So long Tonga...

We just left Tonga late this afternoon en route for Savusavu Fiji by way of the Lekamba Passage. We hope to be in Fiji by Monday morning (Sunday in North America) in time for Barb's mom and step dad to arrive and spend about 10 days with us. We were originally going to leave tomorrow but due to light winds over the next few days and then strong winds building we decided to leave a day early to be sure we get to Fiji in time for our guests. Plus, not that we are superstitious, there is a big superstition about departing on a sailing voyage on a Friday. So it all made sense to leave a day earlier. We said final farewells to our great friends on Piko and Britannia who we have buddy boated with since leaving Mexico. They will be spending about three weeks in Tonga before heading to Fiji and then on to New Zealand while we head to Australia.

We had a great time in Tonga. The highlight had to be swimming with humpback whales. Yes, we went on an outing with had us get into the water with these giant animals. We had the spectacular fortune of swimming with both a mom and her calf. The calf was very inquisitive and would swim up to and around us. At times these whales were no more then 10 feet away. This was truly a "bucket list" activity. There are only, I believe, three places in the world where you are able to swim with these animals and Tonga is one of them. People fly in from all over the world to spend a week out experiencing swimming with these giant animals. Pictures to follow.

That's it for now.

Michael
enroute to Fiji
-----
At 9/1/2011 08:14 (utc) our position was 18°33.38'S 174°26.23'W

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com