Just the news

We are now in Vava’u which is a beautiful archipelago of islands that is a part of the Kingdom of Tonga. This is truly a cruiser’s paradise. Island after island with pristine beaches and world class sailing and snorkeling. Pretty much anywhere you go is a day trip or less and when you arrive it is another perfect anchorage that you may have all to yourself. There has been a big regatta here which started Friday so we have been enjoying the events. Saturday was a race to another island where a party was held on the beach. Yesterday we came back here as Dietmar had to catch a plane this morning to return New York to work a bit. While he is gone Suzanne, Chris & I will be checking out a few more island anchorages. Far and away this is the most beautiful place we have been to so far.
Chris & I were especially excited to discover that “Julia Max” was here when we arrived. We hadn’t seen them since they left Mexico last Spring. They were leaving for Fiji the next day but the 4 of us got together for lunch and did some catching up. It was great to see them again. Just to prove what a small world it is, we went to a relatively new restaurant here called the Giggling Whale which is owned by a man named Sandy who also has a place in Banff, Canada. Turns out I had met Sandy at a ski show in Portland a few years ago and he & my friend, Mary, know each other quite well!
Last night, we had a birthday party for Dietmar on the boat so Chris & I had a chance to meet more of the cruisers. Late in the evening it began raining and has been steady ever since. The swap meet that was to be held today was postponed but the traditional Tongan feast scheduled to take place one one of the beaches this evening will still go on. We plan to attend but if the rain doesn’t let up I believe Suzanne will be going with the “Follow You, Follow Me” crowd and Chris & I will hunker down on the boat. We have very few warm clothes and totally neglected to bring raingear so we are pretty weather dependent when it comes to outside activities. It does, however, seem to be letting up some so we have our fingers crossed.
I have been getting sporadic reports on the situation in San Carlos after hurricane Jimena went through. It didn’t hit San Carlos but they got winds of 50mph or so and record rainfall of 26” in 24 hours. I understand the storage yard where Faith is had as much as 4’ of water going through it at one time. The office sent an email to all the boat owners explaining that only 4 boats were substantially damaged and if you didn’t get a personal email about it, your boat wasn’t one of them. I am happy to report we did receive one! Still, they are now doing a boat by boat check to look for any damage or water that may be inside. We have also heard from friends who were and are there about what the conditions are like. We are also watching the local forum, and Chris has asked some of his Tucson friends who will be going down to check on their boats to take a look at Faith as well. It is a rather helpless feeling to be this far away from her but know there isn’t much we could have done had we been there. I understand the devastation from the flooding is pretty bad. The main street is washed out and about the only way people can get around is with 4WD or walking. The power and water was out for a while but I believe they are starting to get that put back in place. We’ll be happy to hear something more concrete once someone has a chance to look at the boat first hand.
More to come about Tonga in the days ahead!