Tonga!

Whoo Hoo! We made to Neiafu, Vava’u, Tonga this morning. We crossed the International Date Line. It’s Tuesday here. We had no Monday. Weird.

When I last left you were were having nice seas and winds. Boy did things change. The night before last we saw a squall coming at us and got ready by reefing the main sail. Well, it wasn’t just a squall. It was about 20 hours of wind. Big wind. We eventually lowered the main sail completely and put out what’s called a handkerchief jib. It’s just a teen bit of sail, maybe about the size of a twin bed sheet. We were still going 5 knots. We tried for a while to go “bare poles”, with no sails out, but we weren’t able to steer. The seas were big from a south swell and then the east winds created their own waves. It wasn’t a very pleasant ride. The winds did die down last evening, but the seas kept up until we got into the lee of Uta Vava’u. It was a relief to start into this island group this morning. It was gloriously beautiful. A manta ray jumped out of the water to greet us. I missed it the first time, so he did it again. Very cool.

 

We moored here in the harbor, only to find out that we had dock at the wharf to get checked in. We went over there and got checked in fairly easily, one “dock kiss” marring the side of the boat. The officials were very nice. Sam talked about family in Aiea. The immigration guy showed up in the traditional skirt like garment with a woven mat waist piece.

Click on the image below for a slideshow of our arrival photos

Back at the mooring we quickly got a shower and went ashore. We went to the bank to change money. One of the patrons came up to Steve and said “I think you look familiar. Aren’t you a doctor in Wahiawa?” George was his name and Steve had treated him. Small world. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Very tasty. Our “waitress” chatted with us and come to find out she had been in San Francisco and Hawaii recently. She had won first prize in a regional drag queen competition. The prize was a trip to L.A., S.F. and Honolulu. We toured Neiafu, peeking into shops and looking at menus. It’s a cute hillside town and obviously caters to yachties. There are 75 mooring balls here and a good number of them are occupied. The Moorings charter company has a bunch of boats here. We’ll spend a couple of days here, then move to take adavantage of the spectacular anchorages around this group of islands. We’re here, we’re safe, and we’re REALLY glad to not be moving. P.S. I hope mom’s move into here condo went well.