7 June - Moku pe'a is Whole Again!

1600 position 18-39S 173-59W. On a mooring in Neiafu, Vava'u, Tonga

Lori went for a snorkel and walk ashore in Port Maurelle yesterday
morning, and she came back an hour later anxious to tell us about her
encounter ashore with a wild mama pig and her three little piglets.
Other than a lone house on the hill, there is no civilization in Port
Maurelle, and the wild pigs have the run of the place. Lori was
exploring ashore and came across the three piglets. "How cute!", she
thought, until she heard the deep grunts of an unhappy mama pig that
wasn't pleased about Lori being so close to her keiki. She chased
Lori all the way across the beach and into the water. I would have
given anything to have a video of that!

After Lori's wildlife adventure, we headed back to Neiafu stopping
along the way to launch the dinghy so Rocky and Lori could row into
the famous "Swallow's Cave". I sat outside on Moku pe'a, and I
couldn't even see them they were so far in the cave. They got some
great pictures.

On the way to Swallow's Cave we passed our pals on Alpharatz (Tom),
who had checked out and were on their way to Fiji. As we passed
going in opposite directions they yelled over "Wait, we have
something for you!". So we did donuts while they threw a bag over
that contained all of their left over French Polynesian money. They
knew we were headed that way, and they had no use for it. We wished
them well and they continued on their journey.

We had a wonderful dinner at the Aquarium, and this morning we pulled
into one of the Moorings piers to work our headstay project. This
was not as simple as it may sound. First we had to loosen all the
rigging in order to remove the old headstay. Then, once alongside
the dock, I went up the mast to pull the pin at the masthead. We
lowered the old headstay onto the dock, made sure the new headstay
was the same length as the old one, and then started installing the
new roller furling system on the new headstay. Once the new furler
was installed, we hoisted the new headstay up to the top of the
mast, I went back up and put the pin in at the top. While I was up
there, I spent about an hour screwing around with the mast head light
trying to get it to work. It did work, intermittently, and I
eventually gave up and came down. Then we pinned the bottom of the
stay.

At that point the boat was basically back together, so we moved to
the other Moorings pier where we had arranged with the Moorings
Manager Raymond to fill with water and fuel and wash down the boat.
Raymond really took care of us, partly (I'm sure) because of Lori's
glowing personality and partly because we had booked a night in his
Boathouse Apartments. That $150 turned out to be the best investment
Alan Lloyd, Lori's Dad who insisted on buying her a night at a hotel
for her first night in Tonga, has ever made!

Seven and a half hours after starting we were done. Boat back
together, filled with water and fuel, clean. We were very happy. We
had planned to depart Neiafu in the afternoon, but it was late and we
were tired so we changed course and decided to stay on the mooring
for the night, eat ashore, and depart tomorrow.