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After Tahiti, What Next?

Much of our South Pacific coverage lately has been dedicated to French Polynesia, where newly arrived westbound cruisers get their first introduction to life in the tropics below the equator. But where do they go to next?

What’s life like for a cruising kid? Apparently it’s not all bad, especially for Stuart (aka Aye) (aka Arrrrr Boy).

© Gallivanter

Some head to the Cook Islands, and others, like the McGeorge family, head to the Samoan Islands. As reported here earlier, Kirk, Kath and their son Stuart (aka Aye) survived a massive tsunami there aboard their Hylas 47 Gallivanter, then found jobs and lingered. Here’s a snapshot of what they’ve been up to since:

"After eight months in American Samoa we happily departed Pago Pago and romped 345 miles SSW to Vava’u, Tonga in 52 hours of broad-reach sailing. Beautiful!

"Tonga was very nice. We spent nearly two months and anchored at 20 spots around the Vava’u group. We re-connected with lots of old friends and made some new ones, caught a bucket of squid and ate lots of fresh fish, roasted several pigs under coconut trees, went cave diving and even got up close and real personal with a humpback whale. Tonga is a fine cruising destination, indeed.
 
"We departed Tonga three weeks ago and threaded our way through the reef-infested islands of Fiji’s Lau group of islands and arrived in Lautoka on the western side of Viti Levu 561 miles, six fish and 99 hours after departing from Tonga. We concluded that none of the charted navigational aids (lights) are functioning in Fiji, so night passages were just a tad stressful. Total cost of checking into Fiji was a mere $40 USD and included cruising permit for all the western island groups. It’s very beautiful here and the topography reminds me of Southern California without any of the buildings, smog or traffic congestion."

You can read more from Kirk and Kath in the September edition of Latitude 38. In the meantime, the August edition hit the streets on Friday — check it out!

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