Last night was one of those nights that get your attention and remind you that cruising has its ups and downs.

One of the “ups” is the friends you make along the way. We had a delightful evening with a boat couple (and their lovely six year old daughter Natalie) that we have paralleled over some of these past months but not had a chance to really meet. Dave and Angelina on La Fiesta had us over for a wonderful curry dinner.

But…the other side of cruising raised its ugly head about 0330. It started raining and we did the rain dance. That is, got up and closed all the portholes and hatches. We leave them open at every opportunity since it’s so humid, but when the rain hits, we have to close everything up. So, closed up, back to sleep. Not for long.

At 0400 the first big gust hit and Charisma heeled well over on her side. I knew that sign and jumped out of bed. No sooner had my feet hit the floor that the anchor alarm went off. This didn’t necessarily mean we broke loose and in this case, we didn’t, but it DID mean there was a 180 degree wind shift and instead of swinging 200 feet off one side of the anchor into deep water, we swung back over the anchor the 200 feet of rode, plus 200 feet in the other direction. With the wind gusts and the waves and all the anchor lights from other boats in completely different places then when I went to bed and the rain fogging my glasses, it was chaos. I turned on the engine first thing in case we needed to avoid other boats come adrift or motor off the reef the was now our lee shore. I concentrated on looking at the GPS, the depth sounder and the trees getting closer on shore. Through the rain and foggy glasses we looked like we were swinging pretty close. I dropped anchor very purposefully in water where I was pretty confident that we could swing and still stay off the reef, but you never know if the anchor is going to reset after the boat swings 180 degrees and pulls 200 feet of chain around. I was watching the depth sounder. We started in 50 feet. 40, 30, 20, 18, 17…I was getting ready to move. 17. 17…OK, looks like we’re stable for now and the anchor is holding. Looking around again to see if we might be the target for another drifting boat, we looked OK, but could see there was chaos over to the north of us. A number of boats had turned on their steaming/navigation lights and we could see they were turning one way and the other. So, we’re stable, no one is upwind about to smack us, we can settle in to anchor watch in case it gets worse. I was soaked and getting cold so went below to dry off and put on some foulies (heavy duty rain gear) and warm, dry clothes. You have to keep your brain warm or you can’t think clearly when bad things start to happen. Ann had a chance to get some foulies on, so she was elected (elected!!?) to stand watch for the time being. Engine still running just in case.

Turned out the front blew through from 0400 to mid-morning. We both stayed on watch with the engine running until daylight, then Ann went back to bed and I took the watch. At 1100 she got up and we had lunch after which I took a nap until about 1600. We turned the engine off once we could see that things were OK and by 0730 the winds had died down a bit, or at least they seemed to in the light of day. They were still gusting into the 20’s, but we could see that things looked stable.

I learned a couple more things last night. First, the never ending lesson of fixing things today, not “tomorrow”. We discovered a couple issues that by themselves were not huge, but combined would create an “accident chain” that could be a big problem. The first was that the windlass (that we use to lower and raise the anchor) wouldn’t freewheel and let the anchor out. I cheated it out, and was going to look at it “in a couple days” until I heard there might be a front. So I fixed that yesterday afternoon (turned out to be a jammed brake cone-the grease got used up and it seized). The second was I happened to just take a glance into the engine compartment “just to look around”. I happened to see that the bolt that holds the alternator bracket on was backing off. Another fix that took ten minutes to bolt it back down, but with the loss of that bolt not only would we lose the alternator, but the alternator belt also drives the fresh water pump. No belt, no cooling. We would have lost the engine. Third, I dove the anchor “just to check”. I was able to see that it was set pretty deeply. Not great, but in my opinion, would withstand at least 35 knots of wind and I noted the topography of the bottom around the boat. I had a really solid feeling for the slope of the bottom and the fact that it looked like decent sand on top of coral. Thus, when things went bad, I didn’t panic about the holding. I knew the anchor was set pretty well, that the slope was heavily up-sloping making the direction the anchor was holding when we spun around very favorable. This let me stay calm and wait for Charisma to settle down instead of doing something like cut that anchor lose and motor offshore when we swung into the shallower water.

