Day 1 Niue to Tonga and a little dilemma
1Sunday 24 August 2014
Friday 3pm local time we left the wonderful little country of Niue. Five days there, we’ll write more on it later, save to say we had a fabulous time. But some big seas are forecast to come in which would make sitting on the mooring buoys in Niue very uncomfortable. Five boats left, all timing their departure to arrive in Tonga on Monday morning.
We slipped off our mooring buoy and within two minutes were sailing and within five minutes the water towable generator was in the water and we were off. A breezy start with SSW 16-20 knots of wind so sailing upwind we’ve got two reefs in the main sail and genoa.
The sea state has lived up to the prediction and is quite lively and from the beam trying to knock Adina and its occupants sideways. Day one we always take it very easy allowing our bodies to adjust to the motion of the sea – quite an awkward one on this passage. Traditional first night dinner of chilli con carne and it was perfect as it’s pretty cold too. We’ve donned some of our ‘foulies’ (waterproof ocean gear) to try and keep the wind out. Into the night and the wind gusted away. We soon caught up with two of our friends’ boats watching them on our AIS (Automatic Identification System).
The seas are due to pick up more today and winds should be the same but go more aft. It will be a lumpy ride to Tonga.
One dilemma we’ve got is that Tonga is the other side of the international date line. We need to decide which day will be completely skipped in our lives? Saturday 23rd or Sunday 24th of August? It’s a little bizarre!
We have been keeping up-to-date with your progress as you have been crossing the Pacific. Congratulations on your maintaining such high quality and regular ‘blogs’.
Reading your recent ones has brought back memories of our cruise some 4 years ago that took in a number of small islands in French Polynesia and the Solomon Islands. Not nearly so exciting as your experiences, but at our age – just about right.
Glad you remembered to lose a day on crossing the International Date Line. Otherwise you would have had to seek a retrospective dispensation from the Pope (as did the captain and crew of the first French ship to circumnavigate the globe at a time when ‘The Line’ had not been invented). Inadvertently, and for several years, they had been enjoying the results of their fishing on Saturdays!!
Here’s hoping you do not have to deal with a seal problem on the heads without outside assistance.
Wendy ‘n Ces