Captain Cook called the Tonga island group the friendly islands because of the way he was treated by the islanders. Some years later it was discovered that their friendliness was a way to keep him there until they could decide when to attack and eat him. Nonetheless, the friendly title has stuck and the yacht guides do not report anything to contradict it nor do they report any great island feasts coincident with missing yachties.
The morning was spent doing maintenance on the windlass. This is a special electric powered winch that raises and lowers the anchor chain. Yesterday when we were in position to drop the anchor and pushed the switch nothing happened. After a bit of jiggling, the anchor went down as planned. Mark felt the electrical contacts were probably corroded so he disconnected, cleaned and reconnected them. There are many things on the boat that must work when you need them to and here there is no room for unreliable gear.
The check-in procedure was a bit protracted as some of the various agencies came to the boat and others had to be visited on shore. As a result it took several hours. This seems a bit of overkill for an island in the middle of nowhere with very few people but each nation must collect its fees for our visit.
In the afternoon we had a nice swim in the lagoon with the water polo ball as an excuse to get some exercise. The water temperature was a little cooler than other places we have been but for a vigorous swim it was just perfect. The wind and current, however, were quite strong requiring continuous swimming just to stay near the boat. We had not had a good workout for quite a while as we did not feel that either Pago Pago or Apia harbor were safe places to swim because of the questionable water quality.
Today was Jim's birthday so we went over to Liahona to wish him well. He had actually missed his birthday because of the dateline crossing but that did not get him off the hook from being wished well on being a year older.
After a delicious tuna dinner of sashimi and sushi, Jim and Wendy came over to Southern Star and we played cards until bedtime.
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