Home again, home again

Evergreen left the marina today and is now safely on her home mooring. Another cruising season done and dusted.

Fiji to NZ. Arrived

We arrived Opua at 0700 this morning. 3 days of wild sailing and 6 days of non stop motoring. On the other positive side it was sunny and the days were warm right up to today and even then the rain did not start until the middle of the night after we arrived.  

Clearing customs wasn't bad. They did take all our fruit and veg and meat and the popcorn. Didn't matter if the veg was frozen either , if not commercially packaged out it went. Same with the meat.  All frozen, raw or cooked meat had to go. Even Dennis' half finished plate of huevos rancheros went in the bag. Not as bad this time as when we arrived in 2013 as we hadn't half the people and I didn't provision as much. Didn't help that we didn't eat for 3 days. 

We are now safely tucked into a slip at the marina. The boat has had its first rinse with the hose and is getting a second light rain rinse as we speak and we will power wash it down before we leave. We have salt everywhere!  After getting into our slip, which took two tries, we got yummy coffee and caught up with Jo & Rob from Double Trouble. We spent the afternoon doing a basic tidy, having hot, long showers and having a good chat with Josh (including video that worked!!!). We had dinner at the boat club and got home thinking to crash and burn. I had been up since 0100, so that seemed a reasonable expectation. That plan came together well for Dennis, who was out sitting up at the computer. Me, not so much. Ifinally crashed around 10pm and am now wide awake at 1am. Yep doing my watch hahaha.  It's now 3 am, so hopefully I will get sleepy soon. 

Today we will go to Kerikeri to the market to replace the fruit and veg and do a little provision. Lots of chores to get done and logistics to figure out now that we are here. Soooo good to be home, even though we are sort of homeless. Feels weird. 

Another adventure in the books. Stay tuned for South Island travels Jan thru April. Off to sleep.

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fiji to NZ day 7

another nice day. the sea state is flat rolling swell, minimal wind, minimal healing. I am cooking, so we are catching up from the first 3 days of semi starvation - as if it hurt either of us HAHA. The OMG rough seas diet.

Otherwise kinda boring - just the way I like it. Would be better if the engine was off, but we are moving along. 270 miles to go, so maybe friday am? that would be nice. Flat long sleep and a cold beer - sounds heavenly.

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fiji to NZ day 6

Another nice day of motorsailing. night watch was chilly, glad for my hat and wishing for gloves. I think i got the better sleeping deal though, as Dennis had to use the settee in the salon for his sleep while I was able to use the bed for mine.
By my calculations we did 160 miles yesterday - yay. hoping for a friday arrival in NZ. Nothing new or exciting today. We had the egg and bacon (ham) pies recommended by Dinah on s/v Maragarita - they were as yummy as advertised.
Big rolling swell today, not bad kind of soothing really. so, all is well. fingers crossed it stays that way....

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fiji to NZ day 5

Nice day today - finished drying things out and so nice to to come up salty when you touch anything - at least in the cockpit. We were able to sleep in our own bed last night, which tells you that the winds are still light and seas calm. We are still motorsailing.
It is getting colder at night, the comforter is on the bed and watch attire is now sweats, long sleeve shirt and jumper (hoodie).

Otherwise we are just motor sailing along.

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fij to NZ day 4

We interrupt this passage for 3 hours of maintenance.....

Winds stayed up through the night, but started to settle after sunrise, by 1130am it was pretty nice except no wind. gotta love it 30 kts to 7 kts in less than 8 hours. So, we had a nice lunch of chicken curry and then put up the full main with the stay and full jib. Since we were flat so I could cook, we decided to do some chores. I cleaned the kitchen sink (which was so gross it made me want to hurl), and because we are flat was able to open the drains yay! I applied more silicone to the port cabin port hole - that's a new issue. And the biggest yuckiest chore - Dennis fixed the aft toilet (yuck!). He gets lots of points in the "atta boy" column for that. Meanwhile I washed down the cockpit and finally when it was all said and done, we had showers. OM,G the best shower ever. So we are well fed, clean and have a functioning aft head. The interior is mostly dried out - haven't looked to hard at the port cabin, cuz really what can I do at this point? All is definitely well now. Of course there is still no wind, so we are motor sailing.

We did comment that it seems that we haven't gotten very far for how fast we were going, only like 350 miles, but that is as the crow flies and I think we did a bit of an arc. Anyway I will enjoy the ride while it lasts.

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Fiji to NZ day 3

Well, we are still rocking and rolling. JOsh its like the last day before Oahu only bigger. We are dragging the starboard rail and taking waves over the cockpit. Thank god for the new enclosure, we are at least mostly dry. The waves are 1-2 meters and feels like the kracken is trying to break into the boat - waves hitting etc. its been loud. All drains still closed and to add insult to injury the back head isn't working right. I spent time trouble shooting to no avail. Oh and speaking of taking on water (i wasn't but hey). The porthole in the port cabin is leaking - no Paul not thru your new seal - around the glass. REally we are so wet and not from sitting in the cockpit. Its a bit frustrating (ok a lot frustrating - be glad you didn't hear me practicing my sailor talk)!!

Otherwise Mrs Lincoln the play was fine. lol. The moon was beautiful on my watch last night - even with 30 kts of wind. And I am not all the way seasick, just a touch that is cured by sitting under the fan or going up on watch. Dennis not so much. Its been a struggle for him he finally kept some soup down at lunch and is being good about drinking fluids. Oh and it has been sunny and not too hot or to cold. At the moment we both feel okay and the kracken is keeping his hits to a minimum. We are managing to make our course to the southeast, so we are on track to hit (not literally i hope) NZ. Also on a positive note, we are having this miserable trip under sail, so not using up fuel and not directly into the wind. NOt on the beam or behind, but its an improvement on the trip up - marginally.

to sum it all up, we are good and the crossing has been what crossings are - a pain in the butt. has calmed down some this afternoon, so back to being bearable.

