Commodore
October 17, 2023

Wednesday 18 October – well protected off the island Uoleva

It was a pretty windy night, and we were not that well protected as the wind whistled between the islands. We decided to leave after breakfast for the much better protected anchorage off the island Uoleva, south of Pangai where we shopped yesterday. The Tongan language seems to use many more vowels than consonants in it’s language. I’m writing these names down so I can remember them in the future (realistically I will have forgotten them in a week’s time!).

It was a good sail down here with wind in the high teens to mid twenties, we must have averaged well over 9 knots boat speed on the way down. We spent a frustrating time trying to anchor away from coral, finally giving up and moving to a much sandier spot where we are well anchored in sand, safe and secure in the continuing winds.

After lunch we had a great long walk along the beautiful sandy beach, very pleased to see a turtle cruising along in the water beside us. We got to a very rustic backpacker’s collection of beach huts, on a spit of beach that is being seriously eroded, with loads of trees in the water. We couldn’t get a beer or anything there, and the two resorts are closed. We met a young couple from Devon camping on a plot, they are doing a work exchange, they are allowed to stay there for free, for 2 hours work a day. They said they are clearing the plot for a local guy, who happens to be sick, so they are not up to much at all, other than living on an idyllic beach. They asked if something was going on as there are 11 boats anchored here, they said for the previous five weeks there has only ever been one or two boats. Thing is everyone is slowly getting ready for a weather window to NZ, a few boats are leaving from here tomorrow morning, as there is a potential weather window coming. We met some of the yachties on the beach and the big talk is about the approaching cyclone, it is very rare for this time of year, and hopefully will stay north of Vanuatu, but sailors in Fiji are being told to head to NZ if that is where they are heading. At the moment we are sitting tight, on the recommendation of our weather router, Met Bob. Fingers crossed! We have to get diesel for the boat and fill up as we may have periods of no wind. We also need to get to a decent supermarket to do some provisioning. We are also picking Rowan’s cousin Roy up as he is joining us for the passage, which will be great to have another sailor on board.