Harmonie - NZ - Tonga Passage Summary and Pictures

NZ - Tonga Passage Summary and Pictures

Harmonie

Don and Anne Myers

Wed 20 May 2009 22:49

21:07.588S 175:09.819W

Ok so we planned to stay in this spot near Paingaimotu Island in the Tongatapu group of Tongan islands for only four or five days and it's now been over a week. What's the rush? We have no deadline, no schedule, no planned rendezvous to speed off to. We're on Island Time now. Island Time has its very own time zone. It works like this - no matter where you are in the world, if you are on Island Time, it runs anywhere from two hours to two weeks behind the next closest time zone. It's rumored that on rare occasions, a month or even an entire year can get sucked into the Island Time machine. Strange fissures in the Island Time/space continuum have been known to occur. I think we fell into one for a couple of days.

Sorry for the delay, below is a summary of our New Zealand - Tonga passage with pictures.

Total nautical miles sailed - 1,080

Total time - 6 days, 5 hours, 30 minutes (not counting time spent anchored in South and North Minerva Reefs)

Total time sailing - 3 days, 20 hours, 0 minutes (62%)

Total time motoring and motorsailing - 2 days, 9 hours, 30 minutes (38%)

Average speed - 7.2 knots (8.3 mph)

Degrees of latitude traveled - 14 to the north

Degrees of longitude traveled - 11 to the east

Lowest wind - 3 knots (3.5 mph)

Highest wind - 19 knots (22 mph)

Lowest cabin temperature - 65F (leaving Opua, NZ)

Highest cabin temperature - 84F(leaving North Minerva Reef)

Number of calamities - 2 (first day - forgetting to replace bow thruster pin and struggling with the downwind rig)

Number of dinners consisting of microwaved frozen casseroles - 6

Number of triple back-flip, double twisting Pacific mahi-mahi caught - 2

Number of triple back-flip, double twisting Pacific mahi-mahi kept - 0

Number of daytime naps - Don - 6, Anne - 5

Number of waking hours captain and crew spent together - 42 hours (28% of the time - this is why couples that sail together get along so well)

Pictures 1 and 2 - Rally start. A total of 26 boats left Opua the morning of 5/3 - 21 heading for Tonga and 5 heading for Fiji.

Picture 3 - Lady Kay looking pretty sporting her new purple spinnaker.

Picture 4 - Our view of South Minerva Reef from where we were anchored (the thin white line on the horizon is the surf pounding on the reef)

Picture 5 - Our view of 5 other rally boats anchored at South Minerva Reef.

Picture 6 - Lobster dinner in Harmonie's cockpit at South Minerva Reef. Starting from the left is Michael (Lady Kay), John (Storyteller), Ben (Storyteller crew for the trip to Tonga), Sue (Storyteller), Brennan (Lady Kay crew for the trip to Tonga), Jackie (Lady Kay). Notice that all are thoroughly enjoying the No Sock Zone.

Picture 7 - The new Storyteller leaving South Minerva Reef.

Picture 8 - Don's first triple back-flip, double twisting Pacific mahi-mahi of the season. It was too small to keep (as was its cousin caught 5 minutes later).

Picture 9 - Our view of the very calm North Minerva Reef from where we were anchored.

Picture 10 - Don's first tropical swim of the season - scrubbing the waterline in North Minerva Reef

That sums up our very easy passage from New Zealand to Tonga. Just like our sail from New Caledonia to New Zealand last October, we were very lucky in the weather department. The sail to and from New Zealand is notorious for ugly passages caused by bad weather. In 1995 (or was it 1994?) the ICA rally to Tonga was caught in the now famous Queen's Birthday storm. Horrendous winds and seas caused three crews to abandon ship. I can't remember if anyone died (probably blocked that bit from memory), but it was the biggest rescue in New Zealand Coast Guard history. Luckily we didn't have a repeat of that episode. We did hear about a non-rally boat headed to Fiji that sank though. They were traveling in company with another sailboat so when their boat developed a leak that couldn't be fixed, they were rescued by their sailing companions. Says a lot for traveling in pairs or groups. Another boat arrived in Tonga a few days ago with a completely twisted and shredded head sail. They left New Zealand a few days after we did and encountered some very high winds along the way. We motored more than we would have liked to on this trip, but given the choice between sailing in scary winds and motoring in light winds, we would choose light winds every time.

We plan to leave Paingaimotu Island this Friday (not sure of the date....dates also seem to somehow get sucked into the Island Time vortex) and head north to the Tongan Ha'apai group of islands. More on our adventures at Paingaimotu Island and our travels in the Ha'apai group in a day or two....or four...or...?

Anne