We've been in Tonga almost 2 weeks. Tonga is great. Definitely the best place we've visited so far.

We arrived on a Sunday and waited until monday to head to the customs dock to checkin. A batch of boats had arrived with us and so there was a bit of a line. We didn't fight it, so we waited until the afternoon. We got a yell from an anchored boat 90ft boat that apparently had been waiting for a space, so we had to drop anchor and wait our turn. The check in process was more involved than most places but pretty well run. We had a officers from Customs, Immigration, Health, and Agriculture. All very friendly and happy to find the chocolate chip cookes Dana had prepared for them. There were some fees we had to pay, so Mark had to run off to find an ATM to get some Tongan currency, the Panga.

The harbor at Neafu in the Vava'vu islands was great. With the winding entrance, it was full protected from any swells so it was perfectly calm. The water was a clear deep blue like what you find in the Greek islands.

Later, we found the water was full of jellyfish. At night, you'd shine a flashlight in the water and seen them every 10fts or so. Mark had to swim under the boat a couple of times (after first checking the jelly fish were harmless) and found himself weaving amongst them.

There wasn't too much to the town, though a number of expats had set up shop and so there were a number of services, including several good number of western style restaurants, dive shops, and t-shirt shops, cafes, etc. A 8:30am, there was a VHF net that was run by one of the locals that would go through the weather, local announcements, and radio classifieds. They had setup channel 26 so it was forwarded across the islands and not limited to lineo of sight.

With all the beatiful islands littered around the area often only a mile or so apart, this was a sailing paradise.

As we finished customs, our friends on Tahina hailed us. We had their mail that had been sent to them in Pago Pago but had been delayed. The twins on Broken Compass picked it up for them and gave it to us to deliver. This was the first time we had seen Tahina since we last bumped into them at Bequai in the Grenadines, what seems like half way around the world. Meeting up with them again was one of the treats we had been looking forward to as we crossed the Pacific.

We met up with Frank and Karen and have been hanging out with them most of the time since. Among other things, we've enjoyed playing games with them. Dana particularly like the Bananagrams scrablle-like game on Tahina. At Dana's request, Mark printed 2-letter Scrabble word lists and Q word lists for her to study so that Karen doesn't always whallop us.

The next day Mark spent catching up on maintenance of the boat. He changed the oil and filters on the engine and generator, the fuel filters on both, the Racor fuel pre-filters, and the transmission ATF fluid. This being at least the 2nd time for each of these procedures, it still took a couple rolls of paper towls and most of the day. We disposed of the almost 15 litres of oil or other fluids by leaving an old container for someone from one of the other islands.

We took a day biking around the island. While the hills were not all that high, there were alot of them and so it made for a tiring ride. It was good to see the island away from the harbor as we got a better sense of what life was like on the island. Most of the houses were very modest. It seemed like every 100 yards was another church, all built with the same design and dimensions. Instead of the chickens or goats running around on many of the other islands, Tongans seem to prefer pigs and there were lots of them rutting around, waiting for their turn. The people were very friendly and kids were constantly waving at us. At one point it started to rain and we rode past as some vanilla bean farmers were rushing to bring the beans they were drying in from the rain. Further down we found a house getting ready for a feast with three pigs roasting on the spit. Some kids had gotten out of school and made a road block which we were able to get through after chatting with them for a couple of minutes.

Our bike trip ended at a beautiful beach on the other side of the island with a small restaurant and bar. We sat out on the beach enjoying a couple of drinks before heading back to the boat. Luckily the return trip seemed much shorter than the way out, probably because we were lost while coming out but didn't have any trouble finding our way back.

We left with Tahina out to several anchorages. Frank and Mark explored an island looking for a queen's tomb somewhere on the island. We didn't find it (though we have since gotten directions) but had a good time walking over most of the island. The anchorage the next day we took a long dinghy ride around to a location called the Coral Gardens where Frank and Mark dove while Dana sat in the dinghy.

Mark found he had some work to do and so we all moved over to an anchorage closer to Neafu that had wifi and then the next day we moved back to Neafu, again for Mark to be able to get his work done. While we were in Neafu, we spent one of the days on a dirt cart tour around the island. While a good part of the tour was over the same area as our bike ride, we got to explore lots of other places, such as some good look outs over cliffs and ocean.

The next day Mark spent the morning working on helping Frank replace a repaired part on his head-sail furler, after which we sailed out to an anchorage where we could visit a couple caves. We went to the Swallow's Cave that afternoon. We took the dinghy into the cave where we bobbed around. Dana jumped into the water until she noticed a large, thick school of fish below her that she thought might swarm her at any moment.

The next morning we tried to find the Mariner's Cave on a nearby island. This cave you had to dive underwater and then swim up into. Dana wasn't interested, but she agreed to stay in the dinghy while Mark went to the cave. Unfortunately, the directions we got didn't work for us and Mark spent about a half hour swimming along the cliff looking for the entrance. He tried one place he thought it might be only to run into a dead end; swimming out he bumped into the walls, cutting both his arms and then lost a fin. Luckily the fin found its way out through the wave action. After going back to the Northfork, Frank offered to stop at the cave on the way to the next anchorage. While the girls took over the Tahina and Northfork, Mark and Frank swam up to the cave and dove into it. You had to swim under 5-7ft deep ledge and then up into the cave, where there was an eerie light coming from below through the entrance.

We continued on to the Hunga island, which had lagoon in its center that you get to through a narrow entrance. You have to go through the entrance around high tide to have enough depth and to avoid strong currents. We anchored and dinghied through a shallow area over to Blue Lagoon. We were chased off the first beach because it was apparenly private, but found a nearby beach that worked out just as well.

We have been having an increasing problem with our windlass recovering our anchor. Starting when there is about 90ft of chain out, the chain starts to slip every other link or so. This has been happening for about a month and it has been getting worse and worse, sometimes with slips of a foot or so. Mark has taken to going up and helping with one arm to guide the chain in and keep it from shaking too much. We thought perhaps the slipping might be because the chain was twisted, but we tried dangling the anchor to let it untwist and keep the chain entering the windlass straight. Our current belief is that the portion of the chain that was let out and got snagged in Manihi was stretched and so no longer sits snug in the gypsy. We are considering flipping the chain around so the opposite end is attached to the anchor. The hope is that the part we use the most will work better and we'll be able to avoid further damage to the gypsy from the chain slipping. When we get to NZ, we'll look at replacing all of our chain.

Other than the chain, the boat is holding up pretty well. We had a small tear in the main sail that Dana has yet to fix. Mark has been taking a toothbrush to any nooks and crannies with a sign of rust or corrosion and applying corrosion protection.

Some other things that have happened recently. We are now less than a month from when we should get to NZ. NZ takes any fresh foods you have to prevent invasive species from entering. So we are trying to eat up all the supplies that could be taken. Dana has even given Mark permission to anything he wants on the boat. There is to be no further rationing, even of valued Pringles.