09 June 2010

Day 154: Vava’u, Tonga – 09/06/10

A guy comes to the boat selling bread, shells and offering various services – a sort of one stop canoe if you will.  Mike ends up buying a fruit loaf and giving him our red ensign for his daughter to mend on her sewing machine (it’s completely ripped at the edge where it keeps catching on things as it flutters in the wind).  I wonder if we will ever see it again.  The guy tries to sell Mike a huge but ugly shell which Mike declines.

We potter around in the morning on the boat.  Mike starts checking the generator out which is now playing up more than ever.  When we switch it on it racks right up to charging at 150 volts but should only be capable of delivering 120 so we have to turn it off again quickly.  He knows that the voltage regulator is the problem and the first thing to eliminate are the relays. 

I sit at the computer for a while and realise that I have somehow managed to delete some of the photos that I took at the botanical gardens so I call JB and he brings his camera over so I can pinch some of his.  Stephen from Skylark comes over and invites us for a drink on board his boat tonight. 

I try to use the internet but the signal is so bad today that I give up and at lunchtime we take the dinghy over to the Aquarium Cafe to use theirs.  Unfortunately, nearly everyone from the WARC is there using their laptops and the signal is just as bad as on the boat - it is completely overloaded.  We end up having a drink and something to eat instead.

We fall asleep in the afternoon, waking up just in time to get showered before going over to Skylark, Stephen’s boat.  It is an Amel, less than one year old and beautiful inside.  Ten years BC (Before Catamarans) when we were looking at monohulls, this was the type we were looking at.

We spend a lovely early evening with Stephen, Ed, Irene, Dick, Susan and David before everyone goes off to eat and Mike and I head back to the boat for supper but before we go I pose for incriminating photographs with Stephen and Ed, both of whom have left their wives behind.

P1010442 P1010443 Photos:  Posing with our charming hosts on Skylark - Stephen and Ed

They both make sure their hands are clearly visible and nowhere near me when they pose.  No blackmail fodder here then!

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