So there we are. The good and the not so good. We might be into some more not so good tonight as it looks like there might be another front coming through.

Stayed tuned.

Sometimes, you measure the days by the number of projects you get done.

Ann cleaned the cabinet in the bathroom which had flooded-probably with rainwater, but we’re not sure yet-then made a great cabbage salad and fresh cookies for our dinner out (more on that in a bit)-so technically there were more than two boat projects, but…whatever…

My contribution was that I found a loose bolt on the alternator, just by a chance look in the engine compartment. Could have been a big problem down the road, now averted. I also fixed the anchor winch. When we went to use it yesterday, it was frozen. We hadn’t touched it in a week or two and it wouldn’t budge. I had visions of broken chains inside it-and since it’s completely sealed, there’s no fixing something like that. I put down the anchor hand over hand, but that was in light air. Started taking it apart today and got to the “gypsy” which is the part the chain rides on. I thought, “That doesn’t look right” since there was another part embedded in it and looked at the mechanical drawing in my equipment binder and found there’s a part called a “cone” that is the thing the brake compresses that stops the chain from going out. OK, thought I, I’ll get a pick and try and dig around the outside. Very careless moments later, I managed to gouge myself with a rusty pick. Since we’re in the tropics where a lot of heebie jeebies can form on deep cuts, I actually deep cleaned the cut with soap, then with an antiseptic pad, then added some antibacterial cream and a band aid. Finally I covered the whole thing with a good dose of duct tape which is my usual first line solution.

Anyway, after the pick issue, I went back up and tried the other option. A good rap on the thing with a hammer. The “cone” instantly fell out, almost dropping into 60 feet of water. Whoops! But, solution found. Then I lightly greased everything per the manual and put it all back together. Problem solved. Two boat projects complete, time for a beer.

So that was most of the day. There was also the requisite visiting around the anchorage to chat people up and then we got invited to La Fiesta for dinner. Angelina, David and their daughter Natalie. Delightful people. David is Aussie, Angelina was raised in Portugal, but is an Indonesian mix and Natalie was born in Singapore and has been living on the boat for all of her six years. A delightful little girl. We even got to meet her pet hermit crabs. Dinner was a fantastic Wahoo curry (no it didn’t come from a store) and Ann’s wonderful Thai cole slaw salad (recipe courtesy of Lisa on Orcinius) and chocolate chip cookies a la Joaner (Ann’s sister).

Charisma showing her colors on the downwind leg

Going upwind, heading toward the finish...

A closer shot...

...and closest. With thanks to the yacht "Ice" for the nice shots of Charisma showing her stuff

I’ll have to admit that neither Ann nor I tire of hearing that. Today we raced in the Vava’u Challenge race, which is the final race in the Regatta Vava’u week and heard it on the radio as we crossed the finish as well as from other boats after the race. I should add here, that Ann actually steered about 60% of the race while I trimmed and set sails (yes, we were able to set it right side up today-works better than way). It was about 12 miles around the islands and we ended up in a gorgeous cove where a big party is still going on, on the beach as I write this. In about an hour they are going to light a giant effigy (of what, I’m not sure), Burning Man like. We’re going to be sitting on the deck with an after dinner drink enjoying the spectacle. But for now, there is still music and lasers-all powered by generators on the beach.

So the comments per the headline continued to come because today we got 2nd place in our class (Under 40 feet, no handicaps, straight up racing) and even beat all but three of the over 40 foot class, all while towing our dinghy! One guy motoring his sailboat as a spectator come over to us at the beginning of the race and yelled; “you’ll go fast if you get rid of that dinghy!” He thought he was being cute, but later when he saw that we were waaay out in front and actually racing with the over 40 footers, he came by again and yelled; “I had no idea you could have such a beautiful boat AND go so fast”. So, yes, it was a great day.

