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American Spirit II - Day 149; Cleared thru Custom's, Laundry, Errands in Vava'u & Rendezvous Party; Tuesday, June 3, 2014



Don't forget that when you read all logs in the future that we're one day ahead of you due to crossing the International Dateline. So don't think that the day and date of my logs are wrong because you're reading this on a Tuesday when I've already done Tuesday's log.

At 12:00 AM I connected with a station on Manihi, 1,556 miles away, to send and receive our emails. Frequency 8299.4. Took 30 minutes to send and receive the messages. Longer than average due to receiving incoming messages too slowly, at 200 to 600 bytes per minutes instead of 2800, 3200 or 3600.

I got awakened at 5:29 AM due to Janet sending me a text at that time. I had forgotten to put my cell phone on vibrate, so the noise of the receiving text woke me up. My mistake. Went back to sleep and got up (early) at 7:00 AM because we had to move the boat off the mooring ball and go to the Custom's Wharf at 8:30 AM to officially clear in to the Kingdom of Tonga.

Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, chilled peach halves and fresh bread.

As we left the mooring ball, we tied our dingy up to the mooring ball so another boat would not think it was vacant and take it. We arrived at the Custom's Wharf at 8:20 AM and rafted up to the yacht BriZo. Two other boats were also at the dock awaiting clearance: Chez Nous and Seaduced. Besides having a Custom's official fill out paperwork, we had a Quarantine official come to the boat, also. We were finished about 10:15 AM and because we were rafted up to a boat at the dock, we had to depart before they could. With a 10-15 knot wind blowing our boat onto the other boat, and with a mental error by the boat operator (me), we struggled off the raft up without damaging anything but my pride. What should have been a moderately difficult 'lift off' turned out to be a little more entertaining than necessary. We arrived back at our mooring ball at 10:30 AM.

About 45 minutes later Joel and I boarded the dingy and headed into The Aquarium Restaurant dock to pursue errands. First, we stopped into the Moorings office and paid for 3 nights on our mooring buoy. 15 Tongan dollars per night, or about $7.50 US. We also inquired as to how we can purchase duty free fuel, and wer told we can only do so after we clear out of the country. Duty free fuel is about 20% (we think) cheaper than non-duty free fuel. Then we dropped off our laundry at the Tropicana Cafe to get washed, dried and folded. Cost 120 Tongan dollars or about $60.00 US. $30.00 per load. Paid in advance. The laundry will be ready in 5 hours, a record. First time we will get the laundry back on the same day we dropped it off at. You heard me right, we dropped the laundry off at the Tropicana Cafe. The proprietor, Lisa, an ex-pat from New Zealand, had an industrial washer and dryer set up off a room from her cafe. Smart girl. We ate lunch while in the cafe. Next we tried to buy an internet card, but the store we went to was out of them. Then we got money from an ATM, which charged 12 Tongan dollars per transaction ($6.00 US). Expensive. We then made a reservation with Sandra, whom we found out about on the 8:30 AM cruisers net, for a land tour tomorrow starting at 9:00 AM. We'll be driving some sort of 'carts' do take the tour. 300 Tongan dollars or $150.00 US for the two of us. Not cheap. Stopped by a pharmacy looking for some Hibiclens. Not in the store. Tried to find some special batteries for one of our wall clocks. No luck. Can't buy these stubby batteries in Tonga. Anywhere. Finally, we ended up back at The Aquarium Cafe where we had drinks with Sandra and Tom from the yacht Sweet Pearl. When heading back to our boat in the dingy, we spotted Folie a Deux and paid them a visit first.

Back on board I took a nap from 3:30 PM to 4:45 PM. Joel played games on his phone. We picked up our laundry at 5:10 PM, then back to the boat. I worked on an email to send to a yacht repair company in Fiji, explaining our time schedule and what needed to be done.

At 6:40 PM we headed in to the Mango restaurant where the World ARC was having one of their rendezvous parties and prize giving ceremonies. Part of the festivities was dancing performed by Tongan's in their tribal outfits. Dinner was a buffet consisting of chicken, beef, sea food, salad and dessert of ice cream, banana cake and some other unknown food item. Decent meal. Then prizes were awarded for the last leg, with Ghost receiving line honors for the 'fastest' passage. American Spirit II received an award for web contribution, along with a half dozen or so other boats. The award was a hand crafted Tongan bowl with 'World ARC' and 'Vava'u 2014' engraved on it. A special announcement was made by Paul Tetlow, our rally chief with us, in that he had proposed marriage to Suzana, our other rally person working with us as we circumnavigate around the world. I didn't hear what her answer was, but I suspect it was a 'yes.' Good job Paul!

Back on the boat at 11:00 PM, Joel went right to bed while I typed this log and finished the repair email; and then sent these two items out over the airwaves via our SSB radio after midnight.

My right leg infection is continuing to improve, with the 'bullet wound' a lighter shade of black today than yesterday. And I'm not the only one with a staph infection. Three other persons that I know of on 3 different boats have or just got over, serious infections, also. Maybe not MRSA, but staph. 


333 Days until home.

Brian Fox

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