G'day Scott, in general pets aboard are a pain. Many countries will not allow entry if you have them with you. So in effect your cruising plans are governed by the pets. I have a recent summary of the Caribbean requirements but can't locate it off hand. If I find it I'll scan a copy for you. The requirements are there to keep outside disease outside. Rabies are the one that always comes to mind but animals carry lots of other things with them that might be foreign to the local animals. The same may happen to any fruits or vegetables you have aboard. The Caribbean has recently had a spreading of the mealy bug and a few other insects northward which is attacking the local vegetation and destroying crops. These populations (5,000 to 100,000) are so small that any item introduced can spread quickly and have devastating effects. These are the very islands that you really want to visit!! I know this doesn't have anything to do with Tonga but thought you might be interested. This is why we have two Rex's aboard as a dog is very good protection. We just bought the bark not the body ;-) We had the opportunity to try the reality of the sound last week in a remote anchorage. There was a pack of dogs working along the beach and barking at us. This went on for 10 minutes or so. I turned on Rex at a medium volume. The moment it barked they stopped and the more it barked they started to move away with no more barking. We all watched this behavior in amazement. As far as these locals dogs were concerned this was another dog and they didn't want to mess with it. We have tried it when other local boats are in the area and they very quickly take note and change their course. Boat boys are the same way. So Rex works for us so far without the dog. Cheers Dave & Nancy Swan Song -----Original Message----- From: passagemaking-under-power-bounces@lists.samurai.com [mailto:passagemaking-under-power-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of scottebulger@comcast.net Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 11:10 PM To: kenw@seanet.com; Passagemaking Under Power List Subject: Re: [PUP] Does anyone know anything about cruising with pets in Polynesia? Ken, Unfortunatly on page 435 of the current World Cruising Handbook, by Jimmy Cornell, the text advises that Dogs and Parrots may be destroyed upon arrival to Tonga. I get the impression the entire S. Pacific is NOT friendly to dogs. Hard to imagine? -------------- Original message -------------- From: "Ken Williams" <kenw@seanet.com> > > > Has anyone spent time cruising in Polynesia with pets? Were you able to take > your pet ashore? _______________________________________________ Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions. To be removed from the PUP list send an email with the subject "unsubscribe" (no quotes) to the link below: mailto:passagemaking-under-power@lists.samurai.com Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List