The Vava'u island group in Tonga is unbelievable! We have seen such amazing islands that our expectations of being wowed were pretty low, but this area is just amazing. If we were to charter a boat for a tropical vacation, this would be the place. Tiny wooded islands are scattered all around us with picture perfect beaches, flawlessly blue water, snowy lines of surf breaking on protective reefs, and carefree sailing on flat water. Mary's new mantra "If all sailing was like this, I could sail around the world" pops out every time we move the boat. The spring time climate is just perfect, high 70's - low 80's, and just cool enough at night for a sheet and snuggling. The one town has a wonderful open air veggie market and several bars and waterfront restaurants catering to yachties and the charter boats fleet.

Highlights include celebrating Finn's 8 th birthday at one of the local landmarks, the Marmaid bar, home of the Vava'u yacht club. We decorated with dozens of balloons and ate chocolate birthday cake on the waterside deck no more than a couple of hundred feet from our boat sitting at anchor. It was a special afternoon as the kids played together and the grown-up kids visited and enjoyed being lazy in the tropics.

We headed out to an outer island group with Daydream looking for humpback whales that come to Tonga to breed and give birth. The guys went on a snorkeling expedition on one side of the island finding several unbelievably large cowrie shells in flawless condition, but unfortunately still containing their owners. As we explored, a mother whale with her calf passed and we swam like crazy hoping to see them from the water. It turns out that whales swim much faster than we do, so we never got close. When we returned to the boat Mary was chattering excitedly and bit shakily about a mother humpback and her calf that had swum right up to the boat for a visit. Mary was below and heard very loud breathing, dashed up on deck, and floating alongside was a whale larger than the boat with a baby protectively tucked under its fin. The whale floated quietly by the boat and then slowly moved away with its baby swimming next to it. Wow!

Now we are enjoying our own private anchorage and planning on heading back into town for fresh provisions in a couple of days.