First, plan like crazy for two years to sail to Tonga. Spend all your money and rack up all possible credit cards. When your Mum dies, don’t loose your vision – in fact, make it stronger, and do it for her too. When your partner gets a cancer scare, you both tell yourself you’ll go to Tonga, no matter what. And when he tells you that it doesn’t matter what happens because he’s doing what he’d do if he did have cancer anyway, smile. Then spend 13 days in a rocky rolly boat with three men who haven’t had a shower. Feel like shite but know surely it’s just has to get better. Take your partners hand over the cockpit table after the nightshift from hell and tell each other it’s going to be okay. Arrive in Tonga and go to the first white sandy, palm-tree lined beach you can find. Meet Crazy Craig the Coconut Man and watch him machete a coconut. Grab it with both hands and bring it to your lips. Know you’re going to get coconut juice all over your face and hands but do it anyway. Taste the sweet, clear, light liquid and know you’ll never do this for the first time again. But know that every day is going to be full of firsts, no matter what happens. Now relax, because you’re here.

It’s a first.

Janie, Dean, BamBam (dinghy) and Pebbles. Our first cocktail hour, Uoleva Beach, Ha’api Group, Tonga.

Crazy Craig the Coconut Man, and our new cruising friends Kim and Peter from the catamaran, Take Two. We call them the adventure couple. Later that day (yesterday) we went to the Serenity Beach Resort and sat around a fire with some locals, singing. The lead singer’s favourite song was Stairway to Heaven! They sung Pokarekare Ana – very moving.

 This place is stunning… www.serenitybeaches.com