A gorgeous day-it blew 14 knots, flat water since we were inside the islands and blue skies. It doesn’t get a lot better. This has now launched our cruising of Tonga which we’ll be doing for the next three or four weeks before we have to get ready for the final crossing of this year into New Zealand on or about November 1st (weather pending/permitting).

You just have to ask, “What the hell”? We’ll get to it.

Waiting for the flea circus to start

The amazing Billy and his flea circus

Ann and Lisa with one of the Tonga Bob's dancers

Bob with the Fakaladies at Tonga Bob's

These girls, er, guys can dance!

In the meantime-we went sailing yesterday. We kind of had to. After being here 8 days, we were about reaching the end of our water and umm, holding tank capacity. Time to go offshore to release the latter and capture the former. So, off we went, leaving our dinghy tied to the mooring so someone wouldn’t grab it while we were gone. We left at 0930 and sailed out. Got a couple calls from friends who said we were “lookin’ good” sailing through the channel. We were with our buddies on Orcinius who needed to do the same thing, so we balanced our two boats’ sails to get a speed that worked and sailed together all day.

Other than taking care of “tankage”, our other goal was catching fish. We both were dragging (this is foreshadowing) fishing lines and we were headed to what they call FAD’s-or Fish Aggregation Devices or what I like to call Fish Aggravation Devices. No matter what you call them, there are three on the coast off Vava’u. A northern, western and southern one. They are basically a series of buoys in a 30 meter circle that support some sunscreen fabric and the thing is tethered to an anchor in 1000 feet of water. They are put out by the local sport fishing group and the hope is that they will attract bait fish that “hide” under their shadow, which in turn attract bigger fish that wait for the “shadow” fish to come out, that then attract bigger fish, etc. I wondered whether they worked, which is one reason I wanted to get out there. Anyway, we had the coordinates of the three devices and set sail for the one due west of us. Five miles out I made time to pump the holding tank and start making water. Once we got there we didn’t find it, so turned south to find the other one. Another five miles and John radioed that he and Lisa had it in their sights. We were a little to the east so were about 1/10 mile away when we started turning back toward the islands as it was a blustery day and we didn’t want to get too far downwind. John and Lisa stayed out to round the thing and BAM! Just as they were abeam it, they hit a Mahi Mahi. Good for them-I guess the things work (we scored a couple fillets that they were nice enough to give us). The rest of of the day was spent sailing back in. Our other excitement was seeing a couple whales just off the channel back into the islands. Pretty close-we were about 20 yards off when I saw the first one. There were two, probably a mother and calf by the looks of them.

OK, fast forward to the Fleas. Flea Circus to be exact. We bought, well, actually I should say; “Ann bought” tickets to the Fleas Circus. I’m usually not too attracted by such things, but I’m glad we went. It was amazing. We could have been 100 years back in time watching it. All the tricks were amazing and I won’t spoil it, but suffice to say that we “saw” fleas drive cars, dive from a high dive, go across a tight wire and get fired out of a cannon. The venue was pretty amazing too. I can hardly describe it better than to say that fitting 15 people into a space about 10 feet wide, by 20 feet long was as much a feat as the show (max capacity was 12 people but there was a booking problem and the show was over sold – no problem – we squeezed together and one guest sat on a chair in the middle of the aisle blocking any potential emergency exit.). Anyway, fun was had by all-oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that part of the charm of the show was that you walked up the street a bit to buy a couple beers to bring back into the show. The bartender totally knew the drill.

OK, so that’s the Fleas. Now the Fakaladies. I think we’ve noted in previous posts that these are also known as “he/shes”. Guys that are “given away” in Polynesian culture to work with the women and they become one – a woman that is. In this case, they have extended their identity and also do dance shows. At Tonga Bob’s (a place that due to synonimity of names, I have an affinity for). I think maybe I made up that word, but whatever, it fits. You could call this the “Tonga Drag Queen Show” and you wouldn’t be far off the mark. The place was packed. The details are too many to describe, but suffice it to say; we had a lot of fun and so did John (Orcinius) who managed to squeeze about 7 dollars (one at a time, maybe) into the very tight outfits the “girls” were wearing. As for us; we were in the second row. No such luck.

