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Timshel - Tonga



Our time in Tonga was all too short but we had a great few days. Snorkelled on the reef at Coral Gardens, fantastic fish and coral, but we should have waited for the tide to come in to make it easier to start off over the reef. Tulla Mhor and Taistealai came over for curry that night, next day we went anchored at Port Maurelle and took the dinghy into the spectacular Swallows cave, and then back in to shelter from heavy rain. We had a great visit to the Botanic gardens with demonstrations of Tongan culture and handicrafts and a wonderful Tongan feast (with roast suckling pig) and Tongan dancing. Wednesday was mainly taken up with getting clearance out with Customs and getting fuel, I also managed to get my hair cut, then we had a great dinner at the Mango cafe, with entertainment from local school brass band who were excellent. Working out the results for the multi-stage leg was obviously complex with 2 starts and people staying different amounts of time at Suwarrow and Niue. We got the prize (our first ever!) for most correctly guessing our arrival time at the finish at Vav'au. Provisioning in Neiafu at the great market and the small mostly Chinese supermarkets was fun (and we managed to buy some Kava), meat was ordered from the Dancing Rooster bar (thanks to Amokura for the tip), but the heavens opened just as we were completing our preparations on Thursday morning. What an amazing downpour, no idea why folk were fussing about getting their watermakers fixed, you could have filled all our tanks easy. We had coffee at the bar while waiting for it to clear enough to at least see across the harbour, so our preparations were a bit delayed. Eventually it did stop after lunch and we managed to leave. The next leg to Fiji is a cruise so people are starting at different times, some staying behind to get things fixed - Sandvita's gear linkage, Shamal's watermaker and Aurora Polaris rudder.

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