We woke up at the beautiful Port Mourelle anchorage, and had a mostly peaceful day. Around ten or so, Jeff and Katie came by in their zodiac, and we all motored off to the swallow cave, an enthralling indentation in the cliffs, with several chambers, hanging stalactites, and, yes, swallows flitting in the cave entrance. We then stopped for some beach combing before going back to the boat. I stopped by Samsara to look at weather charts with Jeff. It didn't look great to leave for New Zealand early this week, with wind forecast to be out of the south to southeast for a few days.

Back at the Mabel Rose, I perused the 2004 Lonely Planer guide to NZ we had borrowed from Ads and Yolanda. Though we had no internet still, at least I could make some phone calls. Glacier ski touring is out, too late in the season. The one camper rental company we reached only had “motor homes” available, $7500 NZ for the three weeks we were thinking of renting. Marsden Cove marina, Fjordland Adventures Sea Kayak, and Ecology Adventures Cruises all did not answer their phones.

Then we got Met Bob on the phone on the second try. He said we had to leave tomorrow, or Wednesday at the latest, and make it south of 25 degrees by Sunday or we will be caught in a high wind squash zone. If we don't leave, we will have to wait in Vava'u until October 27 to see what a possible tropical storm or even category one hurricane ends up doing in the middle of next week, possibly threatening Vava'u where we are now.

So the rest of the afternoon we have been scrambling to update weather maps with limited internet, trying to figure out if we can really be ready to set sail tomorrow (Tuesday on Tonga), and complete boat chores and repairs and New Zealand paperwork. We still don't know. 25 degrees is more than 400 miles from here, beyond our cruising range under power.