Friday 29 September – boat cleaning out at sea

The wind died mid morning and this gave us the opportunity to clean the black soot off PolePole. I think it must have come from the boats in the port harbour which were really close to us. PolePole was covered in thick black dust, which had all tracked inside and down into our hull, plus it had come through our open windows. With the engines on, the wind below 4 knots and the waves considerably smaller, we decided it was safe enough to take desperate action and clean the boat from the top down. We attached the hose pipe to our sea water pump and got all the soot off with sea water, then a quick rinse in fresh water. I mopped and hoovered everywhere, by 2pm we were under control with a much cleaner boat.

The wind finally came back mid afternoon, when Rowan went out to get the sails up, one of the Lazy Jack lines (thin ropes that guide the sail down into the sail bag) had come off and pinged up the mast. There was no option but for Rowan to go up the mast, it was only about a third of the way up, the sea was calm. Rowan got in his bosun’s chair and I had to winch him up, sadly this is not an electric winch, so I had to crank him up, it was slow steady work. I finally got him to the spot, he sorted the ropes out and then the scarier part, I had to let him gently down. It all went like clock work, quite good to know we can do it! It was great to have the sails back up and the engines off. The wind remained in the low teens and we were going along nicely. All being well we will be in tomorrow afternoon before the big winds hit.

I’m writing this on watch tonight, the moon is amazing, it is like having a light on outside, it is a clear sky with a few stars out. At sunset there were big dark clouds about, but we have left them behind. Just amazing we have not seen a single other boat, not even a fishing trawler. No sign of sea life, we are hoping to see more whales as it is peak season for them in Tonga.

Sunrise just before 6am

The wind died and the seas calmed, perfect for cleaning the boat

Just to show you on google maps where we are, we came from Apia in Samoa and heading to Neiafu. Our original plan was to go to Niue, but not possible in these big swells

Cloudy sunset

Dark skies finally disappeared