Tue, 20 Nov 2001
Altair arrived in Nuku'alofa, the capital of the Kingdom of Tonga, this morning and we have access to our yahoo Account again! Yeah!!!! Thanks for all your patience during the past month and a half as we used alternative means. This was the first time when we really wished we had sailmail and could do emails from the boat. We may have to look into getting that in New Zealand.
It feels a bit strange to be back in a big city again (Nuku'alofa is MUCH bigger than Neiafu) especailly after spending just over a week in the Ha'apai Group which is very rural and quiet. We met a group of three Peace Coprs girls in Pangai (the big town in Ha'apai) and a couple on the island of Numeka. It was fun to visit with them and to get more of an inside view of life in Tonga. Plus to learn about what they are doing here in Tonga and their day to day lives and more about Peace Corps and how it operates. Ha'apai had lots of pretty beaches and great shelling. We collected quite a few treasures and now have a routine to clean and sort them. We have found that the best tool for getting the sand out of the cracks in the shells is a dental tool but it does tend to get sand all over the boat.
We have not had a chance to read any of the emails you have sent over the past weeks but will try to get through all that by the end of the day tomorrow. When we wrote to Paul from Silverfin it was fantastice to get his reponse the next day. That made me (Suzette) really want to get Sailmail to be in better touch. So we will see about it in New Zealand.
Well more later. Write if you would like, we are thinking we will be in Nuku'alofa until Friday and then head off the New Zealand, weather permitting. Will let you know when we leave.
Suzette and Paul