Day 368, Year 1: New Anchorage
Date: Saturday, October 21, 2006
Weather: Windy and Partly Cloudy
Location: Nuku Island, Vava’u Group, Tonga—Anchorage #8

We left Neiafu around 10:00 this morning and headed for an anchorage between Kapa and Nuku Islands. It is beautiful here with views of white sand beaches and shallow coral reefs. Wind Pony, Quantum Leap, and Jade are also here. After snorkeling, we met informally on Quantum Leap to compare Captains’ Notes on the passage to New Zealand. It looks like the weather is encouraging us to leave here on Monday. We have contacted Bob MacDavitt of the New Zealand Met Service to get his official advice. We are paying him to give us recommendations on a good time to leave here. Word has it that he has been encouraging others to leave on Monday, so we will probably get the same advice.

Our snorkeling today was not as good as we had hoped. We had heard wonderful things about the fish here, but we saw very little. I think it is just way too windy right now. We first went out to a reef between the two islands and when we returned to the boat, I went over toward the shore to check things out. Actually, it was quite good. All of the coral is dead, but there were lots of fish. We will try again tomorrow before we head back to Neiafu and hope to have more luck.

Arni, Cam, and their two girls, Nancy and Molly, are leaving tomorrow. They have already checked out and they are ready to leave. We said our farewells on Quantum Leap and will look forward to seeing them in Whangarei when we arrive in New Zealand. We sure hope they have a great passage.

061021 Day 368 Tonga, Vava'u–Nuku Island, Anchorage 8