour · Port of entry and harbour
- 3'Eua & Port 'Ohonua · Port of entry and open roadstead
Guides in this region, north to south
Tongatapu approaches: Ava Lahi & Piha
Approach channels
Approaching Nuku'alofa: Ava Lahi, Piha Passage and Egeria Channel, Hakau Mama'o, Malinoa, old mine zones, volcanoes and night entry.
Nuku'alofa Harbour
Port of entry and harbour
Nuku'alofa planning notes: harbour anchorage and cyclone-season shelter, boat harbours, wharves, pilotage limits and clearing in at Tongatapu.
'Eua & Port 'Ohonua
Port of entry and open roadstead
'Eua planning notes: the English Road anchorage off 'Ohonua, unsafe in westerlies, the 'Ohonua wharf, Eua Iki reefs and clearance.
Passes, harbours and hazards to plan around
- Tongatapu approaches: Ava Lahi & Piha: Ava Lahi with ranges; Piha Passage for emergencies only; Egeria Channel not recommended; don't transit after dark without local knowledge (NGA, 1990 report).
- Nuku'alofa Harbour: open to the north; alongside berths can become untenable for small vessels; better cyclone-season shelter in the bight NE of Queen Salote Wharf pierhead (NGA).
- 'Eua & Port 'Ohonua: English Road anchorage in 46 m, unsafe in westerlies (NGA).
LINZ charts TO 501–TO 504 cover Tongatapu and 'Eua, including a 1:10,000 chart of Nuku'alofa Harbour and an inset of Port 'Ohonua.
- Mayday on VHF 16, and set off your distress beacon (EPIRB or PLB) and leave it on until help arrives.
- Tonga Police emergency: 922
- Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand, 24 hours: +64 4 577 8030. Tonga lies inside the New Zealand search and rescue region.
Clearing in and out
Tonga Customs wants its small-craft Advance Notice of Arrival at least 24 hours before your ETA, and a call to Maritime Radio on VHF 16 before you reach your nominated Customs port. Its ports-of-entry page (read 28 October 2026) lists Nuku'alofa, Vava'u, 'Ohonua ('Eua) and Taufa'ahau Wharf, Pangai (Ha'apai). Once you clear out on form C15, you must sail straight for your next overseas port. Each port page has the details.
Cyclone season
Tonga Meteorological Services' Tropical Cyclone Seasonal Outlook for 2026–2027 (released 28 October 2026, read 30 October 2026) gives the official season as 1 November 2026 to 30 April 2027 and notes that cyclones have occasionally formed outside it. It expects an average season, with 2 to 4 tropical cyclones affecting Tonga and a moderate to high chance of at least one severe tropical cyclone, and the highest risk from January to March 2027. It also reports drought declarations in force for Tongatapu, 'Eua, Ha'apai and Niuatoputapu, with Vava'u and Niuafo'ou under drought warning, so plan your water. NGA Pub. 126 adds that at Nuku'alofa sudden, violent west and north-west squalls are common from December to April.
Neighbouring regions
About these guides
These are free planning notes written by a working delivery skipper from public sources: LINZ charts and notices to mariners, NGA Pub. 126, the Tongan government's own pages and OpenStreetMap. They are not for navigation. Use the current LINZ chart corrected for notices to mariners, official tide tables and local advice. Each page shows when its facts were last checked.
Sources & credits
Written in our own words from NGA Pub. 126 Sailing Directions (Enroute) Pacific Islands, 13th edition (2025), corrected to 27 August 2026, Sector 2, the LINZ chart pages and notices to mariners, and official Tongan government pages, all read 28 October 2026.
LINZ. Chart titles, scales, editions and notices to mariners from the Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) chart catalogue. LINZ is the charting authority for Tonga. LINZ chart images are Crown copyright, licensed under CC BY 4.0; we link to them and don't reproduce them. Not endorsed by LINZ.
NGA. Pilotage background from NGA Pub. 126, Sailing Directions (Enroute) Pacific Islands, 13th edition (2025), U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a US Government work in the public domain. Some of its reports are decades old; where a page leans on an old report, we give the year. Not endorsed by NGA.
Government of Tonga. Clearance, immigration, quarantine, whale-watching and weather facts from the official pages and forms of the Ministry of Revenue & Customs, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Forests, the Ministry of Fisheries, the Ministry of Tourism and Tonga Meteorological Services, restated in our own words. The official versions prevail.
Ports Authority Tonga. Port of Nuku'alofa role and services from its own website, cited for fact only.
OpenStreetMap. Map tiles, facility positions, and anchorage positions that OpenStreetMap mappers imported from LINZ chart data, and the Ashore lists © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Safety contacts. Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (Maritime NZ) and UK FCDO travel advice, checked on the date shown in the emergency box.
Need a boat moved to or from Tongatapu & 'Eua?
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