Early October, 2012
During our first weeks in Neiafu, we settled into a nice routine. We’d get up and have coffee in the cockpit, then listen to the morning radio net. We’d then spend time on the boat before heading into town to walk around and do any errands that needed doing (shopping, ATM, laundry pickup, etc.). Our last stop was usually the Aquarium Cafe, where we could could do our internet stuff, have lunch, and chit chat with other cruisers before heading back to the boat. Later, we might meet friends in town for dinner, but generally we stayed on the boat, having a sundowner (evening drink in the cockpit) and a light dinner before spending an hour with an old TV program (we alternated through episodes of the original Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock, or Northern Exposure—thank you, Herb!). Then it was time for reading and bed: Rich was generally asleep by nine, me by 10.
What was significant about this time was what it lacked. There was no planning a next destination, no planning a route to said destination, no worry about avoiding winds or bad weather, no maneuvering to fit in some spot along the way before bad weather arrived, no scheming to try to avoid the bulk of the crowd, no worry about a second choice if an anchorage was crowded, no provisioning, no worry about winds shifting and anchors holding (ours or anyone else’s), no trying to figure out where things were, no trying to make sightseeing arrangements, no worry about getting out before our visa expired, etc. We were on a mooring in very secure harbor, we knew the town well, we had our favorite eateries, we could get more time on our visa, and we had people we enjoyed hanging out with at the Aquarium. The days were comfortably warm, seldom hot, and the nights pleasantly cool. Our days had a nice rhythm, and we were in no hurry to change that. This was the time out we very much needed, and after 3 weeks we felt (almost) ready to get back to cruising. -Cyndi
Ah, another great place to put some miscellaneous photos!
