To all my english friends, here´s a brief recap - life´s good. I swam with whales. Look at the pictures! Nine o´clock, female and a calf! Båten kränger till när alla ombord unisont kastar sig mot babord sida på den lilla båten. Valspanaren på båttaket pekar ut mot en till synes oändlig horisont och spänt låter jag blicken fara fram och tillbaka över havet. Spänningen stiger. Plötsligt bryts den azurblå vattenytan av en liten ryggfena och jag hinner tänka - Jaså, bara en delfin - innan den lilla ryggfenan lyfts upp av enorm rygg som liksom rullar fram över havet. Jag [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's not the Cat Knapp... let me assure you that it was totally worth my while. I didn’t think that I was going to be able to dive again in Tonga but timing worked out perfectly for a small group to go out with Brian and Sabine’s dive shop, Fins -N- Flukes. Sabine is originally from Germany and Brian from Ireland, how the two of them ended up in Pangai is beyond me, but I met them earlier at Mariner’s Cafe. They have the cutest little puppy and great attitudes, just good people to hang around. Jay and Thomae had [View Full Entry]

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I was lucky enough to fall into a group going on a dive trip on Sunday. In the Tongan constitution, the law states that no one is allowed to do any kind of work on Sundays. So, most establishments are not allowed to offer any services of any kind. Luckily, this place, Happy Ha’apai Divers got permission from the village elder and 7 of us left for Foa to experience some Tongan diving. I persuaded Brittany to come out with me, Kyle ditched us, but we left on the 8am RHIB. Twenty minutes after getting ashore, we arrive at Happy [View Full Entry]

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Okay, so this consists of going to Mariner’s Cafe and having Aussie beer (or American beer if we buy some from MWR) and getting Magda to make a pizza for us. Kyle, Brittany and I hang out with some of the ADVON (Advanced something, pretty much the advanced party). Here are some photos of everyone but me getting crazy. :) We hung out with some Australians from the HMAS WEWAK as well, a LCH... their oldest actually, that has a stag crew (that’s what they call it anyway, all guys). Funny thing happens, it’s a pretty good story if I [View Full Entry]

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15JUL As usual, I digress... let’s see if I can keep on task to describe the day’s events. I went on a COMREL to one of the elementary schools (Pangai Primary School) with Lauren Rago and Rick Parry (the two Aussie Public Affairs types), Todd (the Chaplain), Beav (the TACRON, or air operations guy), the musicians and a few other CivMars from the ship. It was so much fun, the kids, faculty and parents all came to have a program involving all of us. We really didn’t know what to expect, but we came away rejuvenated, elated and feeling like we [View Full Entry]

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Don't worry, me either until this trip... Anchoring at Pangai, Tonga was a little bit of a nail biting experience. The water is incredibly clear and the reef system is very intricate. Making the evolution a little more difficult, there was a storm front that blew through the entire day with lots of fog and rain. As I stood watch on the bridge, Kyle looked at me and told me to come out on the bridge wing. He saw two whales breaching, but I didn’t see a thing! What a bummer... oh well, I’ll keep my eyes peeled around the ship. [View Full Entry]

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We have been diving (night and days), snorkeling, touring the island with Ann and François - generally having a great time. The past two evening we have been doing night diving - 2 days after the full moon is the best time to find some of the shells Brian and Carl are looking for. It has been good to conquer my fear of the ocean at night. We did a fast drift dive thru a narrow passage from the outer reef inward where there was lots of current - scary exhilarating and fun all at the same time. The weather [View Full Entry]

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Tonga in Pictures. [View Full Entry]

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Sorry about the lack of pictures on the last couple of blogs. On Friday, we waited for the customs and immigration people to come out to the boat. They never arrive so we went in and were able to do all the custom and immigration on land. It was late but I wanted to check my emails and put something on my blog before they closed. I had 10 mins. - not long when things are slow. I will put some pics up today. Wallis Island, French territory, currency = Polynesia francs. June 26th. We motored over to the port Mata [View Full Entry]

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CHANGE IN WEATHER The weather has been awful since I arrived in South Pacific - in Tonga wet cold and windy - wet, warm and wind on the trip here. In Wallis Island it is still wet windy and warm very unusually for this time of year. Sunday there were blue skies!!! It is really beautiful and I have to keep pinching myself to realize this is real and not a dream. Brian and I went for a dive Sunday morning; for me to check out my gear and he wanted to check the anchor was secure with all the wind. [View Full Entry]

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