Outbound Niue, Inbound Tonga

The below was written on Saturday, October 27th Location 19° 54.6742 S 172° 36.1894 W COG: 260° SOG: 4.5 knots
With some funky weather hitting us on the nose and some lighter winds forecasted, we have decided to swing into an uninhabited island in the Tongan group just to wait out the weather and have a good run to NZ. The seas have been fairly reasonable really, small, but of short duration (meaning that the waves are close together which generally is not as comfortable). Yesterday morning I awoke to the contents of a full liter of milk sloshing around the floor having just fallen from its perch where it was forgotten because it was just calm enough. You can never let your guard down…
With lots of rain we have the cockpit stripped of its comfy cushions and we are all staying mainly inside the boat and whoever on watch is clad in foul weather gear and perched at the top of the companion way ready for action.

Date: Sunday, October 28th 2018 Time: 23:42 UTC Location 20° 16.61 S 174° 48.20 W Recently I have gotten all mixed up on the day and date. On my most recent post I entered the day incorrectly, it should have been Thursday the 25th. It’s no wonder because, between Niue (pronounce like Ni’ew ee) and Tonga, we passed the International Date Line and Friday the 26th of October 2019 was lost forever. The girls and I keep a daily one-line-a-day diary and it was fun to enter “this day never happened.”
All is well on board. We have just arrived to Nomuka Iki Island, Tonga to wait for a good weather window to NZ or at least to Minerva reef. The rain has let up so during the last part of our passage we were able to spend more time outside. Today, Isa can be found dragging around the Joy of Cooking looking up her next baking recipe and Adelaide is making breakfast with earbuds in listening to The Call of the Wild for the second time.
We have had ITCZ (Intertropical Converge Zone) style weather over the last 12 hours or so, with winds clocking around frequently and going from almost nothing to a stiff 25 knots and then back to nothing 20 minutes later. It has kept us on our toes. Last night we stood 10nm off of Tonga hove-to (which basically means we stall the boat) and waited for daylight to come before entering the confines of the island group. Navigating this area by day seemed wiser with all sorts of cautions on the charts like “blind rollers,” reefs, rocks and shallower areas.
Where we have anchored down is the same bay which the infamous HMS Bounty had their last stop before their mutiny… hopefully the girls won’t get any ideas… Thankfully for them, Tonga is quite strict about Sunday being the day of rest. No swimming (whahh?), no fishing, no shopping, no working, no laundry hanging out, no hiking, no visiting new towns. In order to follow the customs one must chill out on Sunday so… that is just what we are doing and the girls don’t seem to be in too much of a mutinous mood. In fact, at the moment they are having a tea party with their stuffed animals on deck so they seem pretty happy.
We will sit here and likely not even set foot on land (especially since we haven’t checked into the country), and wait for a good window to jump south. Wish us luck and pray for good weather for our NZ passage please! Photos will come soon!

7 comments

  1. Fred and Janis Blue says:

    Hopefully some day, you will get that day back….when we came home from Aussie we celebrated New Years twice as we turned back to dock elsewhere in Calif from where we were supposed to……no ill effects! lol Don’t you just HATE messes, especially when they could have been avoided…ha Love to all of you and prayers for continuing safe and FUN sailing. Jan and Fred

  2. Joyce Beery Miles says:

    Have to laugh a little about the milk incident—-The visual of milk all over the floor. Then, I seriously remember how precious every little food and drink amounts are as you can’t just run to the grocery store or the zippy mart. Hope you, too, could have a laugh. My latest mantra is “Mess up….move on”. or better yet, “Mess up, fess up and move on.”

  3. Scott Getber says:

    Fabulous read!! Greetings from New York! I’m dreaming about your crystal blue waters, while our Boat is “up on the hard” with temps approaching the freezing mark! You spilled milk and we spilled anti-freeze! I’ll take the white stuff! Happy travels!!
    Scott G.⛵️

  4. Marianne McGriff says:

    Hi, Anne Thank you for the update…I LOVE following you through your blog. Please tell Isa that I have my mother’s “Joy of Cooking” with a copyright of 1931! It was the BIBLE in her day!!!!! Anne, I, occasionally, will pick up a FRANCE TODAY and there is a wonderful article: “Ladies in Red”. I’m saving it for you!!!! Love to all, Marianne

  5. Joanie Schumann says:

    Definitely wish you safe travels, calm seas and beautiful skies…
    What an adventure of a lifetime…
    Safe sailing
    Joanie

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