That brings us up to today’s Vava’u/Whangarie Challenge Race. We decided to participate even though there are some very fast boats out here. There ended up being 11 boats in all divided into “under 40 feet”, “over 40 feet” and “catamarans”. John and Lisa joined as crew with John calling tactics and Lisa working foredeck-roles in which they excelled although I should let it be known that when it came time to put the spinnaker up, I took charge of the foredeck and…put the chute up sideways! The fact that we passed two boats at this ignominious part of the race is no excuse. It’s been so long since we’ve put up the chute I forgot the color codes on the tapes. Oh well. And Ann relished her roll as “winch woman” in her first ever sail boat race. She has a sore shoulder but performed admirably. (I only finished off the winching on the very tough tacks.) I know you’re all dying to know; “what place??” We took third in our class and sixth overall (amazingly we beat a Swan 46 among others). The best part was at the awards ceremony, when he called us up, the MC said; “…I really love this boat, it’s so beautiful and I was amazed at how fast they sailed…”, not once, but three times during the after race party and awards.

So what did we win? A $20 certificate at a local crafts store (we’re getting Ann a Polynesian necklace) and $340 certificate for a “makeover” in Whangerie, New Zealand. You may not recognize her when we get back. (Ann is just really excited about a real hair cut!)

Speaking of which; our airplane tickets home for the Christmas holidays are now set. In SFO on December 12th (a day before Ann’s birthday) and fly back on 1.31.13. About six weeks. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone and hopefully sharing some of our pictures of this amazing adventure.

Bob "on Tonga time". Note the two cases of beer under his arm and the contented look

We also raced Charisma in the Thursday night race. Here's the motley crew (less Ann who is taking the shot)

John called the start with great form and a beer in his hand...

...and Bob managed to put the chute up sideways! The funny thing though; we passed two boats like this. Everyone thought it was some hot new way to set on a reach.

Not much done today. Oh, we’re on Tonga Time.

Things move pretty slowly here and something planned for today often doesn’t get done until tomorrow, or the day after, or next week…or not at all if it waits too long.

Today we were going to meet John and Lisa for breakfast and then get on our boats and go out to dump holding tanks in the ocean, run the watermakers and do a little fishing/trolling (although not necessarily at the same time). Since we’ve been here almost a week, it’s getting near time for both things to be done. But, when on Tonga time, there can be delays.

The first delay was the internet. It’s very, very, slllloooowwwww. So, what would have taken about ten minutes at home, took at least an hour here, which was booking our plane tickets home for the holidays (we’re now booked home on 12/12 and back to NZ on 1/31). Then once we booked the tickets we noticed that in the confirmation, the seat assignments were wrong. John and Lisa who booked yesterday noticed the same thing. OK, another 45 minutes to talk with Air New Zealand and straighten out all our seating and now we’re getting seriously late in the day.

Even though we “might” have still made it out on the water given how late it was getting, now the rain started coming down. And it was a gully washer! It really poured-for almost an hour. Kind of a good thing we were delayed.

So, by this time, it was almost 1100 and all hopes of making it out on the water evaporated. Oh well. Tomorrow.

I’ll fast forward the meandering all day and the hike across the island and get to this evening. There were two “shows” at the Aquarium which is the local palangi (means more or less same as gringo) hangout. The first was a talk by one of the whale watching folks who is also a bit of an expert on whale behavior and the second was a 1930’s newsreel type movie of Tonga. We decided both would be fun, so we got there early to get a seat and ended up being there socializing and generally goofing off from 1600 until we just got back at 2030. Really a fun night.

Of course, everything is always a surprise here and tonight was no different. We got in the dinghy to motor back to Charisma (and Orcinius since we gave John and Lisa a ride) and…the engine wouldn’t go into gear. Or something. In the dark, it’s hard to say, but suffice to note the propeller was free-wheeling and the engine was seemingly not engaging. So, we paddled back. First Ann and Lisa paddled as far as Orcinius (a good two hundred yards or so), with all of us giggling all the way, then Ann and I paddled the next two hundred yards back to Charisma.

