Still loving it in Tonga
Quartermoon
Mike Share & Sammy Byron
Fri 20 Aug 2010 23:05
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Yarrrrr,
Greetings Land-lubbers!
Tonga is (wait for it) really
beautiful, probably our next favourite after the Tuamotus and Marquesas. We
are still in the Vav'au island group and the islands are stunning in a different
way - very volcanic rock with heaps of white beaches, jungle and costal caves.
The viz and coral/fish life is second only to the Tuamotus. We have
finally caught up with a few boats we know (all heading to Oz and Sydney) and
we cruised Tonga as a group which was brilliant. We
have had a lot of fun snorkelling, hiking, spear fishing, knee boarding and most
nights we found a deserted beach, built a huge fire and cooked dinner on
it. The Belgians have introduced us to a new campfire game called
'Werewolf' which the kids love and so do all the kids amongst us adults.
  
 
 Our final farewell before we all set
off again was a night at 'Tongan Bobs', a transvestite club in the main village.
Unfortunately we arrived at the last act which was hilarious but the dancing
carried on through the night which was great fun, infact Sammy won the dancing
competition with her first partner (Norwegian professional dancer), I was her
second partner and didn't get a look in!
 The plan is to sail to Fiji in
convey with Dutch and Aussie friends - that will be a first and quite nice - the
reefs between here and Fiji are some of the most treacherous of the whole trip
and the weather can be pretty unpredictable around the SPCZ.
We are now thinking of maybe
heading to Coff's Harbour after New Caledonia. The trip to Lord Howe and Sydney
is long and the weather can be nasty. New Cal to Coff's will also allow us to do
all the formalities in a relatively small town which has to be better than
Sydney BS! We also have friends there, want to dive the Solitary Islands and can
then coast hop as weather windows open up. Oh did I mention we will be able to
turn right upon entering Port Jackson instead of left? We hear there is an
amazing anchorage near Little Manly and can then dinghy straight to the
Wharf hotel ;-) rather than being quarantined for numerous
days in some crappy bay on Parramatta river on arrival back in
Sydney.
Well that's about all for now. Internet is still painfully
slow so we will have to figure out how to post some pics.
Byeeee!
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