We spent the day getting ready to leave, again. The sea has calmed down and there seems to be a good weather window to go to Tonga so we are going to leave in the morning. We spent the morning watching the festival parade. It was very good; I have never seen so many people having so much fun, as they walked they were singing and enjoying lif
e. We are planning, at the moment to land in the northern islands of Tonga at a place called Niuatoputapu, otherwise known in cruiser parlance as New Potatoes. It should be about an 36 hour passage so we are planning on leaving early tomorrow morning so we can enter the harbour in Tonga before dark. We will cross the International Date Line so although it will only take us 36 hours to cross we will have to adj
ust our calendars as if it took us 50 hours!! That pretty exciting, crossing the International Date Line, makes me feel very far away!!!These guys were acting out the traditional art of tatooing. The traditional way is to us a sharp pointed object and then tap it on the body so it breaks the skin and the design is transferred to the body in this manner. We saw it being done here and in American Samoa, painfull. 
