[password] zmu3791nzl9424
[position] 18 39.880S 173 58.964W
[status] Today has been a day of last minute provisioning for the next 3+ weeks. We have done our customs clearance this morning and are waiting to fuel up with duty free diesel. There are 32 boats all wanting fuel, and Malakite being in the middle of the alphabet have had to wait until 5.30 to do this job. The first boats starting fuelling at 9.30am so it has been a full day. We said goodbye to our guests, John and Robyn, Karl and Angela on Wednesday last week. We had a really great time with them. Glen had his birthday with everyone on board last Monday. We need to say a huge big thank you to Angela who decorated his birthday cake with a mermaid tail on top and lots of yummy chocolate shells and other chocolate sea creatures all around it. He had a really good day except getting bumped off the paddle board and scraping his knee on some coral. He has been on antibiotics for six days and three times a day washing out the wound and redressing it. You can't be to careful with c
oral cuts. He is all good now, but I have suggested to him that my nursing skills are not too good so he probably shouldn't do that kind of thing again. Unfortunately Glen has been unable to get in the water with his cuts and has only had one paddle board a couple of days ago. We spent two nights in a Hunga lagoon, which is just beautiful. It is one of those places where you feel sheltered and removed from the rest of the world. The weather has been very kind to us. Not too hot but a good amount of wind for sailing around exploring lots of places here in Vavau. We are leaving Tonga tomorrow afternoon heading to Fiji. We should be there by Thursday morning. The weather looks good for our passage with the wind behind us and about 18-22 knots. Should be a good trip. We are clearing into Vanua Balavu which is the northern island in the Lau group. This group is eastern Fiji where we cleared into two years ago and is stunning. We have more time here than we had two years ago and
will be able to explore the southern part of this group of islands, which we didn't get to do last time. We are really looking forward to this part of our trip. We are both well and relaxed.

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