Sailing, Snorkeling and Scary Stuff

It's been a busy few days in Tonga but also a lot of fun especially the last weekend.

Halloween in Tonga

The weekend began on Friday night with Halloween.  Halloween is not celebrated in Tonga, at least not in the way we do in the USA.  But that didn't stop the Americans here in Vava'u from dressing up.    

Of course there are no places to buy costumes in Vava'u and so we all had to improvise.  I decided to be "John McCain" while my friends Jason and Jessica dressed up as "Joe the Plumber" and "Sarah Palin".

I put a lot of white powder in my hair and wore a t-shirt with the word "Maverick" on it.

Our costumes weren't all that scary, but it was a lot of fun. .   

Sailing and Snorkeling

Saturday we set off for a day of Sailing and Snorkeling aboard Manuoku, a really great sailboat that we have used before.   In addition to the Vava'u volunteers, we were joined by Trent, Lara and Mikala, who are visiting from Tongatapu.   We also had five Japanese volunteers with us.

There wasn't a lot of wind when we started so we had to motor out of the Port of Refugee but eventually, Captain Steve has enough wind to raise the sails.   We headed to Port Maurelle for some snorkeling and sunbathing.

 

 

 

That's me in the photo above diving down to check out some fish.   We're now in summer here and this is really a great time to get on the water in Vava'u.   Most of the tourists are gone and the water is warm.