21: 07.5 S

175: 09.7 W

 

Distance last 24 hours:             0     nm

Distance since Nuku’alofa:       0     nm 

Distance still to go:                1124    nm                                                 (All distances are in nautical miles:  1nm = 1.8km)

 

The WHOLE journey ahead!

 

We sit anchored off Pangamotu, a small island about 1 mile from the port of Nuku’alofa. This is the iconic ‘Big Mamma’s’ Yacht club where the yachts going to New Zealand wait for the right weather window. Yachts arrive and leave all the time, and the island is quite a hive of activity. This brings with it a whole cocktail of emotions.  Many of the people on the yachts have become friends, others merely acquaintances that we have seen along our journey, but with all there is an unspoken bond, we are linked in our adventure spirit of sailing to New Zealand.

 

Yesterday was the day for the uncomfortable, pre-adventure chats. Normally, I have them with myself, but now it was a Ruth and I chat, chatting about the ‘what ifs?’ I won’t share the details with you here, but the subjects by definition are bad ones, although I am a firm believing that identifying scenarios, working through them and knowing we can come through them, means we don’t fear them, and so they won’t happen. Adventure is about RISK, and so these discussions, no matter how uncomfortable are vital. We rounded them off with a very relaxed bottle of mine on Big Mamma’s deck!

 

It’s just on sunrise on the 4th of November, and it’s our turn today:   We plan to leave around 2pm today. We were hoping to leave yesterday, Monday, but we went away to nearby Eua Island for three days, and then only found out over the weekend that it was a public holiday yesterday (Monday), so immigration and customs were closed..... Tonga is not a place where work is a top priority! 

 

With the wind blowing 25 knots yesterday, the anchor was a bit bumpy, and as I watched a few of our friends depart, I could feel this mixed feeling within.... I wanted to be going out there to face the elements, enjoy invigorating sailing, but at the same time it was quite nice being ‘lazy’, reading at the anchor. The contrast between the full on life of 24 hour passage sailing versus the total open space of being relaxed on anchor, with a social environment just a short dingy trip away can be very disruptive. But today, I can feel it is time to head out and start our adventure.....

 

It’ll be a short trip to town to completed the immigration formalities, and buy the fresh fruit and vegetables for the trip, and then the final pack up, pickup the anchor, final check on the latest 10 day weather file, and then hopefully all OK, and we are off.... 

 

The area around Tongatapu, the main island, is a maze of huge reefs and small channels, so getting out into the open ocean is not straight forward. Many wrecks around the bay are testimony to the difficulty of this endeavour before the days of good charts and GPS. How easy things are today, yet how difficult this makes ones choice of adventure. One can almost dialup the type of adventure one wants, but deciding on how technical, and with what support, one wants to go..... Well not quite, but it is so different from those old days......!

 

The wind should be around 20 knots of SE, so once we get out of the reef maze, and then turn south west we should have great beam reaching conditions for the first two days.... ALLONE should lap this up, and I can’t wait....! There was a low pressure coming in from the west later on the passage, but the last weather file I had showed it south and out of our way. I’ll see what the latest file says....

 

Ruth and I have been learning to sail together as a unified team....and how best to manage the watches is key. We seem to have found a formula of three hours on, and three hours off, that works, and so will start off on that basis. For me this has been quite challenging, as with solo sailing, one doesn’t have watches, because there is nobody to relieve one! The result is I catnap, and don’t have the long, three hour stretches, but at the same time am never really off watch. Anyway, we shall see how it all works out, and if the going gets tough I may have to switch to solo sailing mode..... Ruth and I have discussed al this and have a good plan...It’s now just up to what Mother Nature throws at us, and how ALLONE takes it......

 

Can’t wait to get out there now.......Next blog will be from the deep blue!

 

Bye...!