Arrived in Neiafu, Vava'u Tonga in the early hours of the morning -
fortunately it's an easy entrance, and the conditions were calm with a
full moon. It is never the less spooky picking your way into an unknown
place, relying on the e-chart and having reports that some of the
echarts are more than a mile displaced! This with vertical sided
islands and cliffs about. Anyway got in fine, and got the anchor down
in dead calm - and got some sleep. This anchorage is in huge contrast
to Nuie - the boat is STILL, and there's high ground all around. Woke
up this morning to a grey day, so I motored across to the village to
look for Customs and found out it's Saturday (date line crossed)- and
motored back and re-anchored where I was.
It's a grey rainy west coast day. It's Saturday here and I missed Customs and Immigration, do that Monday but mostly slept today. Fortunately got the tarp up before it rained hard. Snoozed most of the day. I actually had my fuzz on the other day and last night coming in - it was distinctly cool. In want of some comfort food, something bread like, I made muffins in the silicone "pan". They came out fine, crust a bit thicker than usual - would have preferred some raisins over choc chips but can't find the former either on board or ashore. Food and eating is becoming an issue - not much variety left and not much enthusiasm to prepare much. My prepared chillis etc are just about all gone and the commercial stuff is not very good. While cans of fish are healthy, I really don't like it much, ditto brown beans. Have lots though! Won't starve, might lose weight = lost a fair bit already.
Quite a few Canadian boats around. Couple near me now and at least a couple more across the harbour. I wonder what we are all running away from. The cruising community is very first world cosmopolitan. There are boats from Europe, east coast US and Canada (eg: TO, Montreal etc.) as well as NZ and Auz. The Swiss and Scandinavians are well represented.
Not sure what's next. I was planning on spending time in Tonga and then making the crossing to Fiji but I may just stay in Tonga and hang out at the south end of the group to make the final crossing to NZ. Ideally with crew. I really need to spend some time cleaning the boat. It's so damp and warm there's mildew growing in places - the forepeak is not well ventilated and so is a problem. I hesitate to open the lockers or something nasty may crawl out.
Take care
Dad
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At 10/09/2011 3:49 AM (utc) our position was 18°39.34'S 173°59.53'W
It's a grey rainy west coast day. It's Saturday here and I missed Customs and Immigration, do that Monday but mostly slept today. Fortunately got the tarp up before it rained hard. Snoozed most of the day. I actually had my fuzz on the other day and last night coming in - it was distinctly cool. In want of some comfort food, something bread like, I made muffins in the silicone "pan". They came out fine, crust a bit thicker than usual - would have preferred some raisins over choc chips but can't find the former either on board or ashore. Food and eating is becoming an issue - not much variety left and not much enthusiasm to prepare much. My prepared chillis etc are just about all gone and the commercial stuff is not very good. While cans of fish are healthy, I really don't like it much, ditto brown beans. Have lots though! Won't starve, might lose weight = lost a fair bit already.
Quite a few Canadian boats around. Couple near me now and at least a couple more across the harbour. I wonder what we are all running away from. The cruising community is very first world cosmopolitan. There are boats from Europe, east coast US and Canada (eg: TO, Montreal etc.) as well as NZ and Auz. The Swiss and Scandinavians are well represented.
Not sure what's next. I was planning on spending time in Tonga and then making the crossing to Fiji but I may just stay in Tonga and hang out at the south end of the group to make the final crossing to NZ. Ideally with crew. I really need to spend some time cleaning the boat. It's so damp and warm there's mildew growing in places - the forepeak is not well ventilated and so is a problem. I hesitate to open the lockers or something nasty may crawl out.
Take care
Dad
-----
At 10/09/2011 3:49 AM (utc) our position was 18°39.34'S 173°59.53'W
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