21: 02.7 S

175: 15.7 W

 

Distance last 24 hours:             19    nm

Distance since Nuku’alofa:       19     nm 

Distance still to go:                1105    nm                                                 (All distances are in nautical miles:  1nm = 1.8km)

 

Yeah, as you can see: We have already started and done some mileage and without telling you we had left, hey!  Well not really, we have just moved to a better start point, and this also included an opportunity for another unique Tongan island experience. We are now anchored off a little island called Atata, which has a single, rustic resort, and a village that is home to some 200 people.

 

My impatience got the better of me, and then sitting at Big Mammas with  30 other yachts waiting to leave is not my style! Yeah, there are THIRTY yachts all waiting to leave for New Zealand, that tropical trough halted us all, and has cause a bit of city like ‘bumper to bumper’ traffic. There is one other maverick like us, who doesn’t do the groupy thing well, and as we were sitting ‘all alone’ at our little private island anchorage enjoying the solitude, they appeared around the island headland. Clearly, having the same, ‘Get away from the crowds, and an early start’, strategy. 

 

So, yeah we are waiting for the wind to move another 60+ degrees from the current SW to more of a SE. This is planned to happen around midnight tonight, and so we plan to wake early, pull up the anchor and finally head off around 7 am tomorrow...That’s Saturday the 15th November, we we are! It was tempting to leave today, but beating into a head wind, on a course 40 degrees off where we want to go, just didn’t make sense.

 

Interestingly, where we are anchored in normally a flat calm, turquoise bay, almost encircled by coal reefs, and crystal clear water. As I type this email we are rocking and rolling slightly, the water is turbid, and the shore is marked with what looks like a Cape Town type red tide. All this from the heavy wind and swell / breaking waves that were here last week as a result of the tropical trough that we nearly met head on! I’m told the red tide, is not like the Cape Town plankton based phenomena, but this is the coral’s reaction to the stormy seas: Apparently, in very rough conditions, it lets off this red ‘dust’ that then rises to the surface and is blown ashore collecting in coves, and looking as if someone has thrown red paint on the water.

 

We had a great treat, dinner at the resort restaurant last night, and thinking through the probably challenging long journey back in the dingy, over the extensive reef at low tide, in the context of the pleasant environment and  cosiness of the resort environment, we decided to check-in and sleep over in a REAL bed! We had meet some interesting people, and so all turned out to be a fun and worthwhile excursion from the boat...... Interestingly, at breakfast the one kiwi couple we had befriended suggested we should have “a last shower. as ‘check out time is only 10 am”......! I said I hadn’t had a freshwater shower in 3 months (a bit of an exaggeration, but not too much...) and after the expected smell related puns, we discussed how I don’t miss that home stuff anymore, and how swimming in the ocean, and saltwater baths are much more simple for me now! With a way of life, one can’t be missing another way of life, and I honestly love the simplicity of this all....  The time will come, when we reach New Zealand to enjoy the home comforts again, but I’m not needing them at the moment!

 

This afternoon was spent underwater cleaning the propeller and underside of the boat so we have minimum resistance, and after recovering from that demanding chore, I spent the rest of the afternoon making up my new fishing gear into, super effective, ‘lethal’, lure units, that if fail to catch a few big ones, will force me to retire, beaten!  We just want one or two decent size fish that will provide our protein for the passage!

 

Excitement levels are rising, and the familiar, pre adventure cocktail, of excitement, apprehension, focus, discipline, and a samll fear for the unknowns of what lies ahead, come together to making one feel very alive, and living!

 

So, hopefully my next email will be from us underway for real, and sights set on New Zealand.

 

 

Cheers for now

 

H