[radioactiv]

[position] 18 41.903s 173 55.735w

[status] We have been anchored off Kenuta Island, Vava’u group, Tonga for the past couple of days. Mike has gone kiting of the sand island (yesterday and the day before). Sasha is resting her wrenched arm (thanks to the crazy local dancing woman!) and resting up from a bit of a dodgy tum – yet another reason to stay away from rum punch, she thinks it may have been the ice in the punch that caused it. We all went for a walk yesterday, and headed up to the ‘German’ bamboo chair on the ocean side of Kenutu Island. It’s a rather impressive drift wood, bamboo looking structure with the remains of one of those plastic deck chairs tied to it – apparently the story goes the plastic chair was salvaged from some German boat wreck, hence the name ‘German Bamboo Chair’. We all climbed up onto it, it’s seems very sturdy, and has apparently lasted several cyclones including Winston – now that’s impressive, especially considering all the blown-to-pieces coral we have seen
about the place. Kenuta is a small island, but it has many amazing views, Sasha brought her phone along and got several shots of the raw beauty of the place. The soil is a rich red, the bush is a rich green colour and there are spots that Sasha knows her Pappy would love, they look like little magical gardens, and they are completely natural. There were several stop offs at tiny beaches, and each time one of us would exclaim “This looks like a Hollywood movie set”. Mike and Sasha went snorkelling in the lagoon yesterday and saw this absolutely massive starfish, it looked like something off the set of Jurassic Park - it’s centre would have been the size of a laptop bag, hate to think what it eats!!

[speed] 0knots

[heading] 197M

[weather] 85% cloud cover, a bit colder than it has been – Baro:1011.

[END]