[password] pilot25041
[position] 18 42.0s 174 01.8w
[status] Thursday 20th September afternoon in Fangakima Bay/Port Maurelle, Tonga and the weather is terrible, we've had torrential rain since first thing this morning, although it is easing a little now.

So, after we got the ladies back to the boat on Monday, we had a quiet evening, eating on board after unpacking all the goodies and spares the ladies had brought with them whilst getting over the travel chaos of the previous few days. Tuesday morning we went ashore to have a general restock of everything we needed including getting a gas bottle refilled after it ran out the night before ....... a far easier process than in Tahiti, here you jump in a taxi, go to the refilling station, they refill it while you wait and then jump in the taxi to whence you had came from ...... oh, and its half the price of Tahiti too! After dumping all our rubbish ashore our local friendly Frenchman from Ty Baloo spoke to Barry, offering to pay for the repairs or purchase gelcoat etc for us, we told him to pop across later on and speak to Allan about what he wanted in this regard. Anyway, after a spot of lunch we then departed to try and see the whales again, however, despite going out through t
he harbour entrance where we spotted them last Thursday, we were disappointed ..... maybe another day we'll be more successful, we then continued on to Port Maurelle and anchored for the night.

Wednesday morning after breakfast, we changed the watermaker filters, then departed out of the bay and around past Swallows Cave to Mala Island, where we anchored and then used the dinghy to get to the 'Japanese Gardens' where we could snorkel. The coral was pretty and the fish plentiful, especially 'blue' starfish, we also saw a sea snake which had a bit of an attitude problem, rearing up with its head if we got near to him! The only other problem was getting Pam back in the dinghy, despite Barry's best efforts Pam ended up flat on her front in the bottom of the dinghy, needing a short 'rest' before we could get her sitting upright! No harm done, just need to rethink our boarding process from the sea for the future ....... we then pulled up the anchor and went back around to Port Maurelle, as the forecast was for high winds and rain later, and the anchorage would give us good protection along with the other 12 yachts there. After a spot of late lunch most of the crew de
cided it was siesta time after their morning's exertions ....... Barry removed the covering from the epoxy repair and then used wet and dry to get a good profile to his repair ....... all ready for the gelcoat when we get a warm sunny day! After this Barry took the dinghy ashore to explore, walking all the way down to Falevai Tahi Village, on the way there through the undergrowth & 'jungle' he saw lots of small plantations that are fenced off to keep the local pigs out ...... it is quite refreshing to see the locals making the most of their circumstances and using the land, which looks to have quite a good soil, to sustain themselves and something we have not really witnessed in French Polynesia. The forecast rain did not materialise and we had a very pleasant evening, plus it was not too windy.

And so on to today, from quite early we have had rain ....... absolutely torrential at times ....... well most of the time, so we've done a few maintenance tasks ....... replaced both the leaking anti-syphon tubes on the the stbd heads, joker valve on stbd forward toilet, checked the engines over and topped up oil levels, including stbd sail drive which is emulsifying, so drained out and refilled with fresh ....... this needs the boat lifting to replace the propellor output shaft seals when we get back to NZ, so just managing it as best we can! Its now after lunch and Allan has donned his snorkelling kit to again clean the long haired growth we have been accumulating on the boat's undersides since our last visit to Papeete Marina in Tahiti and with the current weather we don't feel the need to depart from this location today.

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