Malo too all,
Cool Bananas is on the move again.
After waiting 10 days for a good weather window, Daryl, with three crew (Sascha, Timmy and Maria), sailed up to Tonga in 6 days arriving on the 18th of May. They were pleased they had waited, as yachts that left earlier had a rough trip with winds up to 60 knots. Cool Bananas, on the other hand, had a smooth (ish) drama free sail.
Maria has returned to NZ, while Timmy and Sascha are cruising with us. Timmy, a 30yrs old Irish backpacker, is going to fly back to NZ as we leave Tonga. Unfortunately we haven't been able to convince him to do otherwise. Sascha, our second in charge skipper, will stay with us for the season.
Timmy will leave us having had some new experiences -how to retrieve the scrubbing brush when you drop it overboard – mid ocean swim with 2800 metres of water below you – swimming with sharks – how to catch baby snapper that you can't keep – eat raw fish – getting close to the orcas and eating something other than cereal and chocolate. He leaves us with a new love for Daryl's coat and cook barbequed chicken and Laurel's satay peanut sauce!!
The weather has been variable, but who's complaining when the average water temperature has been 26 degrees. Although we haven't seen a lot of sunshine as yet.
We did the tourist thing in Tongatapu, hiring a taxi for the day to see the sights. There were fantastic blowholes, fruit bats, limestone caves, 1300AD pottery and of course the king's residence and palace.
The fish market has mahi-mahi for NZ$5 a kilo!!!!!!
A few days after I flew in we stocked up on as much fruit and vege as we thought we could eat and headed up into the more remote area of the Ha'apai island group.
The first night there we anchored off a fishing village, consisting of 5 men who went back to the big island at the weekend. Sascha came back from our initial visit with a gutted octopus to cook up for dinner (a bit chewy we decided). The next day one of the fisherman arrived with a clam, which he showed us how to gut. I made a clam chowder, which, if I may say so myself, was pretty good. We also caught a decent sized mahi-mahi on the way up so we can't complain about the variety of seafood so far.
Due to bad weather on its way we sheltered off Ha'afeva for a few days. The local were ultra friendly and we had two invitations to Sunday lunch within minutes of walking towards the village.
Daryl did his usual offer of help to fix things and before long the weed eaters and generators appeared out of the woodwork. The thank you was in the form of a turtle shell, which we couldn't accept and a suckling pig lunch which was all good.
Timmy got a beautiful big shell as a thank you for helping wheel a wheelbarrow full of coconuts!!
We have had a great time socializing with our cruising friends on 'Aurielle' along with new friends we've met. Sue and I are back into the shell collecting and Timmy is accusing me of sounding like a 'shell investor' when I sort and eliminate the rejects.
Snorkelling and wreck diving are back on the agenda and the cameras have been clicking away.
Today we are tied up in the port at Pangai, it's pouring with rain - Daryl has already thrashed Timmy in chess - - Sascha has been in and found fresh bread - Daryl is taking advantage of the fresh water by scrubbing the decks and we are going to have a flax weaving lesson this afternoon.
Take care
Laurel and Daryl, Timmy and Sascha
