Hey Everyone!
So I finally managed to get a bit of dairy blog thingamajig together so here goes from the kingdom isle of Tonga!
Once upon a time there was crazy Captain of the infamous pirate ship the Ferdinand who became the most famous Cockroach killer in the South Seas! But that's another story!
Anyways it was about exactly 33 days ago that I stepped off the plane in Tahiti and into the muggy heat of the night and breathed a sigh of relief as I passed customs and was waiting outside for my new captain to pick me up. I was introduced to Cap'n Dave by a French friend of his called Matt who had insisted on picking me up from the airport. Dave, (or "Dirty D " as he is more affecionatly known by the crew ) turned out to be a 61 year old captain, who'd been sailing the last 30 odd years of his life. Fairly short and rotund with a swollen foot and a fairly unkempt beard he cut an interesting figure next to his young French friend Matt who was driving us back to the harbour and ran the local wifi business. Once we arrived in the marina Matt took us over to his sailboat he was living on with his family, and said "alright this is my boat and this is Dave's" At which point he pointed to the digny next to his boat with about 2 inches of water in the bottom! It was a slow row out to the "Ferdinand" a 44ft Gulstar yacht from 1982 that was sitting anchored out in the bay.
Alright I'm running out of time so a bit quicker I met up with the rest of the crew a couple days later: Eli and Marina who actually came on the same flight, and were sitting across the aisle from each other but didn't realize they were on the same boat till they got off the plane and were waiting outside together!
To be cont'd soon
