The Jinx Twins are back in action and on their way to Fiji

24 September 2008
Approaching Savu Savu/Lau Group

Helen: Hurrah! Back on a boat. Both feel much more settled and at home now we´re back on Yamana. Spent a few days messing about in Tonga, and, while it´s still not our number 1 holiday destination, we both warmed to the place a lot. We saw whales (proper David Attenborough style, mother and calf jumping (technical term is apparently ´breeching´) out of the water and twisting in mid air to show us their silvery tummies, for about an hour. Amazing :) ), hung out on our own deserted beaches (whilst trying to avoid the advances of an agressive and over protective billy goat), and went to church in the most remote feeling village I´ve ever visited (even C, can you believe it! To be fair, he only went because I asked him to, and he left half way through, but still, he put his shirt on and came along - apparently it´s one of the ´must do´things in Tonga. The singing certainly was pretty good but it´s weird - this village is so out of the way that their main street is mud, they share one telephone between 350 people at the village hall, and they rely on solar panels, kerosene and candles - and yet they have 5 churches!! One school (run by a Peace Corps volunteer), a clinic with no nurses and 5 churches. Bonkers. Every one dresses up in their Sunday best, complete with hats, and then has to go into church bare foot as they have clods of mud on their sandals!

Actually, the whole thing reminded me and Mr P of Monty Python - ´Who are you? The PFJ?´, ´God no, we hate the PLJ, fucking splitters, we´re the JPF´. We went to the Free Church of Tonga, and just across the road, having a (quarter full) service at the exact same time was the Tonga Free Church or something similar. Crazy, crazy.

Anyway, we´ve now left Tonga behind us and are sailing on our way to Fiji. We´re just coming into the Lau group as I type and should be in Savu Savu by tomorrow evening...as long as we don´t break our tow ropes. Yes, that´s right folks, the jinx twins strike again. At 0730 yesterday morning on my watch (just as I was feeling pleased with myself for having an uneventful watch that was nearly over) the skipper came up into the cockpit...just as the autopilot failed...but then it turned out to be more serious than that. It wasn´t that Bob (the autopilot, of course - living with two kids, everything has a name, Rosie the radar, Zippy the dinghy, Herman the pet beetle I found in my bed and was kept in a jam jar until he was killed with kindness - squashed by his lunch - a chickpea) was having an off day - no, the rudder stock had come away from the rudder, and, when Pete valiantly jumped in the water to check, it was just flapping around aimlessly. Bugger. So anyway, 4 of our friends who were also crossing with us came to the rescue and we´re now being towed to Fiji - apparently some of the most difficult to navigate waters in the world!

Right, that´s enough rambling, will write again soon
H&Cxx