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American Spirit II - Day 155; About Tonga, Clearing Out, Minor Surgery and Dinner with one of Neiafu's Celebrity's; Monday, June 9, 2014



I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some more facts about Tonga in my logs. Tonga consists of 171 islands, spread over 4 'groups' of islands. The one we're in is the Vava'u Group. And these islands are aligned in a north south manner. They are so close together that you can visit all of them just by day sailing, except for a couple of overnighters. Monetarily, 1 Tonga 'dollar' equals $.50 US. Tongan's are very religious and conservative in behavior. Public displays of affection are discouraged, unless the couple are of the same gender. They are a very patient people; and if you try to hurry them, they will just take twice as long to accomplish what you want. And they don't seem to have much of a business sense. Tonga is only one of three countries in the world where it is legal to swim with whales. Niue is another one. I'm not sure what the third one is.

Up at 7:18 AM. Less wind, but still very windy. Fewer clouds. Read in the cockpit before breakfast. The cruisers net was at 8:30 AM. The weather forecast during the net was encouraging, with the high winds and swells diminishing starting Tuesday, the day we're scheduled to leave Tonga for Fiji.

One of the pilot books I have by Ken Hellewell states the following about the weather in Tonga: "Generally, wind from the east and slightly northeast is accompanied by good weather. As the wind shifts more southeast or south, rains and stronger winds can be expected." This is exactly what we have today. Winds from the southeast. By Wednesday they are forecast to shift to the northeast. That means lighter winds and a warmer temperature.

Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, chilled, chopped pineapple and bread.

At 10:30 AM we headed into town. The first stop was the Tropicana Cafe, where we dropped off our laundry. Joel stayed there to have our rigging documents scanned and sent to our agent in Fiji. I had a number of stops to make. First to the post office, where I purchased 15 stamps at 2.50 Tongan each for my post cards; then to Immigration, where I started the process in clearing out of the country; then to the market, where I purchased some apples, oranges, carrots and potatoes; then to the grocery store, where I purchased some bread. While walking back to the cafe I noticed a fuel truck at the Custom's dock, so instead of waiting until 2:00 PM to get fuel, as we were scheduled to do, we headed back to the boat to try to clear out of Custom's before lunch and fuel before 2:00 PM. We were successful, and ended up taking 180 liters or 40 gallons of diesel, at 1.95 Tongan ($1.00 US). The fuel was put into 8 of our 5 gallon jerry cans. The total fuel bill came to 351.14 Tongan; or $175 US. Before leaving the dock, Joel and I talked about extricating ourselves from the dock with a 15-20 knot wind blowing us into the dock. The plan was for me to use the bow thruster to push the bow out from the dock to the starboard, then to back the boat away from the dock. A couple of dock workers helped us with the lines. As I moved the bow out away from the dock, it became apparent that backing the boat up wasn't going to work with the wind blowing us back into the dock. Joel yelled at me to go forward instead, and I obliged him as I didn't think backing up was going to work either. Doing that would have been ugly...and maybe costly.

Once back on the mooring ball, we headed back to the Tropicana Cafe for lunch. During lunch I ordered a glass of milk, the first glass of milk I had ordered in 5 months. As Joel moved the computer he was using towards me from across the table, the glass of milk I was going to enjoy drinking was knocked over, spilling its contents all over my lap, the table and chair I was sitting on and the book I was reading. As Joel is fond of saying, 'fumble.' I was not happy.

I went back to the Custom's office after lunch because I had ordered 160 liters of fuel but took 180 liters. So this 'discrepancy' had to be adjusted. It was, in 1 minute; but only after I had waited 30 minutes for 2 others to finish ahead of me. Thank you reasonable Custom's officer.

At 3:15 PM I stopped by the pharmacy, where a doctor had his office. With no one in line ahead of me, I was in front of the doctor, who was Welsh, in 10 minutes. He looked at my leg infection, and I advised him that I had been on an antibiotic for 10 days but that the wound was still oozing,albeit only a little every time I changed the bandage 3 times a day. He squeezed it and pushed on it to get it to ooze more; then lanced it with a scalpel. I was then given another regimen of Doxycyline to take for the next 14 days. And for good measure he gave me a regimen of Bactrim, a prescription drug that I didn't have in my medical kit. He advised me to take the Bactrim if the Doxycyline didn't work. Or to save it for an emergency in the future. Thanks Doc.

Joel and I were back at the boat at 5:00 PM. Joel showered while I read my book; then we had a couple of Captain Morgan's to celebrate a successful day.

At 6:30 PM we met Lisa Malloy, the proprietor of the Tropicana Cafe, for dinner at the Bella Vista restaurant. We'd invited her to dinner because of the huge amount of help she'd given us during our stay in Tonga. We started dinner with brochette and garlic bread, followed by grilled lobster and potatoes. Followed by banana cake, ice cream and I can't pronounce what Lisa had for desert, but it had rum in it. The crew from Hebe ended up eating in the restaurant, also. Like us, they were heading out for Fiji tomorrow.

We were back on the boat around 9:30 PM, and watched the final two episodes of The Pacific. Then Joel went to bed at 11:30 PM. I followed at 1:30 AM after typing and transmitting two logs. My throat is starting to feel soar. Hopefully I won't start the next 400 mile leg with a sore throat. Tomorrow morning will tell.

327 Days until home.

Brian Fox

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