Position: 19 degrees, 44 minutes south; 175 degrees, 06 minutes west

Here's the GPS on Tofua. Note the lake in the middle which was the volcano caldera. Also note that the GPS is slightly off showing us "inland" a bit. This is why we don't trust the GPS at night for precision nav

Sunset at anchor, Tofua

Mutiny on HMS Bounty that is. A few people know that Tonga is the place where Captain Bligh was relieved forcibly of his command. Fewer folks know that this island, Tofua, is the exact location. This spot is a good 30 miles away from the main island group, and importantly-upwind. Bligh had no choice but to head west with the wind.

In our case, we headed west with the wind yesterday, enjoying a wonderful 8 hour downwind trip in beautiful weather. Most of the way was fairly easy, but this is a tricky area and in the middle of nowhere you can find a breaking reef- so you have to stay alert. We saw three such reefs not associated with an island. In 500 feet of water, suddenly the bottom comes up and there’s a reef a hundred yards long. Then back to 500 or more depth.

Trolling the whole way, we caught a small tuna that I threw back, got a huge hit that stripped off a bunch of line before throwing the hook that I never had time to set and we caught a very large mahi. So delicious fresh fish was had for dinner. I’m just as happy the one that threw the hook got away as the ferociousness in which the line was screaming out predicted quite a battle.

So, why did we come here so far off the track? Blame it on our friends on Orcinius and The Rose. John and Lisa and the other John and Pat respectively decided it would be cool to sail out here and climb the mountain (it’s actually a volcano and still active) and then down into the cone to a fresh water lake that is said to be there. Adventure did someone say? We’re in!

We’ve only been partly successful with the original plan. We got here. We found an anchorage even though most of the island has very steep, almost sheer sides. The anchorage is rocky so we’ll see how “good” it is when we pull anchors tomorrow-we may have to dive them to untangle them from the rocks. Where we missed the original plan was in not being able to get ashore. The waves are breaking pretty hard and it looks sketchy to get a dinghy safely in. Turns out the way the “guides” do it when they take people is drop them by boat off a little bay north of us and they have to swim in while one of the guides stays in the boat. We would have been able to swim ashore and we might have been able to anchor in the little bay if conditions had been right, but there’s a NE wind and coming right into the bay complete with sizable swells. Not safe.

But, on the “unexpected delight” scale, the trip has been amazing. For one, we’re the only boats here, so it’s very remote and quiet. Next up was a wonderful dive this morning. Once we realized we couldn’t make it ashore, we decided to dive. The anchorage is very colorful rock with coral and some nice fish. The biggest upside though has been a family of whales that seem to live in this area, fattening up their calf and getting ready to make their migration north. They have been a delight culminating (so far) with a half hour show this morning right off the sterns of our boats. Mother, calf and what looked like a adolescent frolicked, slapping tails and doing barrel rolls right before our eyes. At the same time a larger whale was breaching ¼ mile away out by the point. Definitely a stunning show. If they come back, we all have our snorkel gear laid out and are going to swim out and say; “hello” as they are pretty friendly and curious. They did a “drive by” last night, following us back to the boat from Orcinius where we had dinner. We could hear them slap their flippers and breathe right behind the boat. I was afraid one would get tangled in the dinghy-they were that close.

So this day closes with dessert on Orcinius. Berry pie and apple pie and Farkel. A good time was had by all.