I have been on the boat for a week now and we have been to 2-3 beautiful anchorages in the Vava'u group of islands in Tonga.

For the past few days we have been anchored in the quiet lake like lagoon in the Island of Hunga which is the most westerly island of the group.

The entrance to the lagoon is a narrow opening between two steep bluffs and there is a 10' high rock in the middle of the pass. When you listen on the radio to other sailors describing the pass it sounds quite treacherous but compared to the Tuamotus it was a breeze. We cleared through with at least 4' under our keel.

The lagoon which is between Hunga and Fafoa Islands is quite deep but we are fortunate enough to be on one of 3 mooring balls offered by the Hunga Haven Resort. Well, they call it a resort but it comprises a house for the owners and two VERY rustic cabins offered for rent. The "resort" is for sale if anyone is interested in escaping society and purchasing a tropical paradise. Barry, the owner, is a fellow Canadian and he kindly hosted a pot luck dinner by his campfire the other night. There were four other sailboats and one of the neighbours who attended. All interesting characters full of stories. We put together a curried vegetable dish in the thermos pot which fit in nicely with the other dishes. The next day however Mazu reeked like a campfire curry house. The neighbour, also named Pete, came over in his boat from his house on the "Blue Lagoon" which is on the south side of Fofoa Island. He brought a delicious fresh lettuce salad cut from his own garden. It is always a treat to find some fresh produce so when he invited us to come and see his garden we jumped at the opportunity. Lack of water is the main difficulty people here have for planting a garden. Pete collects rain water in a big cistern for his home use but he has an abandoned house foundation full of water on his neighbours property and he has set up a water pump to water his garden. It's fantastic! We baked some cookies and went to visit him for tea. You can imagine how happy I was when he gave me a pair of scissors and a plastic bag to go and cut fresh leaf lettuce, rocket, cillantro, basil, lemon grass and radishes from his garden. His tomatoes and cucumber are not ready yet but we have found those at the market. Pete and one of the locals are serious cricket players and are in the midst of recruiting a Tonga team for the Pacific Games competition next year.

We had only planned to stay in the lagoon a couple of days but we've had a couple cooler cloudy days and have been rather lazy. There are some nice sandy beaches here and some easy hikes over the hill to explore life in low tidal pools on the coral shore. Perhaps we will depart tomorrow for another idyllic anchorage.