November 17, 2012
We headed over to Uoleva Beach late in the afternoon. I thought it might be fun to have a picnic, but we didn’t have any convenient food ready so I just brought a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses. Our dingy gave us something to sit on while we enjoyed the wine.
This beach evening ended up being one of the nicest and most carefree times of our entire trip! This part of our cruise–sailing the islands of the tropical south pacific–would soon come to an end, and we would be on to a different sort of adventure in New Zealand. We were more than ready for the change! Even though we wouldn’t be leaving Tonga for another week or so, this felt like saying good-bye. Tomorrow we’d catch up with the other boats, but this evening we had an anchorage to ourselves, and it would likely be the last one for a long, long time.
This evening was one of of those magical pre-sunset times where everything seems washed in a golden light. The air was warm, the water still, and the only sounds were from the birds in the trees behind us. We drank our wine, walked on the beach, waded in the water, watched fruit bats fly over us, and waited for the sunset. I don’t think we could have been happier than we were at this moment. -Cyndi
