18.39S 174.02W
JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Wed 11 Jun 2008 20:57
Hi everyone. Alan here.
We arrived safe and sound in Tonga 11th June at
1600 hrs. and we're now moored up at Neiafu, in the Vava'u group of islands, the
most Northerly of the 5 groups of Island that make up Tonga.
The trip was again "interesting" with winds up
to 38 knots, luckily from behind, otherwise the winds were mostly 15
to 25 knots from any direction, quite often with accompanying rain - we had
torrential rain for 17 hours and a lightning storm overnight! On
the "brighter" side we've had one sunny day in the last 6 - but no
wind with it!
The weather has been not quite as
expected! This is probably due to the fact that we are in the middle
of what is termed the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) - an area
where two opposing air masses meet and interact with any depressions
moving east ---- enough I hear!!! We should be out of the
SPCZ by Fiji - maybe we'll get the 15 knot trade winds
again!
The intro to 2 handed sailing could have had better
conditions but needless to say we were glad to be here and get a good nights
sleep. It made us aware of how much harder it is, and how careful you have
to be. I've never worn lifejacket for so long, and no-one left the cockpit
without the other being in there as well. Both Jenny and I now appreciate how
the other boats managed by couples fare, we're still speaking (or shouting!) and
we worked well together, but needless to say we're sending a press gang to
recover "Ellie" from "Miss Styx" when she arrives from Nuie later
today. We had ourselves wanted to call in Nuie but an open anchorage and
the poor weather forecasts made this a bad option.
Not much more to say for now - we are
waiting for a mooring to free up, we had some reserved but this was on the
basis that some of the many ARC boats having left Neiafu on the 11th - but
they're still here! We're looking forward to Ellie and Peter returning
19th. Soon we hope to do some exploring round the town soon as
it seems to be quite a lively place. The forecasts say the weather
improves tomorrow - its raining now with 25 knots blowing through the
anchorage, sunshine and showers for the day. We're now " ahead" of
you! We crossed the International Dateline on the way here and
are 13 hrs UTC ahead of you, for us the 10th of June did not exist!!
With BST it means your 09.00 is our 21.00 so no lunch time calls
please.
Bye for now
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