Vava'u Landing

Land ahoy! We are motoring in our last 5 miles to civilization and should be there in about 1/2 hour. It is Friday here and we have heard many yachts with names we recognize on the VHF talking and look forward to saying hi to them all. Had a nice gentle sail all night long with enough wind to get us here for check-in. As we turned into the entrance to the first bay, a mama humpback and her baby greeted us so close to Sidewinder that I needed to turn away a bit to avoid a collision. Several others were following and it was so cool to see them up close. This is going to be great fun here!   


So here we are the next morning and I just got back from the morning market with wonderful fresh vegetables and eggs. The little town is very poor and the "supermarkets" are very marginal little markets, at least the two I have been in, but there are some fabulous restaurants and bars with reasonable prices and it will fun to check them out. At sunset, we had cocktails on s/v Visions of Johanna with Bill, Graham, and Johanna, whom we had not seen since Ecuador. It was great fun catching up with them, as they are leaving today for some of the outer anchorages to go diving and then are making their way south on their way to New Zealand. While sipping our tequilas David mentioned our refer/freezer problems and Bill asked him what motor we had, and lo and behold it was the same one he had for his refer and they had some spare brushes! So today David tore it all apart again and exchanged the brushes and we now have cold beer again! We still want the brushes Marc is getting for us as it's always good to have spares. If we would've had a spare set already we wouldn't have had all this headache.

Cornelia and I are making dinner tonight on A Capella using the fresh clams we just found this morning, and we haven't seen them since the Marquesas. So, as you can see, Tonga will be about seeing lots of friends we have made over the last couple of years and that is a wonderful part of sailing. We also look forward to finding some pretty anchorages and great snorkeling; the water is supposed to be really clear and the coral reefs alive and beautiful. Later today I will venture out to find an internet connection and finally send you some pictures.