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One Year in Tonga.
I arrived in Tonga on the 31 of may 2006 and will be leaving in may some time.
That makes it a full year in Tonga. Time flies when you are having fun they say
and I guess I have to agree on that one. Why I have stayed for so long has many
reasons but the main one was that I was tired of sailing, especially by myself
and needed a break. During my stay I have fallen in and out of love a couple of
times with women and with Tonga. At one point I wanted to sell the boat and move
to land and at another point I wanted to purchase a bigger boat. I have bought
and sold stocks in a resort and spent countless hours exploring the island and
the island people.
It is pretty hard to get a work permit in Tonga and normal wages for people here
varies from 2 to 3 dollars pr. hour so i have not been able to work much. Except
from the investment i made in
www.mysticsands.net i have only made 3 or 4 websites for friends and
that was mostly for fun. A good example is right now where i am sitting on the
deck in a 200$ pr. night bungalow in the beach on a private island. It is all
good and i am with friends and getting free beer, food and everything but it is
not really adding to my cruising kitty.
I guess it is now that I am supposed to say that Tonga is the best place on the
planet but unfortunately for Tonga that is not the case. Galapagos still holds
the first place in over all and the marquesas the best water. I will however
give them the best cruising grounds. If you are thinking of hiring an moorings
boat and cruise around for a week or two this is the place I have been too. This
is also the place to come and see the humpback whales mate and even swim with
them. To make sure I don't forget the fishing I will have to mention that there
are blue marlins here and fishing for them is unbelievable. Last weekend I went
out with
www.kiwimagictonga.com to fish for them and boy
is that a lot of fun. I was fortunate enough to be the one to 'scale up' the
biggest one this year and I seem to remember that is was about 185 kilo's. The
smallest one I have seen is the one my best friend Jason got (see pic). I have
to admit that all this adds. up but I stand with my decision that Galapagos is
better.
Short term plan:
A lot of
people have asked me lately what i will do next and here is a short brief of
what is to come. I have gotten hold of a second hand sail that i like and will
be heading to Fiji soon. The plan is to haul my boat next week some time, get
the bottom done, go to the miss Tonga ball at the paradise hotel, see if i can
find time to go out fishing again with kiwimagic and finish a website for my
friend Matt at Tonga Bobs cantina. In between all this a have to take the boat
out for a sail to try the new sail and see if my windvane still works.
Long term plan:
My long
term plan is pretty set. Because of the seasons here and there I will have to
move pretty quickly (compared to before that is). To make it to the Torres
straight between Papua new guinea and Australia before the bad season starts I
have to be done with kava in Fiji, land jumping in Vanuatu, volcanoes in
Solomon's and diving in Luis dales by September. Bali must be invaded in October
and Singapore and all the rest of Indonesia must be done with by December so
that I can spend Christmas in Thailand with my friend Affi. After that I must be
over the Indian ocean and done diving in the Maldives before i enter the Red sea
by April so that I can have the summer in the med. The canals of France must be
motored in June and July so that I can have an easy sail home to Farsund and
Norway sometime in August 2008. What is going to happen after that is too much
to thing about.
The only
thing i can guaranteed is that things will NOT go as planned and that i WILL
make changes as i go along. Regardless it is good to have a plan.
Crew positions:
I have
made arrangements for Tonga to Fiji and will not be considering Bali to Norway
just yet but if there is someone out there that would like to come with me from
Fiji in June to Bali in October feel free to contact me.
kjell72@gmail.com
that's
it folks. have a great week and if you like me to keep on writing go to my
guestbook and leave a hello, that always encourages me to keep on writing.
Kjell O.
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