Another project for tomorrow. Or the next day. Or maybe later in the week.

We began our day with internet access!!! Not great access, just access. Breakfast at the Tropicana with internet access (our laundry having been dropped off as we entered the establishment) followed by a trip to the local grocery store and a return to pick up laundry. It seemed like our day was complete and all we had left was to visit the farmer’s market. But…we came upon the game day of the Vava ‘u Regatta. Who can resist a game day? Well, Bob can, but Ann cannot.

So even though I was late to the games I was allowed to play and was actually claimed by a team. The games consisted of 13 ridiculous children’s games with adult participants. The day’s activities included a sack race, egg tosses and even a pie eating contest. There were some other odd games thrown in just for fun. All of this was put on by a group promoting Vava ‘u tourism. The best part was that no one was allowed on the same team as a boat mate. So lots of new friends were made. Points were scored based on the whim of Billy, the MC. Unfortunately my team actually got to a point where we lost all points. Ouch. But some clever gamesmanship by my team and we quickly earned 10,000 points for not caring at all. So you get the point – just good ol’ childish play. And I had a blast.

Bob returned just in time to watch the final pie eating contest and provide me a ride back to Charisma for a much needed shower. Not everyone gets to play silly games and earn points south of the equator. I am lucky!

Tomorrow we are going to do some fishing and hopefully some catching as we go out of the anchorage to empty our holding tanks and make some water. All in a day’s work….

Some Sunday hammock time

Dinghy raft-up floating through the harbor

Heading home after church

As I sit here writing the blog I realize that for us it is Sunday, September 23rd, but most of our readers are enjoying a Saturday night. Welcome to the influence of the International Date Line. Actually the dateline was extended east to include Tonga as most of their business transactions involve New Zealand or Australia who are clearly on the other side of the dateline. Interesting quirk to the dateline.

Tonight I am writing the blog because Bob is pouting. We played our tie-breaking cribbage game tonight (we can’t remember how many games we’ve played but we know we were tied) and I stomped all over him. Too bad, so sad!

Sundays in Tonga are pretty low key, at least on Charisma. Bob actually set up the hammock and dozed while I went to the local Catholic Church for mass. The singing was spectacular. The church was packed with Tongans dressed in their finery. It is a big deal for Tongans. Most of the adults wore pandanus mat skirts over pareos. The young children, especially the babies, were dressed in fluffy dresses and cute little suits. In the states you would have thought it was Christmas. After mass the families piled back onto their trucks with as many as 12-15 people in the back of the pickup and Grandma in the passenger seat to head back home. Obviously it is an important event in their week.

I think most of the cruisers were a little under the weather after the pub crawl on Saturday night. We were lucky to have ended the crawl early. But an energized group of cruisers did manage to have a dinghy raft-up luncheon. We would have gone but it was a potluck and we don’t have a lot that we could share other than canned beans. Maybe next time. As the dinghy luncheon ended the raft of dinghies started drifting into the anchorage. Timing is everything. I had just finished a cockpit shower and gone down below to dress when I heard, “Charisma…. Charisma…” The raft of dinghies was floating around singing to us deadbeats!

So our day ended restfully with a wonderful meatloaf dinner. It is amazing what wonderful memories meatloaf dinners can provoke. Yum!

We hope you all enjoyed a restful Sunday too!

Ann in front of the "canoes"

Getting ready for the start

Victory! (almost)

Here's Lofi, delivering bread and Tongan "beer"

If you’re ever offered “Tonga Beer”, follow along with this note, but first some updates.

Since we officially entered the country two days ago, we’ve been having a blast. Tonga is a wonderful place. The people are so nice, the prices and availability of fresh veggies and fruit are reasonable and it’s so nice seeing all our friends again as we’re all gathered here getting ready for the last push of the season-in general to New Zealand-although some will head from here to Australia or north to the Marshall Islands for the cyclone season.

