" A Lady Trip " Sailing around the World

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Mon 14 Jun 2010 15:01
MONDAY  14th  JUNE        ( Presently in " Hunga"  ,  Vava'u  ,  Tonga  )
 
Another beautifull day in a beautifull anchorage, surrounded by high wooded cliff's , and a few buildings here and there.
There were 4 other boats here, all catamarans , and all chartered from the " Moorings " charter co.
 
09.00hrs,  We started the engine and let it run for 15mins to heat up,
then we slipped our moorings and headed out through the tiny narrow little entrance,
as they say here, " to the left, very deep & very narrow "
                          " to the right, very narrow & very shallow"
 
We are now heading back to Neiafu, where we have to check out with immigration and Customs, and get some diesel if possible.
The distance is approx 10 miles and there is very little wind.  6 knots.
 
10 30 hrs, We tied up to the custom house dock, and skipper took off up to Immigration with his bag of papers and all the passports,
the dolls took off and did some last minute shopping and later met skipper for some breakfast .
 
11.30hrs We did all the paper work with customs, and got our duty free document for diesel, ( this document gets us the diesel for almost half price )
so we booked our diesel delivery to the boat at the first available slot, which was 15.30hrs,, and then customs would visit the vessel
and give us our final clearance forms, 
 
God ! trying to get out of some of these places is worse than trying to break out of jolly jail................ sound ok ?
Bleeden Burocrats !  the same everywhere.
 
We returned to the boat and gave Fats a break and left him go ashore for a while to stretch his organs.
As we sat on the aft " quarter deck sofa " and admired all the ......... mares tails.........  in the sky above, reminded us of the little saying :-
 
                                     Mackeral skies
                                     and mares tails
                                     make tall ships
                                     wear small sails
 
15.30hrs  The diesel truck arrived bang on time, and we loaded 300L of fuel.  
Shortly after, the customs guy arived and sorted out our clearance papers , and we were almost ready to roll, just some petrol
for the rib and extra spuds,   thats it.
 
17.00hrs We said our good byes to some of the other ARC boats and off wiyh us ,out to sea once more.
 
Distance to Fiji..................................410 miles
Travel time at 6.5 knots........................63 hrs
ETA..................................................07.00hrs Thursday morning ( local time, )
Course..............................................285  degrees T
Wind .................................................15 knots SSE
Sea state............................................moderate
Weather.............................................Ok
 
19.00hrs We cleared the Islands and set the sails, wind abeam,
20.00hrs   The girls, well Margaret really, served dinner in the " starlight Restaurant"  no drink.
this was lasagne, with a salad on the side, yeah, it was fine,
 
 
the wind increased as the night wore on, over 20 knots, and this gave us good sailing conditions and a much increased speed,
this in turn fecks up our early morning arrival in Fiji, so we could arrieve in the blinkin dark..   ohhh S
Ahhhh well , we will see how it goes, we could always stop in one of the millions of islands on route and take a break.
 
The night watches are :-         Donal & Margaret............................... 21.00hrs  /  24.00hrs
                                            Scotty,  ( John ) .................................24.00hrs  /  03.00hrs
                                            Skipper           ....................................03.00hrs  /  06.00hrs
                                            Aileen             ....................................06.00hrs  /  09.00hrs
 
 
Did you ever hear this one  :-            Q    why did the Irish wind up with all the potatoes, and the Arabs with all the Oil ?
                                                      A    The Irish had 1st choice.
 
Thats it for today,
 
Signed :-   Stephen Hyde     ( skipper )