A 2 day sail to Tonga had a great start with good winds and sailing conditions but the second night the wind dropped and the iron spinnaker was engaged. We caught 2MahiMahi and a tuna late afternoon so our larder was topped up allowing us to share with 3 other boats, the custom guy, then fed 8 for dinner the day we arrived. Rafted to another yacht to clear in we spotted "Matilda" coming in to do the same. We hadn't seen Andy since St Marteen so of course he and his crew were on the dinner list. Chris from "Aislang" was in the anchorage so he joined us too bringing with him the solar pane l controller he got for us in the US. Like old times with familiar faces. Great fruit and veg markets but Nieafu is still the garbage dump it was last time. We came ashore for a local concert with the tourism minister spruking off but they should be doing something about their rubbish.
Chris came with us to church on Sunday, this time the Catholic one. Last trip we went to the Weslyan and I have to say that altho' the Catholic singing was great, we voted that the Weslyians were better. No music just beautiful voices. Yesterday ( Monday) there were 16 boats to clear in and when you can only fit 3 at a time on the dock the local radio net organiser tried to get some sort of order going to get them processed. Talk about road rage, it was on for young and old, accusations of queue jumping. A local guy ran forms around the anchored boats so they would be ready for their turn and a cafe supplied free pizzas to the staff if they would not take their one hour lunch break. We were still seeing boats finishing into the afternoon....but then they do have Tongan time here...slow! We have had the occasional shower of rain and they need it badly as they are in drought conditions. Next stop will be Fiji.