WAHOO!! ... WE'RE IN TONGA
Tuesday 22nd april
I am now sitting in a fancy restaurant in Tonga, using their wifi
and having a beer. We arrived last night
and have spent the WHOLE day navigating our way through the arrival process
here, everything happening in ‘Pacific Time’.
Fucking slowly! We still aren’t
legal yet after 10 hours of trying, technically I’m not allowed to leave the
boat.
It was another very easy, casual sail to get here. These guys reckon they have never seen
weather this good for so long, though it has made the going a bit slower and we
have had to use the motors more than JP would like. It took 3 days I think, with a quick stop at
Ata Island about 80 miles south of Tonga, where I once again slayed some fish,
hell I even caught a bird!
Before Ata Island I also landed a solid Wahoo while trolling, he
went like a demon, but was soon on the back step, my very uncomfortable filleting
station, getting chopped up! George, as
usual, comes over and without even knowing what fish it was, starts
trying telling me how to fillet it!!
Really George?!! Really?! You’re telling ME how to fillet again?! Haha
I don’t particularly like getting told too much as it is, let
alone by somebody that knows has no idea! A few more little incidents that
afternoon nearly saw violence on the yacht, that Wahoo wasn’t going to be the
only one bleeding on the deck!
It was almost painful arriving in to Tonga, we were going so slow
as we didn’t want to arrive until after sundown, it was hard to finally see our
destination, be so close, yet know we would be hours away from getting in. As we got closer, I could see a huge cloud of
smoke, and pointed it out to the others who were inside. ‘Wow, must be a big fire’ I said. Wellllllllll, what sort of response do you
think that got?! George goes ‘Ah,
well, it could be…’. With this look on his face that said, no,
you’re wrong!
‘What do you mean – it could be??!!’ I said, ‘We’re 10
miles out George, please enlighten me with your wisdom of what that is
then’. He seriously goes ‘Ah, well, it
could be a very small fire making a lot of smoke’. Surely I can’t be the only one ready to punch
this guy?! Haha
Aaaah. As
I said, it would almost be funny if I didn’t live with it every day, actually,
I do kinda laugh about it more now, that somebody can seriously act like
that. Anyway, I better head back to the
boat soon, don’t want any trouble with the local constabulary.
Wahoo
Cool looking fish on plastic, this thing actually took drag off my Saltiga, which was fairly locked up for shallow water popping
Ata Island
JP took the bird pictures
See, I do some work out here
Please... feel free to tell me how to fillet...!!
