Saturday, January 31, 2015

Day 132 Kingdom of Tonga

We pretty much had a nice day at sea today, we didn’t arrive into Tonga until this evening around 8:00.  Went out and shopped a bit, most of Tonga is closed tomorrow because it is Sunday…..  It is a day for church and rest, Tongan Law keeps most things shut down.  We will make the most of it for tomorrow….  When Monday arrives, everything will reopen….. 

 

 

Friday, January 30, 2015

Day 131 At Sea

So far running from the storm is working just fine….  It was a very hot and sunny day today.  Had a wonderful day pool side!  Tonight was a major highlight, Rita Ruder starred in the show tonight.  She was just amazing.  It was a nice touch to have her very talented 12 year old daughter Molly Bergman, , a singer and song writer open the show with 3 songs.  Talented young lady!  It made for a wonderful day.  We crossed the International Dateline tonight so we lose Friday…..  Tomorrow is Saturday (for us) and we arrive in Nuka’alofa Tonga tomorrow night around 7:00.

 

 

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Day 130 Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Did I say Cook Islands?  Not so fast!  We made a gallant try at two separate anchorage locations but the winds and swell just wouldn’t allow tender operations today for our visit to Rarotonga….  Pity, I have visited here before and it is a pretty lush and mountainous island.  So off to the west we sailed…  There was one more complication, a Tropical storm is brewing off to the west which means we will cancel our next port of call at Alofi, Nuie and proceed to Nuka’alofa Tonga.  We will arrive, after crossing the International dateline and losing Friday, January 3oth, and arrive in Tonga on Saturday January 31st at 7:00 pm….  Have to get in Saturday night because Tonga is a very religious Kingdom and the place closes down on Sundays….  We will stay until 4:00pm Monday, February 2nd and then be back on our regular schedule and head off to Auckland, New Zealand.  So today turned out to be just a relaxing day, finally finished reading ‘Game of Thrones’, that is one long (5 books) kindle book….