A Month? We'll Take Two

The business of extending our visas so we can stay in Tonga for another month brings us to the big town of Neiafu, and back to internet range.

Discordantly enough, I've been reading We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.  Perhaps because I'm in the middle of that story, opening the Times at the internet cafe just now and seeing the news from Egypt took my breath away.

We are so unreasonably fortunate..touch wood...in what we find ourselves doing.

In the last week or so since we were in town our story has slowed down to the point of not being a story.  We meet some other yachties, we school and feed and hug and clean and instruct and scold the boys.  We watch the stalk of bananas on the stern arch slowly dwindle, and the basket of papayas disappear two and three at a time.  And!  If any of my work colleagues stumble on this, I assure you that I am working on my science work for long hours every day.  But that is the limit of our ambition just now.  And on a boat there is always a distraction...

Our latest milestone is that we find ourselves suddenly able to go snorkeling together as a family.

Who's cuter?

This works because Eric is happy to ride around on my back.  He doesn't have a lot of staying power, but he's completely happy and at ease while it lasts.

And now, instead of trying to take pictures of fish, I find myself taking pictures of my family underwater - especially, of course, Elias.

He is, as I've noted before, completely at ease in the water.  And of course he finds it completely unremarkable that he is so at ease - the water is just another place to be, much less overwhelming than town, in some ways...

Alisa and I, meanwhile, find ourselves looking at the bigger picture, the scope and direction of our lives together, and we start to mutter the Galactic incantation:  Don't wanna stop don't wanna stop don't wanna stop don't wanna...

Jumping

Jumping off the stern arch is all the rage on Galactic.

I thought we'd never see Alisa doing the jump.  But then Elias' 7th birthday rolled around, and she figured it would be the perfect way to kick off the celebration.

Of course, the day also included some more traditional celebrations.

Alisa made him a new stuffed horse  (on the left) which our still-so-innocent oldest boy was thrilled to get.

There was a birthday cake in the shape of a cheetah.

And we finished the day with a beach fire.

It was a family-only celebration, as we hadn't yet hooked up with any other kid boats to share the day.  And it was a simple celebration - the same decorations we put up in the cabin for every birthday on Galactic, some gifts, some cake, an early-morning birthday snorkel and the various other outdoor fun.  

The real treat for me was seeing how adequate that was for Elias - he told us a few times that it was the best birthday he could imagine. 

Any Excuse for a Party/Paje Unchained

This doesn't look like a reason for a party.

The yacht Paje went hard aground on a reef here in Vava'u in the early hours of the morning a couple days ago, at the end of a tough upwind passage from Fiji.

You really wouldn't want to hit a reef anywhere.  But if you did have to pick a South Pacific reef to hit, the one between Langitau and Vaka'eitu islands would be a pretty good choice.  There were likely 20 yachts anchored within one nautical mile of Paje when she went aground.  The response from locals and visiting sailors was more than you could hope for, but also just what you might expect.

People came out in droves to offer their assistance.  Initial efforts to free Paje at first light after the grounding proved unsuccessful, even when the super-yacht Dorothea III, in the background above, came to her aid.  A succession of tow lines parted, the tide fell, and Paje was driven higher and higher by the waves.

Another attempt was made yesterday, more than 48 hours after she'd come aground.  More volunteer labor than could be used was on hand for the job of getting Dorothea's 2 1/2 inch braided nylon hawser  around the keel of Paje and led off the reef to an anchored dinghy where it could be attached to Dorothea's spectra tow line.

And this was the scene yesterday morning as Dorothea made another attempt to pull Paje free.

From heeled over and helpless to floating free again.  Paje is now tied to a dock in Neiafu and apparently in pretty good shape, all things considered.

And so tonight there was a little get-together at the Aquarium Cafe to celebrate the happy ending to the story.