Yesterday started off with our “friend” Lofi bringing us fresh bread in his rowboat and “Tonga Beer”. The bread was self explanatory, but the beer was, well, different. It was a bag of powder. I didn’t want to look totally ignorant, so I paid for it (too much as it later turned out, but oh, well…) and he left us to make breakfast with our fresh loaf of bread. Toast is ever so nice when you haven’t seen any fresh bread for weeks (usually Ann’s been making it, but all our recent passages have been just short enough that it hasn’t been worth the trouble, but then when we get into port, there hasn’t been any). Still puzzled by the powdered “beer” we finished breakfast and went into shore to check things out.

This town is really more of just a village. It’s got a bunch of ex-pat ruin bars and restaurants, but beyond that the island seems really rural. Today we walked out of town to see the championship Tonga rugby game. The “stadium” is pretty basic. Pretty much a high school football field where people line the field and sit up in the trees to cheer their team. And cheer they did! It was really fun to watch and a hard fought game. Since neither of us knows anything about rugby all we can say is that it looked like semi-controlled mayhem, but was fun to watch. Unfortunately, our team lost.

Today Ann participated in another “canoe race”. At least she thought it was going to be a canoe race. One of her friends and prior teammates (Barb from Astarte) convinced her to join her team and they also picked up a friend Vanessa, a Dutch lady from Cornelia to join them. It turned out the “canoes” were broken down dinghies, but the race was hard fought. I’ll have to post pictures to do justice to the image, but in the meantime picture Barb sitting on the bow of a ten foot beater dinghy with Ann on one side and Vanessa on the other paddling for all they had. Amazingly they got second and came very close to winning. I thought that at best they would probably sink, so they bettered my expectation.

Tonight was the “pub crawl”. Everyone showed up in costume (one of the few times where we actually didn’t) and went from bar and restaurant to bar/restaurant. There was even a vehicle with a portable DJ playing music that went through town that everyone followed. When the music started up, it was time to follow to the next bar. We ended the night at Tonga Bob’s. What could be more perfect! Well, turns out Tonga Bob’s is sort of a transvestite bar. We have a picture of me with three of the “waitresses” and the Tonga Bob sign to help show what I’m talking about. Actually, in Polynesia, there is a cultural tradition that in a family that has a lot of sons, one is chosen to become a he/she , which means this boy is designated to help the women and in essence becomes one. It’s complicated, but very accepted part of their culture. Anyway, Tonga Bob’s celebrates this and we had fun there.

OK, so what about that Tongan beer? I caught up with Lofi later in the day and asked him the burning question; “Do I mix this with water and then let it sit for a while?” He said; “no, you mix it, sometimes with a little rum and then drink it. It makes your mouth, lips and tongue go numb and you feel good!” I, now getting part of the picture here, replied; “You mean this is Kava?!” “Yes!!, says he; “Tonga beer, Kava!!” OK, so this should be interesting.

At this point I would like all our readers to know that Kava is legal in Tonga. Ann and I made some last night. I can say, yes, your mouth goes numb-it is an acquired taste-and it was fun. That’s all I’m saying.

Tonga is not always filled with this kind of activity. Our tattoo mana worked its magic and we are here for a very fun week of cruiser fun and activities. And we are loving it. After this week things will quiet down and we will move out of Nieafu and anchor in some of the more remote parts of Tonga.

By Ann-

The customs official. Quite the rugby fan

Our mooring protection

Vava'u

Settled into our mooring

Some days are all about playing games. And I love playing games! Today was one of those days. The goal of today’s game was to get all four Tongan officials to sign off on our arrival. You can’t rush this though. They say that patience is a way of life in Tonga and if you don’t have patience-they will teach it to you! We are being careful to be especially patient.

The only way to get all of the necessary sign offs was to release the cherished mooring ball that we snagged last night and head back to the dock where the officials could board the boat and play the game. We “released” it, but attached a fender with our name written all over it since all the moorings are taken and there is now a waiting list. But remember, we are on Tongan time so we were at their mercy.

