November 4, 2012
On Sunday morning, we dropped our mooring and headed back to Neiafu. Any thoughts we had about staying out longer had been squelched when we heard about the weather forecast; it was time to head to a secure anchorage. (I should add that #11 is quite secure and known as a “hurricane hole,” but Neiafu is even more so and is also next to town and pizza).
On the way back, we had a plan to make a final visit to the Tongan Beach Resort for their buffet bbq lunch. And we’d do it in a fun way: by tying up to their mooring on our own boat! There is just something so neat about being at a beachside, resort-y place while looking at your own boat moored right there. It’s even more fun when this impresses the resort’s other guests and you get to regale them with tales of your bravery and fortitude while leaving out all the whining parts about wind, reefs, swells, wind direction, heat, bite-y bugs, bad coffee, bad naked (aka Bunzie), shallow areas, tides, currents, bad channel markings, bad charts, bad neighbors, bad holding, etc. In impressing someone else, you get to impress yourself, at least for a little while. Then you remember that there’s wind coming, and that you’re afraid of wind, and that you’re a pretty wussy sailor after all (I am speaking for myself here, not Rich). (No, she’s speaking for me too! -Rich)
After a wonderful lunch, it was time to head back to the boat and then to Neiafu. There may be difficult things about cruising, but when you get enough days like this, the E/A Ratio* is in balance and it’s pretty nice. -Cyndi
*The Ecstasy to Agony Ratio we came up with in an earlier blog.
