Tonga>New Zealand - Day 4 (2012-11-08 08:00 UTC - 28:57S 175:56E - DTF 394)

Aquamante
Vries Peter Pons
Thu 8 Nov 2012 08:47
Yesterday and today were memorable indeed: we never had such high winds for
so long with gusts up to 55 kn, which were followed by huge seas, waves up
to 8m breaking on the boat. A couple of things on deck that broke or bent
because of the green water flushing the deck and small leaks in various
places, but the boat behaves well and feels safe. Seas have calmed down a
bit now, and the wind is down to 25kn, which seems like a breeze after this
experience.

Funnily enough I could give my parents a live update when it just started,
as they called us on the sat phone. Did not know at the time I would get so
much worse.

Apart from Daph bruising her wrist when re-fixing the dinghy on deck we're
fine, just tired.

With all the commotion almost missed passing the International Date Line
from West to East, so now we're for real one day ahead, not only because the
Tongans chose to align with the Kiwi's.

Still need to hurry to NZ, as a low is expected to form W of NZ, which we do
not want to get caught in at the end of this trip. Now we fully understand
that this passage from Tonga or Fiji to NZ is regarded as one of the
toughest.