We are the luckiest people - we have had 3 sets of Santas come to visit this year! This time it is in the form of our wonderful friend, Ray. We now have a laptop battery that works, more neosporin for all of Glen's cuts and scrapes, Crystal Light drink mixes, and, and, and...! He was also kind enough to bring a new GPS chart plotter system for a boat that had lost all of their navigation capability and a flash drive for another boat, so he's a star here right now.

Tonga is made up of three sections. We are in the northern section right now called Vava'u. It is gorgeous. The main town in this section is called Neiafu. The bay area surrounding it is called Port of Refuge. There are lots of little islands and anchorages all around with lovely white sand beaches, glowing turquoise waters, and beautiful reefs to snorkel. We are currently anchored at Port Maurelle (or #7 as the Moorings chart call it!). There is a long stretch of beach with lots of opportunity for shell collecting - and Glen found a mango tree and harvested a bunch! We got here Wednesday and had barely plopped the anchor down when we were invited for drinks aboard Warm Rain, then to go ashore later. New friends Nicole and Mark, Sea Life, organized a fun time complete with a bonfire, native drumming (by Glen and Alan, then Ray!) and a fun circle game taking turns singing snippets of songs into a marshmallow on the end of a stick microphone! Now if that's not a good time, what is?!! Some of us don't remember making it back to the boat, so needless to say Thursday morning was a very nice "sleep-in" kind of a day. We were all back into full swing by 10:00 or so and enjoyed a couple of hours snorkeling along one of the reefs. There is every kind of coral you could imagine here and they are all beautiful. Some of the fan corals look like their tips have been sprayed with fluorescent paint. There are bunches of really pretty purple star fish and a few pink ones that look like cartoon characters (puffy looking like a Mickey Mouse glove!). There are also these funny little ones we think are called brittle stars - very tiny legs that almost look snake-ish. We had been surprised to see so few star fish throughout the whole trip, so really enjoyed seeing these. There were also lots of other beautiful fish in every shape and color. On the way back to boat, I spotted something shining below and managed to make it to the bottom to bring up a lovely cowrie shell - the biggest any of us had ever seen... I'm so proud!!!

We joined a dinghy brigade at 1:00 to make the two mile trek to Swallows Cave. The dinghy trip itself was a lot of fun checking out the beautiful jungle-ly coastline - and the caves were incredible! As all five dinghies entered the Swallows cave, we shut down our engines and relished the peace and quiet inside. All you could hear was/were the shrill little cries of the swallows flitting around. We had fun just floating around inside, kicking back with a cold one, and unfortunately, reading all the graffiti. We thought there were bats up on the top, but it turned out to be the little mud nests that the swallows had built - silly us! When we first got inside, I had a very hard time seeing anything - everyone kept saying "Oh, look up there!" I couldn't see anything and thought I must be going blind. Finally, while bringing the camera up to my eye to take a picture, I realized I still had my sunglasses on - duh!!! I know I'm going gray, but is that supposed to be the same as "blond"?!!! (I know it couldn't be the rum!!!) I'll try to get some pictures posted of all this - it was too cool and the opening is very pirate-y looking! (You'd not easily find it without a map!) We went inside another cave a little further than Swallows, but it was much smaller and the top was open to lush green vegetation - very pretty, but not as "spectacular." We ended the day with a karaoke party on our boat with Warm Rain, Charisma, Morning Light, Sea Life, and of course our own resident karaoke master, Ray! (And you wonder why I can't get a blog out more often!!!)

It is now Friday evening... I tried, but couldn't get good propagation last night, so now you get a "day old" blog! Sorry! We had a lot of fun sailing back from #7 - the boys tried to catch dinner, but no cigar! We were lucky enough to snag the last mooring in the harbor, then went ashore and walked the main street of Neiafu. We had fun looking in all the little craft shops (since Ray is here, Glen doesn't seem to mind as much!!). We also ordered some t-shirts from a place called Tropical Tease (love the name!) with our boat name - everyone else has them, so we had to get some too! They dye the shirts with Tongan mud so you are truly taking away a little bit of Tonga with you when you leave!

Okay, still didn't get this sent, so now we just came back to the boat from the Friday night yacht race - Blizzard easily won again and it wasn't as exciting of a race this week. I'm hoping we have just enough time to get this posted before leaving for the Bounty Bar and our first real experience with kava. If I don't get this sent now, who knows when I'll be able again! :)

Jean - Ray sends his love. He says to tell you he misses you a bunch (awwww!) and that he's doing well. We can attest to the fact that he's only had one drink while here (you know, the never ending one!!!). We want to thank you for sharing him with us! Ray also wants to send his best to Chuck and Marion (us too!) - we hope both of you are doing well and that health issues become nonexistent! The picture is of Ray enjoying a local beer while sailing to Port Maurelle! This one's for you!

Oh yeah... should have mentioned we have had the best onion rings and cinnamon rolls ever while ashore here in Neiafu! By the way, we want to wish everyone well at the ICU where Cindi, Glen's niece, works - how nice to hear you care about our adventures.