We are anchored beside Kenutu Island in the Vavu'a area of Tonga. The sun has come out and it is absolutely beautiful. We took Nikolai from Voyageur and went ashore for a hike. We had a great walk on the shore collecting shells and looking at the marine life. We saw lots of blue sea stars, hundreds of sea cucumbers, and hundreds of this animal we do not know the name of. It is a long black tube with feelers on the end that reach out to search for food or something, if you touch it it retracts, pretty cool and a great science lesson. The island is volcanic so we had to climb over some really sharp volcanic rock to get to the top. The view was worth the hike and we were looking down on the waves crashing against the island, there were some big blow holes and the water was shooting out so hard we were getting misted on the top of the cliff. Zack and Nikolai were collecting salt from deposits on the rocks. We found a nice path and hiked around for a couple of hours checking out the foliage and the other cliffs with crashing waves. Unfortunately when we got home we realized that all the shells we thought were empty had inhabitants so we had to bring them back to shore, which is a shame because they were nice shells.

The next day we went to hike into a cave with Voyageur and Always Saturday. They had scoped it out the day before so we had line to rappel down into the cave. As we approached the cave lots of bats were flying around the cave which was a bit disconcerting, but I guess that is what you will find in a cave. Michael tied the line and we all descended into the cave. It was slippery and muddy and we were glad to have the line to hold onto. The cave was not that big and at the bottom there was a large pool of fresh water. It was really cold so no one wanted to jump in for a swim, it would have been difficult to get in and out anyway. We all climbed out of the cave and went for a hike. The path was lined with coconut shells and we had a nice time hiking to the other side of the island. We were atop a large cliff watching the waves crash against the shore. There was a blow hole that Zack said was the cave of a dragon, that's how big the spray coming out was. It made a roaring sound as it came out and it was easy to imagine that Zack was correct.

When we got back to the boat Zack wanted to go knee boarding so we called Nikolai and I took them out. Zack did amazing for his second time out. He got up on the board from a laying down position and was able to take long rides. At one point he tried to do a 360 and turn around all the way. He got about a quarter of the way and was able to stay up when he came back forward. He was also able to hang on when he went over the dinghy wake and the ride got bumpy. He had a few good wipe outs but came straight up and was totally fine. He is so stoked that we are going again right now. so I am signing off for now!!