Welcome back, Joy and I have been off the grid these past couple of days.
First off we missed our plane to Vava'u on saturday afternoon and since sunday
nothing and I mean nothing happens on sundays we were limited to what we could do
or stay. Joy wanted a beach as they are open 24/7.So we phoned up a place that adertised
at the airport. Beach front fales (cottages in the south Pacific are called this).
15 minutes from the airport. They have a great saturday nite show here. So as our taxi leaves us
we are taken to our room. We unlock the padlock that serves as a door lock to our room the girl tells
us there in no electricity until 12 noon the next day. Okay we decide that there is no way to get a
taxi back out here and we stay and try and make the best off it. Not hard to do except that the
bathroom is in bad repair and there are no mirrors. The good thing is I don't like mirrors anymore then
they like me. Lucky for usthe people that run the place are over the top nice.
They included a nice meal for us and a great breakfast in the morning. The next afternoon finally
the electric came back on long enough for us to get things charged. The family included us
in their sunday brunch of Tonga pig and the works. Live music in Tongan that had a christian feel.

Come monday we packed up our stuff and jumped on the local Corvair 580 a 1960's era plane. Quick
jump up here to Vava'u another island in this chain. We were picked up at the airport by the resort owner
in an air conditioned mini van,boy did it feel good. We arrived at the complete opposite of our last
accomadations. High end restaurant and a great family living and working there. We took hot
showers right off the bat. Did some snorkling and ate a big dinner. Waking the next day we had an island
tour and bought some things for our sailing adventure.Before we left we rode to Sparrows Cave with
the resort family and what a site. Never miss seeing this if you get to Vava'u.It's a cave big enough
for a 20 foot boat to motor into. The water is crystal clear and in the afternoon the sun beams in
and makes for a idylic world. The highlight of our tour so far.

Next day we wake pack and head to the port. Jocara awaits us. A 52 foot sailing Yacht.SHe has many
trophies on her walls and probaly deserves better then hauling my stinky arse around Tonga. Never the less
we loaded up and set sail. 20 knot winds got us out to our first nights anchorage in no time.

We slept with our moon roof open to the skies the Milky Way was as bright as ever.The next day we awoke
to the smells of fresh Tongan coffee and the sea breezes. We did some snorkling before we motored out off of
our anchorage.That's right we motored because there was no wind,no breeze,no nothing. We did finally put up
the main sail but with 5 knots of wind and me at the wheel our dingy passed us on the left. The dingy is a
small boat we tow behing us and somehow the currents pushed it pass us our Skipper Noah said he had not seen that
before. I guess that I jack knifed the dingy? We Spend our next night in Hunga Lagoon. It was very quiet
there the water was mirror smooth and that night all of the stars were out and reflected off of the water perfectly.

We woke again to bright sunshine and did some snorkling before breafast. Saw a Spotted Eagle Ray as soon as we
entered the water. On the way back to the boat we saw a rainbow over the inlet and soon became aware of the smells
of Christy making bacon for breakfast onboard. We ate breakfast on the go as the tide was leaving the lagoon. After
breakfast I was down below when I notice the engine suddenly race up as it usally was at a slow poke and came up
on deck our dingy again was giving us problems as her shakle had come loose and she was about a half a mile behind us!

We came up along side of her and Noah jumped in her fixing the shakle and getting us going again. We sailed up to
a double island beach called Taunga beach. we snorkled her again only to come up on the beach and notice that the
wind had picked up on the other side of the island. I decided to have a look and walked around the sharp corner
and man it looked like another world. Dark clouds and blowing sands. I jogged back around the beach and
told Joy to pack it up! We waited as Christy brought the dingy ashore to save us and we made it to Jocara just
as the winds reached us.We pulled anchor and turned to be with the wind and bobbed and weaved down to our current anchorage.