Wednesday 30th  May: Vava’U  Kingdom of Tonga South Pacific Ocean 18 39.3 S  173 59.0W  

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone UTC +13.00;  BST+12.00)

So…… We got to Niue in one piece.  It is  a small island with a population of only 1250 people – there is a reason for that!  It is a in independent country  with a close affiliation with New Zealand (currency NZ Dollars) and Australia.   The economy is largely central government financed by Aid from NZ and Australia, There is no discernable private sector economy other than a few small construction projects for hotels and apartments etc.  in a  half-hearted attempt to attract tourism, principally from New Zealand.  It is only 3.5 hours from Auckland but there is not much to do when you get there – no beaches, for example.  

It does have a yacht club however, one distinguished by the facts that there is no racing nor cruising organised by the club – in fact,  none of its members owns a yacht.

Another weather window appeared and we left on Sunday at short notice to sail to Tonga.   That proved to be a lovely beam reach for and finished with a tacking duel with Ruby, who we just sneaked in front of having been close behind all the way from Niue.  (Wry smiles all round!)

So we arrived in Vava’U Tonga in the late afternoon, 30 hours after we left Niue. We had left Niue on the morning of Sunday 27^th May. We reckoned it was Monday.  The following morning – we thought that was Tuesday - we checked into Tonga only to learn that, in Tonga at least, it was already Wednesday 30^th.

So for us at least “Tuesday 29th May is missing.”  Gone forever!

Can’t cope with this latitude and longitude stuff.