Well, our days of dodging sows and piglets while walking the dirt roads punctuating the corners and edges of the deep red soiled farms of Tonga have come to an end, at least for now. Tonga has had a very dry winter, with draught conditions in some locations, but the second to the last night we were there, that drought came to an end! A true tropical downpour released 9.5cm (nearly 4 inches) in 16 hours! Luckily, we thought to take the outboard motor off the dinghy , just in case, and when we awoke in the morning, our poor little dinghy was just about full of water! We hope we might return one day to Tonga to explore some of the caves and to try to chase down some of the large fruit bats we saw occasionally flying over our boat while at anchor.

We had a busy week, provisioning a boat that had boring and depleted stores, filling up with water, researching entry requirements for possible next stops, buying fuel, and more. We also arranged to list our boat with a broker in Australia, so fingers crossed that there might be some interested parties awaiting the arrival of Daybreak, so we can enjoy a fast and easy sale and possibly make it home to Indiana for the holidays!

October being springtime in Australia, from now until the holidays is their busiest boat purchasing time of year, so the earlier we can get there the better our chances of selling her quickly. Looking at the calendar, we decided that if we could get a good weather window to sail all the way direct to Australia from Tonga, that would save us loads of time off checking into and out of Fiji and New Caledonia, which we couldn't afford to spend much time exploring, anyway.

Our weather router, Bob McDavitt told us this looks like a good window, as far as he can see, so we've taken the leap west, hoping we might go straight to Brisbane, Australia, but having filled out Advance Notice of Arrival paperwork to Fiji, in case we should decide to stop there, and having researched requirements for checking in to New Caledonia, in case a stop there is prudent. If we do, indeed, go direct to Australia, we will be traveling about 1900 miles - easily the second longest passage of our whole journey. We made a paper chain out of scrap paper so we can count down the remaining miles to Brisbane in 50 miles increments. It's something fun to look forward to and a great visual of how much farther we have to go. Unfortunately, Matthew already got overzealous today and ripped off the "1750" ring and threw it overboard, but he hadn't measured properly and we still have ~20 miles to go on that ring....that boy!

Conditions on the water have been beautiful so far. We've had 10-16 knots of wind with seas only a foot or two in height - perfect for acclimating our bodies to the rolly feel of the ocean once again after being in those beautiful, well-protected anchorages of Vava'U.