Moving On South

After 4 days on Uoleva we've decided to head a bit south and try and find some shelter from the NW winds that are expected in the next day or so. That coupled with the increasing swell that is rolling us around a bit too much makes it easy to leave. We've actually been quite busy here. Cathy took the enclosure and dodger off and re-stitched it (again) to try and make it last to NZ. I re-sealed the starboard side of the pushpit, glassed in the veggie locker to stop it from getting wet when take seas through the hawse pipe, and rebuilt one of the manual bilge pumps (the one I cannibalized for parts for the head). We've walked the beach, snorkelled, and generally been living the cruising life. We had one boat come into the anchorage for the night on Friday, Crazy Diamond. They're a nice British couple we first met in Nuie. They are heading off for Tasmania to have Christmas with their family. Other than them, there was a boat here when we arrived, Galaxia, a German boat skippered by Wolfgang but he moved on in the afternoon as he had to get back to Tonga-Tapu to drop his guests off. It has been MUCH quieter here. We are not missing the crowds from Vava'u yet. The idea is to stay here another couple of weeks, weather permitting, then head back to Vava'u. We'll see how it all shapes up. We are relying on electronic charts now as today we sail off the edge of the paper charts. We have found that the detailed electronic charts are accurate here so hopefully that will remain true. There's lots of coral out there!

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