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!