Tongan Cruising

Hi Guys,
Hope you survived the season and are winding down. We are getting ready for our last push to get to NZ in a few weeks. Be well and enjoy the winter and please pass our hello's, best wishes etc to everyone on the GNBN.

/Brian

We had a very pleasant sail from Tapana around the corner to Port Maurelle on Monday. We managed to pick up one of the two moorings here. Cathy and I have been in here a few times and there have usually been 10+ boats. This time, there were three, very pleasant. We all piled into the dinghy just after 14:00 for a ride out to Swallows' Cave, a MUST SEE for all Tongan cruising sailors. Not a hugely sunny day but still pretty nice. The cave is actually full of starlings, not swallows'. Oh well, whoever named it was about as good with birds as I am. The only reason I know they aren't swallows' is because I read it in one of the cruising guides. With four of us in the dinghy the trip was not the fastest on record but not too bad. When we got back, Tony and I reset the motor to try and get a bit more out of it. Definitely faster with one or two people it but not a lot different with 4. What can you expect out of 8hp. We took a ride down to Nuku Island yesterday and walked around the beach. Nuku is the favourite place for the locals to come and picnic and swim on the weekends. The king had his picnic there in August after the celebration(?) in Neiafu. Reportedly he over indulged and fell off his chair, kings will be kings. The island is actually a bit f a rubbish dump. One corner of the beach is piled with cans, bottles and trash and inland, the garbage is piled everywhere. It seems at odds with the people who are always neat and tidy.
Last night was the socializing evening. A Canadian couple I met last week on a catamaran named "Cop Out" invited us a and few others over for appies and drinks. Interesting evening. He's a retired policeman from Calgary (hence the boat name) and she was originally from NZ.
The idea is to head back into Neiafu today and re-provision, get fuel for the dinghy, check out of Vava'u and start heading south to Ha'apai. Needless to say, that won't all happen today.

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