Alcedo of Ryme - Blog 52. Neiafu, Tonga. 18.39.13S 173.59.15W

Wednesday 1 June.   We arrived in Tonga this morning after a good sail the first night and most of the following day and  last night we had to motor all night with the wind dead aft and only 8 to 10 knots, not enough to keep us going at a reasonable speed, even with full main and goose winged genoa.  No luck with the fishing line either, but we had Paradise Found in sight for the whole trip and Two Fish as we approached Vava'u, so there was a fair amount of VHF chat and hopefully some good photographs of PF with her parasail drawing nicely.  So we have arrived at another beautiful Pacific paradise with well sheltered bays and no sky scrapers, but this one does have a litter problem!



Two Fish very kindly let us raft up to them while we cleared customs and immigration which involved 4 customs, immigration and health officials and the usual mountain of paperwork, but all very straight forward.  Now we have picked up a buoy off the Mango Cafe, where we had an excellent lunch while the 'Bubbles Laundry' tackled some very smelly sheets and towels.  So far, this looks a great place for some downtime and boat maintenance.  The Skipper has already organised a mechanic to look at the alternator which is not working and he is in constant comms with Garmin about the cockpit chart plotter, which remains stubbornly blank.  We are not impressed with Garmin's support to date, but it doesn't help being in the middle of nowhere with a 12 hour time difference.

Tomorrow will be market, organise car hire, continue our battle with Garmin, try and sort out the alternator and maybe do some walking.

Alcedo