Kingdom of Tonga.....

Hello Everyone,

We are now 23 hours ahead of everyone at home. How quickly time flies... it was one of the jokes for Tristan if we had left and been on passage for his birthday we would have missed his birthday all together because of the time change. Hee Hee..... He didn't like that so much.

We had a very wonderful passage through the dangerous middle... It was so uneventful and calm that many times when I woke up I couldn't even tell we were sailing. The water was so flat that it felt like we were anchored. The nights were littered with stars, the hum of the engine and the boat gently rocking would easily put you to sleep. We finally made it after 4 days and 780 miles we are here in the Kingdom of Tonga. It is absolutely beautiful and reminds me very much of the Marquesas Islands. I woke this morning looking out the window and seeing these beautiful islands completely green with sheer cliffs and caves at the water line. All the islands are cut from underneath from the tides going in and out. Our Latitude is 18.39.122S and Longitude is 173.59.147. It is definitely colder here and the water has dropped 6 degrees from 83.5 in Suwarrow to 77 here in Vava'U. Vava'U has a huge cruising community. It really feels like we are in Mexico again with the amount of cruisers there are here. They even have a cruisers net on the radio every morning welcoming people here in Tonga and offering help or services to those that need it. Often people are here for a few months because you can roam around the islands and everything is within a couple hours. The landscape reminds me a little of the San Juan Islands with all the little islands that you sail around. We were welcomed as we came into the islands from one of our cruiser friends, Ray on Sea Note. It was really wonderful to hear a welcome to the circus as we came into Tonga. It is so nice to be amongst our cruising friends again. Many of which came down with us from San Diego and others we met along the way.

We are currently tied to the wharf going through customs, health inspections, immigration and such. A momma pig just ran past our boat trailing behind a dog... I understand that there are pigs everywhere here that just run around like stray dogs... It is really cute. We see many of the boats that we know out in the anchorage and are looking forward to catching up with them. We will be heading into town to get some fresh fruits and veggies... and also go out to eat since it has been since July 22 that we have seen a restaurant. One of the boats that we cruise with came along side us and said that there is a restaurant that makes a good cheeseburger... OMG! I am so excited. It has been over a month and a half since we have seen beef...

We are hoping to go and swim with the whales here.. it is one of the adventures that we will pay for to have someone take us out. There are also great snorkeling sites and cave exploration places... We will just have to bust out the wet suits for everyone to go in... Otherwise I have a bunch of catching up to do Laundry, gas, provisioning, wifi, school, and updating the blog if possible. I am not sure how good the wifi is yet but hopefully I can get a few pictures up.

Hope all is well at home...

Hugs and Love to everyone.

Heath

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