Tango is 78 miles NE of Tonga and will enter the islands and harbor in Vava'u tomorrow morning. We left American Samoa on Wed, sailed Thursday and most of Saturday, Friday went missing with the International Date Line routine for Tonga. We are now motor sailing in very light winds. This afternoon I (John) saw two large rounded dorsal fins about 60 ft from our port side. WHALES! I hollered to Janet. We watched as they turned toward the bow like porpoise would but these weren't porpoise size. They were a momma and calf Fin whales. As they approached our side we were going about 4.5 knots, like a slow jog. They had no problem keeping up. Then they kept coming and getting closer. I killed the autopilot and turned hard right. As soon as I did that, momma whale got between Tango and baby and she herded baby away. I angled out and then straighten out... yikes baby wanted to play more and baby, followed closely by momma, again approached Tango and swam within about 20 feet. Momma was almost as big as Tango... baby... big enough. SO... I turned right and did a slow circle. The whales followed us right around the circle about 50 ft behind us. When I straightened out they did too. I tried angling off and they followed. SO... using my well practiced child psychology, I stopped maneuvering and just went straight. They followed for about 10 minutes then slowed and turned away. That was SUPER cool. My after thinking is that I should have stopped and jumped in the water with the camera. I told Janet that and she wasn't too pleased with that idea. Anyway... way cool afternoon.

We are slowly motor sailing so we get to the entrance to the Vava'u Island group at first light. Then we will wiggle our way into the harbor and anchor before lunch (on Sunday 3 August). It will be Saturday 2 Aug in the US. Better get used to this. We'll be a day ahead and something like 5 hrs earlier than Nebraska... or something like that.