Hard to leave a spot like this, eh?

We’re not leaving yet, but we checked out so we are ready to go when everything else is done. Actually we checked “in” and “out” at the same time. Since we got in late on Friday and Customs, et al are closed on the weekend, today was our first opportunity to check into the area. And, since it’s such a hassle to check out-it takes almost half a day of walking around-we checked out at the same time so we can just leave when the weather window says, “Go!”

Checking out is always an adventure and checking out of Tonga is no exception. Lots of paperwork, three different locations, but at least the officials are very nice.

First you go to Immigration. It’s about a mile and a half walk from the wharf. We got there and there was a line of locals at least 20 people long and most looked like they had been there for quite a while. Fortunately there were two windows. One for passports and one for visas. Our need was visa, all the locals were there for passports. There was no one waiting at the visa window. It was our lucky day (Lisa from Orcinius waited two hours last week). However, there was no one inside at the visa window. We finally got their attention and a nice official came over and said for us to come inside. Once there we had a nice chat about the weather, our boat name-he really liked it and wanted to talk about what it meant. We have a hard time explaining the meaning of charisma to the Polynesians. Ann has finally come up with the solution. They are very religious and she just says, “Jesus had a lot of charisma”. They get it right away and like the name even better. So the nice immigration guy looked at our passports and glanced at our papers and fired up his stamp. Everyone has a stamp to stamp stuff with and they usually need to fire it up. This means look carefully at it, then run it a couple times to make sure the ink works well, then very carefully set the stamp straight and POW! stamp stuff. It’s very impressive. Our good luck here was that we’re about a week over our allowable visa, but he either didn’t notice or gave us a break. I didn’t mention anything since it’s $60/person for an extension and depending on who you talk to might also have a substantial penalty. Dodged a bullet (and don’t ask why we went over-stupid error on my part).

So now, we walk all the way back to the wharf and about 1/2 mile the other way to the harbor master. More paper to fill out and more stamps. We want to get the duty free price on fuel, so there were two more people we had to go to and more paperwork for that. One of the forms was from the harbor master department to notify the people downstairs that they could let us fill out the other forms which we give to the fuel guy. So, we filled out forms and got them stamped. On the way out, we both noted that no one actually looked at the forms. I could have written “Falalalala” for my name and no one would have noticed.

OK, two down, one to go. The Customs office. “Down the street just before the security gate” was the direction we’d been given. Yup, that worked. It was a tiny office with two desks and a bench. “Have a seat” was the direction we were given. This was my first hint there would be a bunch more paperwork to fill out. I dutifully filled out 8 pages of forms. Again, he didn’t even glance at them, just took his and put them aside, then took ours and added a stamp (after it had been carefully adjusted and positioned just so). This set of papers also came with a cool decal that they stick on and then staple through. I guess that makes it more official.

So, that was half our day. The rest of the day was more sail repair. We hauled the sewing machine up on the deck, unfurled the jib, dropped it to the foredeck and Ann sewed several spots that were worn and/or torn. She’s getting pretty good at the sail repair.

Tomorrow I’m going to try again to find the right parts to repair the propane fixture on the stove. While it’s working, it won’t be safe to use at sea. Ann’s going to clean the hull while I’m on shore, which means she’s in the water scrubbing the hull. Nice. Then we’re going to get fuel, now that we have such official looking duty free paperwork. Then some more boat projects if we have time. We’re almost ready. If the weather’s right, we may leave for New Zealand by Thursday. If not, this isn’t a bad place to be and we’ll wait here for the right conditions.

Patience. That’s the Tongan way.