October 18, 2012
We finished our day at Port Maurelle and felt pretty good about seeing two weeks’ worth of islands in just an afternoon. We even had time to swim and snorkel before dinner.
I had a bottle of champagne left from our duty-free shopping in French Polynesia, waiting for the right time to enjoy it. Since we weren’t able to get back to our low-tide-only beach on Tapana, I figured this would be a good second choice. Getting out to see these islands was a turning point for us. We conquered our burnout, our jitters and our inertia, and had a wonderful time in the process! These islands had been a big undone thing casting a shadow over our time here. Now they were done, and we free to figure out what we wanted to do next (aside from drinking champagne).
The next morning we took our dinghy to the beach. We hadn’t realized how beautiful it was! Port Maurelle has got to be the most underrated, under-appreciated anchorage in Tonga. We would have stayed another day, but thunderstorms were coming and we needed to get back to town. -Cyndi
Note: The last two pictures are nearly identical but I could not choose between then so we’ll post them both.
