Time to leave Tonga Ginger (Friday 9/14)

We just received the last of our books from Pago Pago (delivered by our friends on Adelia who got them from Zero in Pago) and it's time to head on to Fiji. We've spent two busy and memorable weeks here in this quiet anchorage and the time has come to haul anchor and move on. This stop has been one of the highlights of our trip. The first couple of days were a busy whirl of activity as we cleared into Tonga, paid our entrance fees and settled in to the island pace. After almost 6 weeks in "big"
cities it was a relief to be in a quiet protected lagoon. When we arrived school was out for a two week vacation. There were kids everywhere and they were usually at the head of the wharf hoping for some "lollies" or some other small gift. In fact, there are some small children in town who cry "my lollie" whenever they see a palagi (non polynesian visitor)and I've decided for them "my lollie" and "palagi" are synonyms. With the exception of one day in the last two weeks every day was a social
whirl both on boats and ashore. We hosted 6 dinners/drinks aboard Marcy and enjoyed hors d'oeuvres aboard Miss Jody with all the boats in the anchorage. On the 3rd there was so much rain most people collected water and filled their tanks completely. People averaged about 100 gallons that day. We chose to fill our dinghy and kayak with the hopes that we could luxuriate in a bath on deck when the rain stopped. Alas, the kayak isn't built for that kind of stress so we took off 10 gallons for our
tanks and dumped the rest when we saw the boat straining. We spent lots of time ashore. We met a family that makes a big effort to host the yachties and shared a few meals and even an adventure with them. As we prepare to head out of the bay this morning it's with sadness that we're leaving such a great place to visit and we look forward to returning in a few years to visit again. We're deflating the dinghy and taking off the sail cover so we'll elaborate on our Niuatoputapu adventures soon.
Next stop.. Savu Savu, Fiji.