Change of Plans
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 22 Jun 2009 01:27
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18:41.986S 17:401.788W
Remember that bad weather we were waiting
for? It finally arrived. Just as we were getting ready to leave this
morning at 7am. It was dead calm, then a few puffs of wind pushed us
around our mooring 180 degrees, the rain started and the wind blasted
us. Again. Just like our frightful night off Pangaimotu Island, the
wind got up to 45 knots and howled at us while the rain
pounded. Thankfully it was daylight so we could at least
see the boats dragging past us on their moorings. First one dragged
to our port side and looked like it hit the boat next to us on that side, then
one dragged on our starboard side and looked like it hit the boat near us on
that side. Shortly thereafter, a large motor yacht (60 feet) anchored at
one end of the mooring field started dragging. No one was on board (the
professional crew was on another boat, which was anchored in the Hunga
lagoon...not sure why they left their own boat with a storm coming?) so the
crewless boat blundered its way through almost the entire length of the mooring
field before a couple of kind-hearted sailboaters got aboard and anchored
securely. As the big motor yacht drifted, sailboaters scrambled to let
loose or cut their mooring lines to get out of its way. This is not a boat
you'd want to pick a fight with. The thing is built like a tank.
Selfish as we are, we were glad the motor yacht didn't drag toward us and that
our mooring held tight throughout the whole ordeal.
By 8:30 am things calmed down and we decided it was
time to leave Neiafu harbor and join the rest of the rally boats hiding out in
Port Maurelle. We are anchored in Port Maurelle now just waiting to see
what happens with the weather. The wind seems to be abating some, but when
we sailed over from the harbor, we were still getting gusts up to 35
knots. The weather report on the radio this morning suggested that the sea
is extremely rough at the moment with 4.5 meter (~14 foot) waves from the
south. Oh good. Big waves. It's more than likely our start
will be delalyed until tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, which should put us into Fiji
by nightfall on Thursday.
Cheers from the stormy tropics -
Anne
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