As we are running short of breakfast cereal, I make pancakes instead, much nicer but oh goodness, am I going to have to diet soon!
We decide to get the anchor up and head out mid morning before Ronja with her load of Norwegian muscle disappears, just in case we need the lads to help with the anchor. We bring the anchor up very slowly, waiting each time for the boat to pull forward over it so that we do not put any unnecessary strain on it, and it comes up with no problem, thank goodness.
We arrive at one of the many anchorages (I have no idea where we are most days) just as Noeluna are leaving. Wild Tigress is also there and we have just put the anchor down when Tucanon arrive.
Mike goes for a snorkel to check that the anchor is lying in sand, which it is, then Dick shouts over to invite us for drinks in the evening.
I force feed Mike more salad for lunch, something he isn’t over-keen on eating, then he goes for another snorkel to see if it is worth me actually getting in the water - apparently it isn’t so when he comes back we go for a sleep instead, having chopped the giant breadfruit I bought in half and sticking it in the oven to roast for a bit of an experiment.
We wake up to the smell of something between bread and potato, and I shoot out of bed to see if we have incinerated the breadfruit, although I can’t smell burning or see flames but unbelievably after two hours, it’s still OK. Mike must have set it on the warm setting rather than the ‘burn to a cinder’ one! That was lucky.
We go over to Tucanon where we are joined by everybody from Wild Tigress as well, and have a fun evening. The lads spent the afternoon building a bonfire on the beach ready for tonight, and eventually everyone goes back to their respective boats, some arranging to go to the beach and light the fire later. I sort of want to go but a lot of alcohol has been drunk, and ever mindful of the events at the now re-named “Four Finger Bay”, I am not sure if it’s for me.
I cook breadfruit and corned beef for dinner. Yes, that sounds disgusting (and when I opened the tin of beef it looked and smelled like dog food so I wasn’t very hopeful) but in reality it was really tasty. Corned beef seems to be a staple of the people of Polynesia, but here they even offer in as part of a typical Tongan feast. I have never seen so much of it in the shops. There are about ten different brands available and the tins come in about six different sizes, up to the truly enormous, banquet size. But I digress, I fry the beef and drain the fat off. Then cook onions, garlic and chilli, chuck in the breadfruit in chunks and when it is all heated, put back the beef, add salt and pepper, and hey presto, a tasty dinner. And cheap, let’s not deny it!!
Stripped off, I am making the bed when I hear a furious knocking on our cabin window and loads of giggling. I open the curtains and hatch and spot eight in a dinghy heading for the beach, encouraging me to join them. Ignoring the potential mixture of alcohol and a large bonfire, I think instead of nine in a dinghy going through a gap in the reef in pitch black. Guess who would be the first one to fall out. Yep, moi. So I stay on board, but we do go and sit on the trampoline and watch them light the fire. It shoots about fifty feet into the air as someone puts some sort of igniter fuel on it. I’m glad we are watching from a distance!
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