Tonga & Position Reports - the joys of boating

Friday 25 Sept 2006 Hi all. I have not done an update since we first got
to Tonga. Cindy has left to go back to Denver for almost three months (yeah
and yuck at the same time) and I have managed to stay busy here but not
getting a lot done. I have been trying to arrange getting myself back to
Anacortes, WA, to deal with our local storage unit and visit friends. Cindy
will join me there for a short visit before heading back to Denver which I
will miss this time. The trip to Anacortes will be something of a whirlwind
trip so apologies if I we are not able to visit with all of our friends in
the states.

Right now I will be in Anacortes from the 20th to the 27th of Sept and
staying with our good friends Terry and Diane. I have not even had a chance
to notify everyone we hope to see but will be sending out emails today if I
can. I also will try to put some new photos on this morning.

NOTE on Position Reporting: Our SSB radio is necessary to send updated
position reports to Yotreps and Winlink. I think Winlink is the link on our
blog. The smoke came out of our radio though this last week and I cannot
send reports. Maggie Drum is still at Neiafu harbor at Vava'U in the
northern Tongan island group. The position reporting systems will not show
anything but reports from the last 10 days and it has been longer than that
for us. Because I can ONLY send reports by radio, not by internet, we will
not have a Position Report until we get the radio fixed or replaced. I am
working on this but that is not easy from a third world country. More in
future blog updates.

The weather here has been untypical for this time of year - very cool, rainy
and cloudy, actually chilly at night and even during the day when it is
cloudy. It reminds me of spring weather in Seattle, not the tropical South
Pacific. I use a blanket at night on the boat. We do have the occasional
sunny day but that has been unusual.

I moved Maggie Drum on to a long term mooring ball and I get free internet
from the Aquarium Cafe with it so a lot of my entertainment will be on the
internet. I am also arranging travel to the states online and researching
boat parts. I also reserved us moorage in New Zealand in Nov/Dec after
Cindy gets back and we can head off for there.

This is such a small place here. You have to go to multiple grocery stores
to find even basic foods. The island now has flour, some cheese and
potatoes after being out for two weeks. I found Coca Cola (one of my
addictions) at the Chinese grocery. I bought a case. I had a wet burrito
at Tonga Bob's yesterday made with homemade enchilada sauce (good and spicy)
and fresh cilantro. I meant to ask them if they grow the cilantro here but
forgot.

Last week I took a super kart trip with a guided group here. We went on
little back roads and 4WD tracks through plantations, farms and fields and
some roads. We ended up on the north side of the island on top of a 500'
sheer cliff down to the ocean. Humpback whales were blowing in the far
distance. Pretty kewl! The trip in the karts hurt the back and kidneys of
us old farts but may be even the younger guys. Some of the karts are
doubles but I had a single and had a blast, especially when we got to a red
dirt open spot where we could tear up the dust and do donuts and spin outs.
They do fine you if you flip the kart so I did not push it too much. One
kart lost a nut holding one of the front struts and they repaired it with a
cotter ring and some wire ties. We had to make one detour in a small
village around a funeral as the karts are pretty noisy and not respectful of
the dead.

The local hotel had movie night with beers/pop if you wanted but I did not
enjoy "Munich" by Steven Spielberg too much - too violent and senseless. I
am meeting more and more expats here and learning about Tonga and a little
of the language. "Malo" is thank you and "malo eleilei" is the greeting
which literally means thank you for being here or something like that. I am
also meeting up with old cruiser friends who are arriving from French
Polynesia and the Cook Islands. We skipped the Cooks to get here so Cindy
could get back to Denver, and also because most of them had some scary
problems possible. Turns out that several boats have had problems,
especially at Suvarrow (sp?), Nuie, Palmerston, Beveridge and Rarotonga - or
basically all of them. All caused by weather. Several boats broke their
anchor tackle in Suvarrow and at least one ended up on the rocks there.

I am hassling with Immigration here to let me get back in the country after
leaving to go back to the US, and also to get Cindy back in. They require a
one way ticket back to the US when you arrive but of course we will be
leaving by boat at the end and they don't have a normal procedure for this
and we will not buy a $900 ticket just to throw away. Bureaucracy!!!

I will look after some friends boat while they go off to New Zealand for a
couple of weeks and then they will look after Maggie Drum. I had to tell
Customs and Immigration who would look after her. I also have helped a
couple of boats troubleshoot problems butg have been ignoring our own.
Except that I sucked up a jellyfish in the toilet intake line and had to
deal with that. The intake water smelled pretty bad for several days as the
jellyfish rotted in the hose or thru valve. I had to pump slowly to get it to work but it
is fine now.

I will try to upload some pics now.