When we got to the wharf there was no available space so we grabbed an available nearby mooring ball to wait. But why wait on the boat when we can go put our faces in front of the officials so we jumped in the dinghy and headed ashore. It was a good move because we were able to get the necessary customs forms filled out and ready to go. But seeing three other boats tied to the wharf awaiting their turn we figured we had time for lunch.

Upon our return from lunch we could see that a large yacht was preparing to depart. We rushed to the dinghy and quickly back to Charisma, let loose the mooring ball and noticed that another boat was already headed that way. Fortunately sailors are really nice people and when we asked if they could possibly move as far down the dock as possible so we could fit they were happy to oblige. So now both of us we tied to the wharf, bow to bow, waiting for the games to begin.

It wasn’t long before the first of the four officials, Customs, came to the dock. Please note that the wharf is really for large ships and so that first step down to Charisma is a big one. As big as our five rung swim ladder! But the ladder was perfect and the official came aboard (all 280 pounds of him!). Then we waited again. Next we welcomed Quarantine office followed by the Health Official. (All of these officials collect fees to help support the Tongan government.) And finally…drum roll…the Immigration Official boarded Charisma! This gentleman was quite chatty and we have officially been invited to a Kava Party (more on that after the event) and we will be attending the championship rugby match Saturday afternoon as his guest. It’s amazing how friendly these people are.

But, best of all – Four in a row! We win and can return to our mooring ball. The fender that we attached to it as we pulled away with our name written all over it did the trick and fended off any poachers! So we are officially checked into Tonga and not a moment too soon as a dozen more boats came in today looking both for a mooring and to check in. Many are spending the night over on the “other side” of the bay on tenuous anchor holds, in line for a mooring and still not checked in since they don’t have all four of the requisite official stamps. Tattoo mana strikes again!

So we are pleasantly moored in a huge bay with about 60 boats either on mooring balls or anchored and all far enough away to afford all of us some privacy. And due to the protected nature of this bay the water is like glass, the voices of choirs practicing on shore drift over the water (as do the dogs barking and the rosters crowing) and we look forward to whales cruising through as well. I think we are going to enjoy Tonga! God save the King!

Getting our Tongan courtesy flag ready

Arrived at dusk

Yup, we’re here. Where is here? Neiafu, Vava’u in the Republic of Tonga to be more exact. It’s the Northern Island group. In total there are 171 islands around here. Amazing. We’re really looking forward to getting out and exploring.

But, in the mean time, we’re pooped and it’s time for sleep, so this post is going to be short.

We had a spectacular sail today. Nothing but blue sky and blue water. Light wind, but we did at least 4 knots most of the night and day. I was planning for five knots, so we were late, but who’s complaining. We got here in the nick of time. 20 minutes after our mooring was set it was dark. Thank goodness for good friends on Orcinius. They got here earlier today and with a little more time than we had, they checked out available moorings. Good thing they did since all the available moorings (almost) are taken. So, good friends that they are, they arranged a mooring for us and when we got here with no time to spare, they came out in their dinghy and guided us to a nice, comfy spot. How great is that?! We had them on board (we twisted Lisa’s arm with a “Charisma”-one of her few weaknesses) and enjoyed catching up on our respective voyages.

That’s it for now. It’s bedtime to catch up on sleep and then we have to check into the country tomorrow morning. That means putting up our “Q” flag (Q stands for quarantine, which is throwback to earlier times, but it’s the yellow flag you put up when you’re checking in. It’s a solid yellow flag to let customs and immigration know we’re just entering the country. Then we’ll tie our dinghy to the mooring (so someone doesn’t take it) and we’ll motor over to the wharf where we have to formally tie up to do the whole customs/immigration dance. Sometimes (and it seems that this is the case here) you have to walk around to three or four different offices to get all your “stamps” and fees paid for entering the country.

OK, now sleep.

PS – Mom – we toasted to you with a birthday drink after settling in. I guess tomorrow we will get to toast you again – pretending we are on the other side of the International Date Line – this is working well for us! We hope you enjoyed both of your birth days!