10/27/2009, Nuku Alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga
I jumped ship for a few days and visited my friend Bria who lives in Eua. She is a Peace Corps volunteer. We used to teach together in Gambell and hadn't seen each other in six years. We had a great time catching up. I also enjoyed visiting Eua and meeting the people there as well. It is a rural community. Wealth is pigs, and there were a lot of pigs running around. One thing about rural travel is that one must go with a sense of adventure, humor and a very broad interpretation as to expectations especially when booking accommodations and guided activities. Bria and I had lots to enjoy and laugh about. It is amazing how similar Rural Alaska and Rural Tonga really are.
It looks like we may have a weather window to leave for New Zealand on Friday, the 30th of October. We will see how it develops. I guess it is time to end the vacation mode and finish a few chores to prepare Tender Spirit for this passage.
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10/20/2009, Nuku Alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga
We are anchored at Nuku Alofa, tucked into a little motu in about 20 feet of clear water. We had a nice uneventful passage. No wind for most of the night, but lots of current that moved us faster than expected. We wound up drifting around for about 5 hours waiting for daylight. With the reef system, it would have been a disaster to attempt a night entry....something that we refuse to do. Well, all is well. I need to pay a visit to immigration, customs, and the port captain, then some sleep!
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!) I wanna go to Cook Islands, did you go there? Keep in touch! Stay safe, have the time of your life! Nancy
10/19/2009, Off Shore, passage from Vava'u Islands to Tongatapu Group
All is well on this fine Monday morning. We have just enough wind to fill the sails, so are motoring as well. We have blue sky this morning and lots of stars last night. The stars off shore are incredible. I have never seen such a display when we are on the land, so I look forward to these nights. The Milky Way stretches across the sky. The constellations would be easy to pick out, except I am not as familiar with this southern sky. My constellation guide book was destroyed when the bookcase got a soaking on our Rarotonga to Niue passage. Hopefully I'll be able to replace it in New Zealand. It looks like this is going to be one of those nice easy passages, so we are feeling quite pleased this morning. We are making good time and at this rate will arrive early tomorrow morning.
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10/18/2009, Neiafu, Kingdom of Tonga
Well, we are going to leave today for Nuku Alofa. The weather looks fine. The passage is only about 170 miles and will take about 2 days. We have some great pictures of the sailboat races from last Friday. We also have some great pictures of the pig roast last weekend. I will try to get them blog ready and posted when we arrive at Nuku Alofa.
| 2009 South Pacific Adventure |
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