10/30/2009, Off shore, Passage from Tongatapu to Opua, New Zealand
Happy Halloween everyone. We did manage to leave beautiful Tonga and are now on passage to New Zealand. We hired a weather router to help us out on this passage since timing will be really important. We have been beating into light SW to SSW winds all night using the engine to help us out a bit. The wind is supposed to shift and that will definitely make a big difference. All is well. I don't think the "tricker-or-treaters" will be visiting us tonight! We are still in sight of S/V Tracen J, friends of ours that we are traveling with. I expect in a day or two they will be far ahead of us. We will keep in touch by radio and email.
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10/28/2009, Nuku Alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga
It looks like a nice weather window is opening up for us. We are preparing to leave tomorrow, Friday the 30th. Yes, I know it is bad luck to leave on a Friday. Hopefully our liberal bribe of libations will coax Neptune in granting us a safe passage. We are excited about visiting New Zealand and also getting caught up on some boat chores. Tender Spirit will be spending most of her time at Whangarei. We are hoping to do some touring in South Island by land. We are also getting our new furry crew member, which we are really looking forward to. I will post more information about our passage soon. As usual, I will try to remote post every day on passage through the single sideband radio. We do not have access to a wifi signal here in the anchorage so sending and receiving email lately has been more challenging so if you haven't heard from us, hang in there! We will for sure catch up in New Zealand and also post new photos.
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10/27/2009, Nuku Alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga
I jumped ship for a few days and visited my friend Bria who lives in Eua. She is a Peace Corps volunteer. We used to teach together in Gambell and hadn't seen each other in six years. We had a great time catching up. I also enjoyed visiting Eua and meeting the people there as well. It is a rural community. Wealth is pigs, and there were a lot of pigs running around. One thing about rural travel is that one must go with a sense of adventure, humor and a very broad interpretation as to expectations especially when booking accommodations and guided activities. Bria and I had lots to enjoy and laugh about. It is amazing how similar Rural Alaska and Rural Tonga really are.
It looks like we may have a weather window to leave for New Zealand on Friday, the 30th of October. We will see how it develops. I guess it is time to end the vacation mode and finish a few chores to prepare Tender Spirit for this passage.
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10/20/2009, Nuku Alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga
We are anchored at Nuku Alofa, tucked into a little motu in about 20 feet of clear water. We had a nice uneventful passage. No wind for most of the night, but lots of current that moved us faster than expected. We wound up drifting around for about 5 hours waiting for daylight. With the reef system, it would have been a disaster to attempt a night entry....something that we refuse to do. Well, all is well. I need to pay a visit to immigration, customs, and the port captain, then some sleep!
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!) I wanna go to Cook Islands, did you go there? Keep in touch! Stay safe, have the time of your life! Nancy
