Avalau

In the morning Ben, Tim (from Kamaya) and I dinghied around Euakafa to go spear fishing. The guide books said the south side was supposed to be pretty good but it turned out to be a little less than spectacular. We anchored the dinghy fairly close to where Tim, Stuart and Paul had capsized in Stuart’s dinghy the previous day. There were a few items that hadn’t been recovered the previous day. Tim had a look for those too but had no luck.

Having exhausted the thrills of Euakafa (the hike was the only good thing) we moved the boat to Avalau around midday.

Here there are vast expanses of turquoise waters making the area look quite pretty. Ben was soon out spear fishing and caught a couple of fish. I joined him but I think the word was out and no decent fish were presenting themselves.

Both Imagine and Jackster were in the anchorage so we invited them over for dinner – particularly because Stuart is still single handing and probably needed the company. Over the evening the weather picked up and the anchorage became quite swelly. Overnight things have not improved and we woke to a grim, gray morning. The poor conditions make this a less desirable stop so we may move on today.

Some news on the charger front. I was passed (I suspect without reading) an email which revealed that the charger was at UPS but awaiting on someone to pay. There was no indication that anyone was doing anything nor was there any indication that my requests to prevent it being sent to Nieafu (and hopefully onto Tongatapu instead) had been heeded. That email got a quick response. The delivery has been canned and now it’s going to New Zealand. Given the poor show so far that’s probably about the only thing that will work for us. The resiliency of the system is not letting us down so we can get about ok. If we’d been told up front that sending the replacement to Tonga was impractical and could we have waited til NZ I would probably have accepted it. Instead our expectations were set and then the comedy began. In Aitutaki I had to cycle miles to get an internet connection to research delivery options. In Niue I had to make several trips ashore to use the public phone (mostly to full voice mailboxes) for a dialog which would have been simple over email. I’ve had to make several (almost always completely ignored) calls a day from Tonga to chase. We’ve wasted time and money on all these fruitless phone calls. I’m sure the real reasons for the delays and frustrations are being concealed from us but the result, which is all that matters, is a big zilch. What a load of bollocks.