Rowan presented two suggestions in the morning, one was to have an overnight sail to Nukul’alofa, the capital of Tonga, or to go to a sheltered island half way down and break up the passage. We opted for the second option and set sail promptly. Rowan decided it was safer to head south outside the string of islands, as there are so many reefs to negotiate. It was a pretty tight channel going out, with 3-4 nots of current against us, plus the wind against us. We knew the waves would be big as it was marked on the charts, but it was a nasty shock as we were soon bashing straight into the big waves covering the whole boat with sea spray. It calmed down marginally as we rounded the island and headed south but still pretty rough seas. Luckily PolePole copes with it no problem and being so wide she is amazingly comfortable. Once again I’m very pleased not to be in a monohull as I rescued a few things off the floor! This is a pretty good shake up to prepare us for our passage to NZ which is not a calm passage.
We are fully prepared to leave on Saturday, Roy flies in tomorrow, we have arranged fuel, and we will do some provisioning.
As we progressed south we decided to go back into the chain of islands for a smoother ride, it was also an easier stretch to navigate, with only a few reefs and islands to avoid. It was still pretty bouncy. It was an overcast day, with winds above 20 knots all day. Rowan had to get a jumper and shoes on, full preparation for NZ! We got close to the island we had planned to stay at and got cold feet. It looked rough, full of bommies and no other boats there to reassure us. We thought we spotted two masts but the binos confirmed they were palm trees that had lost their tops. Rowan made contact with one of the yachties who said they had tried to go there but it was too difficult and not very sheltered from the wind. With that we decided to press on to Nuku’alofa knowing we would get there in the dark.
Reefs and small islands to avoid along the way
An island of trees, water looks calm but I can assure you it wasn’t
A lovely moth in amongst my shells for my jewellery collection!
Rowan contacted another boat who is already in Nuku’alofa, who reassured us we could enter in dark, and that conditions were good and sheltered. We finally got to the navigation buoys that mark the entrance to the channel at about 9:30pm and got the sails down, we were grateful for the moon which even though not full gave loads of light now the cloud had cleared. The charts made it look a hair raising channel to go in, as you have to cross about 5kms of reef sticking to the marked channel. We had a huge cruise liner lit up like a Christmas tree leave through the channel, so it must be pretty deep, but luckily it turned left once through the channel so we were never heading towards each other. We look so insignificant compared to them, especially with only our tricolour light on at the top of the mast. For those non sailors, we don’t have any lights on inside the boat, so that you have good visibility into the darkness!
It all went like clockwork and we went straight to the spot we were advised to go, with me and the spot light up front looking for the lobster pots we were told to avoid in the anchorage. There are a 20 boats in the anchorage and we have met over half of them at some stage or another. We are all heading to NZ. Loads waiting for crew, and quite a few planning to go with us on Saturday. Rowan is so good at keeping in contact with all the boats, it will be reassuring knowing we have company.
We flopped into bed at 11pm, very pleased to be safely anchored in calm waters.
Gorgeous sunset through the clouds
Our chart showing the big reef (blue colour) we had to cross to get in. The anchorage is just above the 1000m sign at the bottom, and our boat symbol is in the black (deep water) at the top in the middle of the page
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