16 August - We Miss our Girls

0800 position 18-42S 174-02W. At anchor in 28 feet, sand bottom, Port
Maurelle, Vava'u, Tonga

Rum Doodle arrived on Thursday afternoon, and we met them at the customs
dock. Lori had become great friends with Pauline and Steve when they were
in Kaneohe Bay, and I was glad to finally meet them. We helped them get
settled on a mooring after they cleared in with the officials, and then we
all went out to dinner at the Aquarium.

The girls flew out yesterday morning, and we miss them already. Lori and
I had a great time exploring Vava'u over the past 2-1/2 months, and I may
not see her for another 3 months if she decides to skip Tahiti. We also
had a great time with the Dyers over the past two weeks, and it was
difficult for Matt and Vicki to say goodby. The girls are travelling
together though, and are scheduled to spend a couple of days in Auckland
on the way home. Watch out New Zealand!

As soon as the ladies departed Matt and I dug into the grib files to look
for our weather window for departure. There was a patch of light air
passing to the east that we could have jumped on to, but we were about a
day late hooking into it, and it would have been really difficult to
provision, fill water and fuel, and clear out with the officials all on
Friday afternoon. So we decided to wait for the next disturbance to pass
and jump on that one. Right now it is looking like August 21 or 22 for
departure.

Since we weren't departing immediately, we decided to get out of Neiafu.
Three days there is enough. We sailed out to Port Maurelle and had a
quiet and peaceful evening. It was so still in the anchorage last night
that we could hear the whales breathing behind us. It sounded like they
were right behind the boat.