Flying fish and vegetarians

Well we had light winds and smooth sailing all the way from Tonga, performed a highly successful 'Man Overbooard' manouvre (the poor Kerosene bottle thought it had seen it's last days) and stopped again for a swim in the big blue with nothing but a couple of miles of water and several thousand deadly and largely unidentified creatures below us

Now I have to be honest and I say that I had some doubts about these London boys coming on board, and being a vegetarian and a largely vegetarian boat when Chis announced that he didn't really like vegetables I wondered how we'd all get on.... However, I am pleased to tell you all that not only did I see Chris voluntarily eat a piece of cucumber the other day, he has also promised me that he will never eat in KFC again, he did suggest that he might need some help and encouragement from his friends and family but I know he is an intelligent man and after seeing what he got these Fijian guys to help him carry home from the market the other day for his dinner preparations I don't think we have anything to worry about

So anyway, we have arrived in the land of friendly faces and fake flowers and a new and very masculine journey begins....

So long Tonga

Well sadly it is time to leave this beautiful place. We've had an amazing final week here seeing a turtle so big it must have been several hundred thousand years old, a manta ray that must have been 3 metres across and we sailed around the northern tip of the Vava-u group of Islands. We spent a final day at Kenutu, our favourite anchorage out east, exploring the islands more, discovering caves and meeting moray eels (still haven't kicked that fear of animals with no legs damn it) then sailed through a narrow rough passage and into the big blue where it felt much wilder and more remote than the rest of the Islands. Not many people go this way and we found an amazing anchorage fit for even the friendliest of pirates with great snorkelling (it has been said that the topography was amazing, but I can't say that with a straight face!) clear blue water with perfect visibility at 50 feet and dramatic cliffs and caves.

But the time has come and so it's farewell aquamarine waters and deep blue lagoons....

Farewell to the huge whales and the crazy crabs....

And farewell to all the lovely people we've met, the ocean awaits us.......

Water baby

It's funny to think that not so long ago I was scared to be out of my depth in water when these days I am a rowing, snorkelling, kayaking, sailing machine (well, sort of...) The pictures below are from Mariners cave where you dive down about 1 metre, swim through the hole in the rock and come up the other side in an incredible cave. Below is me and Kieran coming through the hole, our friend said he only had time to take one photo because I came through like a rocket, kicking my legs in a blur of sheer terror and adrenalin, whereas, as you can see, Kieran is a little more casual about the whole being under water with the potential to suffocate and drown thing

It's totally totally amazing inside and I cannot explain how many of my fears I had to overcome and how long Kieran had to spend with me shivering in the water convincing me I could do it, but it was totally incredible. Inside as the water rises and falls with the swell you have a gentle mist that forms as the water compresses and condenses giving a truly magical feel to this special place.

Not the fastest but maybe the prettiest

Well it was our last Friday in Vava-u and time at last to take part in the yacht race round the harbour, we hoisted the Jolly Roger, bundled as many people on board as we could lay our hands on, explained the strict fancy dress rule and off we shot....

We had high hopes that the threat of a 52 foot, 26 ton (concrete) schooner in full sail with a cow on board would be enough to scare the opposition into submission....

...sadly the slick white speed machines had other ideas and I'm not sure the disastrous water balloons helped much with our 'scary' look, but we finished the course albeit a little bit wetter and a little bit later than most of the rest of them, aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, scurvy knaves, we'll get you next time

Oh and just in case you were wondering...

Me and Kieran are pretty happy too x

And some other stuff I thought you'd like to see

A fire on the beach for the winter solstice, and yes, that is me in a disco 80's cow outfit, obviously

Lilly on a very blustery day

Kieran trying out some alternative forms of transport

And the day I shrank, it's all about maximising space on a boat you know

Some things we've seen...

The smallest island known to man....
Coconut trees = 0
Vegetation of any kind = 0
Crabs = ten million seven hundred and sixty four

The most beautiful sand spit....

The pinkest skies....

Some things we've learnt....

That pineapples grow like this


That after so long at sea level walking up a hill of any given height is good

That the best way to learn to dinghy sail is to do it on your own by an island full of goats that attack you if you land there (unless of course you wrestle them to the ground by their horns until they give in, but that's another story)


That Tonga has strange and wonderful sunrises

Did I tell you we saw Whales?

Well if I didn't I'll tell you again...WE SAW WHALES!!!!!
It was all part of our spectacularly well orchestrated farewell to Harry and Pedro and as we were on our way to yet another idyllic anchorage in turquiose green water with the perfect desert island ahead, the Whales just came right by....


Me and Edouard jumped in with our snorkels and saw an incredible thing, 2 huge stripey fuzzy white shapes appearing out of the depths below us...totally terrifying and simultaneously awe inspiring, they came out the water about 10m away from us but by that time I was so delirious with joy, fear and water up my nose that I couldn't quite be sure what I was seeing, which way to look, or whether I was going to be swallowed whole and face a lifetime of living on a blubbery whale tongue. Blimey.

So here we are

Well we've been in Vava-u, the Northern Islands of Tonga, for several weeks now I think, to be honest though I've totally lost track of time and wouldn't be surprised if I've accidentally been here several years, which seems to happen to alot of people here, most of the people that own bars anyway, maybe it's the pace of life here, maybe it's the local beer.....
Anyway, the Islands are incredibly beautiful and grouped really close together which makes it really easy to pootle out and about on Lilly then pootle back to Niafu (the main town) pick up a few green peppers (the only vegetable currently available in Tonga) and then pootle off again. We found an incredible anchorage on the far east coast with amazing azure lagoons on one side of the islands and the crashing waves of the pacific on the other. The Islands were made of unbelievably spiky rock built to destroy feet and seriously injure anyone stupid enough to fall on them, clearly my balance is impeccable and only the new scar on my knee would suggest otherwise.
The other exciting thing about this Island apart from the blowholes and the sharks circling the boat (seriously, they can smell pirate blood from 50,000 miles away) was that I walked up a hill for the first time in months, it's amazing how much I've missed height having spent so long at sea level and it felt pretty exciting to walk UP for once!

Here's a picture of Lilly looking pretty low when we reached our top speed so far of 9 knots....woohooooooooo!!!!!!



We've just recovered from a crew changeover, dried our tears and put everything back where it should be, and would like to say a very sad but very fond farewell to Pirate Pedro, the secret vegetarian, and all his failed fish spearing missions...

And to Harry, the Pirate with a blond moustache, whose cooking skills and general ability to make anything out of anything will be sadly missed


We now have two Lahndeners on board, Pete and Chris, and life is good. The sea air is just so good for your hair and skin you know.

And some very very small things

Some really very large things....

(for those of you with dodgy eyesight that is a whale, and in the background is Pedro on a kayak, just to give a sense of scale)

We've seen some scary things...