Malo Lisa

The sunshine has finally showed it's face yet again after a rough and wet week! We left the city over a week ago foran anchorage called Coral Gardens. Apparently the coral and marine life is beautiful and some of the best in Vavau, areal site to sea! Well, unfortunetely we didn't get to experience that during our six day stay in the quiet little anchorage due to very blah, wet, and gloomy conditions. We would have moved the boat but every day there was a high seas and high wind warning for all of Tonga, so we thought it best to lie low and wait it out. Each day we made the best of the situation by collecting coconuts, exploring the abandoned resort on the surrounding island and salvaging any remaining fruits we could find in the area. We did luck out and get some abnormally large lemons with huge tumorous bumps on them, anda mini pineapple(which we have yet to devour).Our highlights of the anchorage were the nights when one of the catamarans or cruising boats would have happy hourcocktails and h'orsedouvers. One charter catamaran had a group of North Carolinians that even invited us over for a hot shower one night since we dove on their anchor in the rain. Then the very energetic host named Joy mixed us up one of her famous drinksshe called the kin(?) before we were towed back by our Hawaiian friends from another charter boat(They called us the coconut kids)! Aloha and thankyou to all for your generosity! Hot water and cold beverages were never so good!
By day 7 in the same spot, the wind speeds and seas rose even higher, but our tolerance for the anchorage had reachedit's limits. The winds were now coming at us from the northeast creating a wavy and windy bay that we had to escape.Not to mention our anchor line had chaffed badly on a coral head. Fortunetely, it was actually a sunny day, so with some patience, and a lot of tacking, we were able to make it back into Port Maurelle, a well protected and enjoyable anchorage. Our friends who were there on a boat called Madelinemade James' dreams come true when they invited us over for fresh cheese burgers. James had been drooling atthe mere thought of a good old fashioned American burger since Niue, so he was a happy camper when we went to sleep later in the night:-) Then about 3am we were awaken by our pan flying off the shelf caused by the 30-40kt gustswe were experiencing even with the anchorages shelter. That's when we realized the most incredible electrical stormthat was happening outside. Although there were no bolts striking down within close range, the entire dome of the skywas lighting up making everything around visible as day until a second later when it would go pitch dark again. It was almostlike a giant strobe light was going off all over the land. Everybody we spoke to later had never seen anything like itbefore in their lives. Really beautiful to see but the storm caused alot of troubles heard over the vhf that morning. Fishing boats had sunk, plush cruising boats were grounded, charter boats were stranded with fried electricalsystems, ect...But Mai Miti held her ground and her only wound was the chaffed rope.
Even with the strong winds and rainy days, we've had a good last couple of weeks(or however long it's been). Jameshad a manly good time with Jeremy off of Madeline spear fishing one day. Though the fish caught was small, the tastewas delicious and I am very proud of his efforts to feed the crew onboard Mai Miti in the pouring rain. We were also able to do Mariners Cave, which is a fairly large cave hidden within the sea cliff. It's only accessibleby diving under about 8ft and swimming through underwater another 10 feet or so. Once inside their is actually a lot of light from the underwater entrance but once in a while in surgy weather, the mist fills in, fogging your vision. Thepressure difference also makes your ears pop continually with incoming waves. James was brave and went out the lower entrance of the cave having to first swim down over 40ft just to reach the hole, and then swim through another 8ft overhang before ascending out the other end. Now I feel like a wimp for not making it:-(

And last but definitely not least was yesterday's friendly island Friday night boat race. We were determined to race in it after mariners cave, so we left Port maurelle back to the city, Neifu. For event prep, we raced Madeline which is a 36' cruiser. It wasn't exactly a photo finish, but we held our own agaist the bigger boat all the way to the harbor giving usgood motivation for the real race at 5pm. After a quick meal of fish and chips, we were ready to go against the other 9 boatsracing. We were the only boat under 30ft so we got a handicap, getting to skip a leg of the course. At one point we were in 3rd place which we held for a good 5 minutes before falling back into 5th. Not so bad for the little red boat! for our determination and efforts we were awarded a chart of Vavau! Yahoo!!(kind of hoping for the free dinners or tank dive, but a charts always good too:-)