Back on the Surface

Vava’u, Tonga

Like we said, Vava’u is a cruising paradise and there are just some things you need a boat for:

Just in case you thought the water was nothing but frolicking baby whales and amazing coral, we found out that Tonga waters also play host to hundreds of jellyfish that “come up” at night.

 

Come up from where?  Dunno.  “Down below,” wherever that is.  Of course Tiffany thought that when presented with a sea of writhing jellyfish in pitch-black water, the obvious best idea is to jump in your kayak and go for a paddle.

Vava’u marks our departure from the sailing world for a little while.  Not for lack of offers, but we have to return to the States for a short time and we want to explore New Zealand by land (being as it has a good amount of that.)  We’ll get more into the why of this particular decision later but don’t worry, we’ll be back to boats and this isn’t the end of our journey; it is in fact very far from it.  We still need to get to Australia!  😉

For those of you considering your own crewing adventure, our current captain did offer to keep us on until Australia, or we could have probably very easily found a ride from Vava’u due to the cruising community that has been built up here.  Right now though, time has become an important consideration, being as the original plan was to be gone for only a year and it has been much longer than that.  For two people who originally set out on a two week crewing gig from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas we’ve come a long way, much longer than Greg ever thought possible.

So we packed up our packs and bought an overnight ferry ticket to the capital island where we could catch a flight to New Zealand.

Yes, in case you missed that, we left the world of sailing by getting on a boat.  That would be irony you’re smelling.

 

 

For more on how to sail the world for free, check out our “how to crew” section by clicking on our “How to crew” page.

 

About the authors

Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures.  If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out at www.CoastGuardCouple.com!