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