My last report got us to the town-harbor of Nuku'Alofa on Tongatapu in the Kingdom of Tonga. Now we are on our way to New Zealand.

We got to know Nuku'Alofa and the island of Tongatapu as well as any other island, but we did not give the Kingdom of Tonga enough time. There are other islands that were very highly recommended and we did not see any of them. We met several other sailors who said they had stayed much longer in Tonga than they had intended because the other islands were so lovely. One sailor told us he had to have his 30-day visa extended because he liked the other islands so much.

We stayed four days on Tongatapu. We enjoyed ourselves, but we were ready to leave. The highlight of Tonga for me, was the culture that is very different than the other islands that we visited. All of the other island nations are administered by, or at least protected and subsidized by an industrialized nation.

Tonga is full of inconsistencies. Captain Cook named Tonga the Friendly Islands, but when Captain Bleigh tried to come ashore in his lifeboat after the mutiny, the natives fought and killed one of his crew. The people appear to have what they need, even more than other island people, but petty thievery is a regular occurrence. Many wear native dress, but there was no traditional housing. Public dress and morals are Victorian, but extramarital affairs are reported to be the norm.

Tonga is the only continuously independent Kingdom inside of the Polynesian Triangle that runs from Hawaii to Pitcarin Island to New Zealand. High level consideration might yield the conclusion that Tonga was small and did not provide unique beauty, strategic harbors, pearls, or nuclear test sites that other island granted to their benefactors, therefore the people were not conquered and the islands were not claimed by an outside nation. The public relations voice of the island says that their continuous independence is the result of their proud independent nature. They are a proud, confident and independent people.

Tongans have maintained their native culture much more than the other island nations. All of the people we met spoke English well and willingly, but unless they were talking to an outsider such as one of us, they spoke Tongan. This was a little disconcerting because it was easy to walk and talk in a crowd of Tongans not remembering that they understood every word said in English.

Many Tongans wear their native dress. Men do not wear shorts, but loose baggy pants cut well below the knee, and both men and women wear a straw mat wrapped and belted from the waist. Some of the straw wraps were so small as to be decorative, rather than functional. I suppose the original function was to keep the clothes clean when sitting down on sand or dusty seating. Many people were well dressed and barefooted going about their "downtown" business. There are laws regarding dress. Both men and women must wear a shirt at all times or be subject to a fine. This law even applies to swimmers, consequently, most Tongans do not own a bathing suit, but swim in their clothes. We saw many families and individuals swimming in shorts and shirt.

Tongans are very friendly and giving and taking. Several times when a purchase was completely finished, the merchant would say please take this also as a gift from me to you. The gift was not necessarily small. For example I bought two items that cost $20 and after receiving payment, the merchant gave me a third one as a gift.

We also read that the Tongans do not believe it is necessary to buy something if it can be obtained for free by careful pilfering. Consequently, unlike any other island we visited, fences and bars protected everything of any value. In the other island nations, doors and windows were wide open. I remember going into a guesthouse where eventually we had dinner in the Marquises that had many objects of art and antiquity sitting about in the foyer/porch/deck. All windows and all doors were open to let the breeze in and no one was at home until after dark that evening. Here on Tongatapu, even a 15 foot triangle plot at a street intersection was surrounded by 6' high chain link fence that was topped with barbed wire. The fence had been penetrated and it was hard to tell why, until one noticed the few remaining flowers left growing inside of the fence.

One highlight of our visit to Tonga, was a 4-hour tour of the island. On the tour, we saw hundreds of flying foxes (bats with a 2 foot wingspan), hundreds of blowholes that cause water to shoot high into the air as waves pass through, the landing place of Captain Cook, ancient burial grounds, and ancient archeological structures, including an ancient gate entrance about the size of the structures at Stonehenge. The stones were brought into place from another island! No one explained how they were moved 20 miles across the ocean.

The King of Tonga has decreed that every male will receive 8 acres of land for farming and a village building lot when he reaches 16. Tonga seemed to be full of children. This policy might be in trouble in coming years.

I was walking to check out with immigration in town, and had to pass by the Royal Palace. On the common ground, tents had been set up, and teams of children were gathered. I asked one group of kids what were they going to do and they shouted, "aerobics." I asked if I could take their picture and they all crowed into the lens and gave the Hawaiian surfer, "Everything is OK," sign. Then I played the video back for them and they got really excited and waved to themselves in the small viewer. They were a delight.

I really had hoped to see the Queen of Tonga and under one of the tents some large chairs were covered with grass mat fit for a Queen. So I asked an official if she would be in attendance and if I could stay and film the Queen. He looked at me with a wry smile as if he had something funny to say but did not know quite how to say it. I pointed to the 2-way radio I had hanging at my waste and asked if that was a problem. He said no, and looked below the radio. I looked down and realized that I had shorts on and of course no one enters into the presence of the Queen wearing shorts. I said of course I would go and put on long pants first and he was relieved and said that would be fine. Sorry to say I missed the Queen. Checkout was our priority and by time that was finished, the Queen was gone.

I filled out the immigration form and wrote in the date of Sunday as our departure day. When the official reviewed the form, he said, "We have a problem. You can not leave on Sunday. That requires work, and work is forbidden on Sunday." He said he would change the date to indicate Saturday's departure to conform to the law, but there was absolutely no problem if we chose to leave on Sunday. Another Tongan inconsistency.

My next opportunity to see the Queen would be on Sunday at church, but the entire crew of Cosmos was anxious to get back onto the ocean and on our way to New Zealand so we left on Saturday, the 10th of November, Tongan time, the 9th of November, U.S. time.

One more inconsistency of Tonga: the country is well into the Western Hemisphere, but choose to have the same date as counties in the Eastern Hemisphere. They are on the same day as all other countries across the international dateline, but recognizing the position of the sun, they are one hour ahead of those countries. Consequently, Tonga was the first country to enter the new millenium.

Right before we left Tonga, we collected many of the food items that have gone uneaten to this point on the trip. This included all together about 100 pounds of dried beans of several types, granola, musselix and honey. I took these to the dock where we tied our dinghy during our stay, and gave the food to several families that were swimming there. They were most appreciative. Actually, some of these items might have been confiscated upon entry into New Zealand, had we kept them on board.

We crossed the international dateline just before we reached Tonga. Because Tonga is at the end of a finger that reaches east across the dateline to touch Tonga, when we sail south-south west toward New Zealand, we will cross the dateline when we leave the finger shaped segment and then cross the dateline one more time at the 180th longitude, where east meets west. When you are in this part of the world, the travelers lament is reversed. Instead of saying "If this is Tuesday, this must be Paris," in this part of the South Pacific we say, "If this is Tonga, this must be Wednesday."

The passage to New Zealand is slightly over 1,000 nautical miles (1.19 mile = 1 nautical mile). We expect the trip to take about 10 days. The first two days of our sail toward New Zealand have been ideal. We have listened to reports by other cruisers on the single-side-band radio and they are expecting a storm with fifty know winds where we will be approaching the coast of New Zealand. But those winds are expected this Wednesday, and we will be lucky to be there by Sunday or Monday of next week. Cruisers within 200 to 400 miles of the coast were all reporting their decisions to either slow down to wait for the storm to pass, or speed up to get there before the storm hits. We will keep listening.

Next stop, New Zealand!!!