We are currently sitting off a small motu called Mounu, one of the fifty islands in the Vava'u Group. There is a very small eco resort ashore that is run by a New Zealand couple who have been here for 11 years. He's a retired advertising executive (way to go!!) who sold his New Zealand agency to Saatchi & Saatchi. We are in company with Moonraker, a beautiful 78' Van de Staadt sloop from the Cayman Islands. Last night, in company with Graham and Janet from Moonraker we dined on freshly cooked Mahi Mahi ashore at the resort. We arrived in Vava'u very early last Monday morning and found our way up the channel under radar to Neiafu Harbour and picked up a mooring at 01:30. It was incredible to be in smooth water on a mooring after being bounced around ever since we left Raratonga three weeks earlier. The 250 mile crossing from Niue was fast (about 36 hours) but bumpy in 4m-5m seas on the quarter. We sailed almost all the way with the main doused and just a small amount of headsail out and still averaged 7 kts for the trip. Neiafu is the capitol of Vava'u-very small but very quaint. There are a number of cruising folk who have arrived in Vava'u and stayed on setting up small businesses (restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops etc ) on the harbour's edge and the whole place has a very nautical feel to it. There is a Moorings Charter base here so together with the Moorings boats there's about 60 moorings in the harbour with about 50 boats in the anchorage. There is something happening ashore every night-it's a very social place. Last Wednesday night we went to a fund raising Tongan feast at one of the shore side restaurants. The recipient of the funds raised was the Tongan Youth Congress and the organisers were a group of young American peace corps volunteers. For 40 pa'anga a double (about AU$24) we were treated to a sumptuous feast of roast suckling pig, fish, crab salad, and copious amounts of salad. There were Tongan fire dancers, Miss Vava'u did a hula and a rock 'n roll band (headed up by the local taxi driver whom we had met earlier in the day) thrown in for good measure. A lot of the local businesses in the area had donated prizes to be auctioned off and I was successful in bidding for dinner for two at the Mounu Island Resort, which we took up last night. The highlight of the week so far was on Friday afternoon when Volaré made her racing debut in the Vava'u Yacht Club's weekly fun race around the harbour. It's a magic setting for a yacht race with spectators sitting in the harbourside bars or on board the moored yachts. On Friday there were eight participating yachts, including a few 45' Beneteau's and we are proud to announce that Volaré cleaned up the fleet to come in a close second behind a C&C 50: an ex-TransPac racing yacht. The rest of the fleet was wallowing in our wake and crossed the line about 10 minutes behind us. We had Graham from Moonraker on board as crew and I think he was as thrilled as we were about the performance of our 'little cruising yacht'. I must say we were a little apprehensive about inviting Graham to come over from his fully crewed superyacht and join us plebs for an afternoon around the buoys and a few tinnies, but I'm so glad we did - we all had a great time and after the prize giving we went off to a local Swiss restaurant in company with the crew of Mufasa (the C&C that won the race) after the prize giving (we won a two dive scuba trip and a fishing lure!). We plan to spend about two months in the Tongan Islands before leaving from Tongatapu (the southern most island in the group) for New Zealand in mid-October. For the next 4 to 5 weeks we'll use Neiafu on Vava'u as a base for re provisioning etc (and the Friday afternoon yacht races!) but spend time on many of the 50 islands around Vava'u snorkeling and swimming with the humpback whales.