Not sure where the morning went, Rowan was on endless work calls from very early on, we landed up having a really late breakfast. It was a glorious sunny day and looks like the wind has calmed down. We are booked onto a whole day whale watching tour tomorrow and plan to head off on Sunday. We have to check out of Vava’u, to move onto the next set of Tongan islands, so we decided to check out today as they will be closed on Sunday. While Rowan was doing that I did a bit of provisioning shopping, bacon and cheese high on the list for Rowan. The supermarkets are all Chinese owned, all have the same cheap tat, and a fair amount of NZ products. I got a bit of cheese but failed to get any yoghurt. We stocked up at the fresh produce market, which was very reasonable and so friendly.
We invited the Dutch boat next to us to join us for supper at the Mango cafe, They joined us for drinks with another sailor they invited, who I was a bit unfriendly about as they think he might have Covid or something nasty that has laid this German solo sailor very low for over a week. Turns out they are not actually Dutch but Israeli, he was born in Holland. She is obviously not such a keen sailor, most of the crew he has recruited have been a disaster, and she is not prepared to do the leg to NZ, so he is looking for more crew. I suspect there are two sides of the story about their crew experiences.
We had a very good meal, there was quite a crowd of yachties, it seems that a lot departed today with the good weather. We had our lovely waitress who added to her family story by telling us she has adopted her sister’s baby girl at one month old, as her sister left to study in Fiji. She is only 25 herself and had to give up her studies to get a job to support her adopted daughter. She started work today at 8am this morning, the only waitress on duty until 4pm and she will work to 1am tonight, helping to prep food for tomorrow….. and she is still cheerful and laughing!
Sunset from the Mango Cafe
The dinghy dock full of tenders
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