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American Spirit II - Day 152; Fuel Transfer, Fiji Documents & Provisioning; Friday, June 6, 2014



Up at 7:22 AM. D-Day Anniversary Day.

At 8:30 AM every day in Vava'u Tonga there is cruisers net on VHF channel 26. During this net sailboats communicate with each other and vendors that 'live' here hawk their services. The net starts with the net controller, who has nothing to do with the ARC rally, asking if there are any medical or other emergencies. Then each boat listening gives their boast name. Next a thorough weather forecast is read from the Tongan weather service is read. Then vendors hawk their wares, such as Safari Vacation, or scuba diving, or car rental, or restaurant, etc. Then the cruisers listening ask for help in a number of areas. The first day on the net I asked if there were any riggers in Vava'u Tonga. There aren't.

During today's 8:30 AM net the weather forecast stated ...'Heavy damaging southeast swell developing Saturday.' The forecast also called for winds of 20-24 knots from the southeast; and that a ...'high pressure system is building' and bridging to a low pressure system. Which basically means we're not heading to Fiji until the winds die down and have a little north in them so we can sail on a starboard tack, putting minimal pressure on our broken left, lower shroud. The weather we need will be here Tuesday, so that's when we'll leave Tonga.

Breakfast on the boat at 9:30 AM consisted of bacon, eggs, bread slices from the freezer (after thawing out), and chilled peach halves.

After breakfast we transferred diesel fuel from 8 jerry cans stored on deck, putting 38 gallons of fuel into our main tank. (Our main tank holds 55 gallons). We do this by using a siphon hose with a check valve and a fuel filter. It takes 4 to 4 1/2 minutes to transfer a 5 gallon or 20 liter can into the main tank. After that we put more air in the dingy,as the 'cool' weather deflated our dingy a little bit. 'Cool' weather meaning in the low 70's at night.

We then had grilled hamburger patties cooked on our gas grill for lunch; then off to town. Joel went to the Tropicana Cafe to send our Fiji documents digitally to Fiji via the internet. Along with the documents sent we sent a photo of myself and the boat, per Fiji's request. No other country so far has asked for pictures before. I went to the grocery store to buy provisions for the trip to Fiji. Some of the items were from New Zealand: canned Corned Beef; canned 'Chicken Luncheon' meat; and canned 'Baked Ham.' I was also able to buy nuts for the first time in a over two months.

I also stopped by the phone store to buy a Wifi card so we can connect to the internet from our boat. But the only store in town that sells these cards didn't have any, for the 5th day in a row. And the employee I talked to didn't seem to care that they were out. No big deal. He needs to make sales for their store to make a profit.

We were back on the boat by 5:15 PM. Joel then took a shower and shaved while I continued reading the book by Tom Neale called An Island to Oneself. I haven't read much while in Tonga because we're rarely sitting around doing nothing. It's much easier to read while under sail, because of the many hours I spend on watch.

At 6:20 PM we departed the boat and went to a restaurant called Bella Vista. Second floor, open wall overlooking the anchorage. We were invited to dinner by Dennis and Sherry from Trillium. Joining us also were the crew from Folie a Deux: Tim, Tracy, Brian and Lucy. I had grilled lobster, potato, garlic bread and ice cream. Joel had a stuffed chicken entree. During the dinner one of the conversations concerned Tongan society and that the country was a matriarchal country. Meaning that the females ran things. Except that the king is a man and the politicians are mostly men. A female daughter is above a male son in the family environment. And if all the children are boys, then the youngest boy will be designated a daughter and dress and act like one.

We were back at the boat at 9:15 PM, where Joel played Sudoku and I did emails and this log; followed by sending them out on the SSB.

330 Days until home.

Brian Fox

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