9/11/2015 Friday
Another full day trying to leave the Kingdom of Tonga. Up at 6am; on the wharf at 7:30am anticipating 8 other boats trying to do the same. We ran up to immigration at 9am and got in line to fill out their exit form and get our passports stamped. There is a form for everything. And everything has to be done in the proper order. Wendy had gone to the bank to get exact Tongan to pay the fuel truck. Then off to clear out at the Port Captain. Whoops! A small fee which threw off our cash again. Rose had some extra, so she helped us out on site. Yes, again we had checked 3 times to determine that there were no fees on exiting. Then to customs to check the boat out and get authorization to buy our fuel. $1.41 Tongan per liter exempt from taxes or about 0.70 US/liter.
Then we waited for the fuel truck at 10:00am. It arrived about 11:30am (island time). We were the 3 boat to be fueled so it was after 12:00pm and the government is RELIGIOUS about taking lunch between 12:00 and 1:30pm. We missed that window! We filled some extra jerry cans for friends. You only get the good price when you leave. So we are all meeting around the corner to transfer fuel away from prior eyes. We finally left at 2:30pm after going back to Customs to report taking on fuel which was a condition precedent to get our exit clearance. Finally we are off. What a great visit. We didn't get to go everywhere we wanted or do everything we would have liked but this is always the case.
We missed the Swallows and Mariners Caves and the bodacious transvestites dance. Transvestite may not be the proper term because in the island when there are too many males in the family the family choses to raise a son as a female. Another story for another time.
Update: Yes, we got into Swallow's cave this afternoon with Rose and Dave. Dingyed in thru the mouth in the late afternoon with the sun shining into the cave. A bit of graffiti on the walls some of it dating back to 1880s. Bats were sleeping on the ceiling. And the cave was filled with thousands of fingerlings swimming as bait balls. We dove down and watched them separate for us as a wave. Looking behind us, they came right back in and closed around us. A unique experience. Great film of everyone.
Had a "go away" dinner on Il Sogno last night hosted by Craig and Karene and attended by Rose and Dave from Aussie Rules. Fantastic meal and wine. We are starting to say our goodbyes attended with promises to meet up again.