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Fiji To NZ day 2

Yikes been a crazy day and a half. first 24 saw fine weather and winds 15-20 kts. We cruised right along at 5-7 kts. A bit bumpy, but not too bad. Had to close the sink drains as we are on a good heal on this port tack. that is the downside of having drains all on the same side.
Today has been pretty much full on, wind has clocked around more from the south big seas with 20-25 kts of wind. Neither of us are feeling great, Dennis in particular. finally had to shut all the sink drains as the kitchen sink backflowed onto the counters and into the cupboard.
Are we there yet?

So yeah all is good, its just the usual crossing issues that have to be borne (sp).

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01 November

We are out of here at the crack of 0800. Haha. Good wind from a good direction main on the first reef. Its a go Houston. See you all in a weekish. Remember sailmail :)

Leaving Fiji

Bula from Fiji. This our last post from here. We are NZ bound. 

Our plan is to depart early am 01 Nov (NZ time). We expect to be 8-10 days. 8 would be awesome, but the wind is a fickle mistress. 

Position reports post to oceantracking.com.  Our call sign is WDJ9035.  You'll note that initially we will be heading a little more west. We will not be getting a rhumb line sail. Sadly. Once the high pressure system we are leaving on clocks around more easterly, we will head more southeast too.

So starting tomorrow we will be without internet. I will be posting on the blog. Www.evergreenadventures.blogspot.com.  As always we love hearing from you while we are underweigh. Our sailmail is wdj9035@sailmail.com.  Keep those cards and letters coming (who is old enough to remember that phrase ?).  Dennis will also be checking in each evening on the northland radio net .  We think it's 1900 hrs NZ time.  Josh is the adult in charge of us while we are off the grid. He mentioned that it is weird that in the US he can't have a legal drink but here he is our key go to person. We love you Josh.    (no, don't jeez mom me.)

We left Denarau today after a busy morning checking out and using up the last of our Fiji dollars. Back on the boat the dinghy came up on the deck and last minute things got stowed. The sail to musket cove was pretty full on and likely what we can expect the first few days. Not awful, but not a nice beam reach either. It is of course as windy as it been. Anchored in 20+kts of wind. Only took two tries .. 

I have been pre cooking some food, and we have a good selection of easy to cook meals. This is our first long passage just the two of us. Hopefully we will both arrive in one piece - Evergreen too. :)

Off to enjoy my last flat night for a week. Talk soon

Musket Cove

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4 October Fulaga

Wow time has sure flown by. Fulaga is awesome, we have really enjoyed our time here. The weather has been very windy, so we have spent our time in the village. Church and lunch on Sunday, hung out with Ma at the school on Monday - it is exam week and each of the villages does the food each day. OMG the food. and it is always eat Dennis, eat Carol Yikes!! I am pretty sure that if we had been fed like that for exams we would have been like, bring 'em on, yay food!!
Tuesday I stayed at the boat, cleaning and cooking - Ma, Teddy and Joshua came for dinner. Typical 6 yr old, Joshua watched 3 movies. It was a good time. Dennis was in the village all day - having lunch and kava at the school and looking at Ma & Teddy's water tank that was leaking. They decided it was the fittings, so yesterday when we went in Dennis fixed those. I taught Ma how to make cake over the fire like we used to do when camping. we made a dutch oven kind of thing and made wacky cake (no eggs). It turned out good. Her grandmother came to watch too. Dennis and I were surprised that cooking like that was something I could teach them. I also gave her a recipe for chowder - they just give the leftover yams and fish to the pigs - easy to get one more meal out of it.
So yeah very interesting to see how they live on a day to day basis. So friendly and giving. In return, and note to anyone reading this and thinking of coming here. Bring dollar store readers, masks for diving, fishing line and hooks, vanilla, cocoa, olive oil. The powder kava is okay to bring to give out, just not for the sevusevu, that has to be the plant.

We will leave this afternoon with the high tide and sail to Toyota which is 70 nm away. The wind has been strong for the last week, so I imagine we will have big wave action, but at least it should be mostly downwind sailing. We will end up at Vuda Point to get work done on the boat. Then if we have time we may go to musket cove. Before we know it, we'll be looking for a weather window to head back to NZ.

Off to make pasta for school lunch today - lol.

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29 September

We are now at Fulaga. Last stop before heading to Vuda Point. We got here on Tuesday afternoon. Upwind motorsail from Namuka, but not too bad. The pass into the lagoon here is narrow and shallow at the lagoon side. The light wasn't great, but we made it, and I only have a few new gray hairs to show for it.

Wednesday, we walked into the village for our sevusevu. It was about a 45 minute hike thru the bush. There is of course an easier walk from a different anchorage. But the walking is good for us. We have a host family. Ma, Teddy and their 6 year old son Joshua. They are the same family that hosted Doug and Carla on Moondance, whom they remembered with big smiles. Dan our teenaged guide showed us first to the wood carver - Dennis bought a really pretty bowl. After that we went to see Ma. She served us Tea, yams and pancake like things. Her grandma, auntie and another lady were there weaving a huge mat for her house. Eventually her husband (Teddy) came by and we were shown their house. Its a nice village, pretty simple, they have solar and I think the school might have internet. Dennis had a look at their inverter - needs a fuse that we might have. Unfortunately their TV is broken and not something we can fix or replace. They told us that since they are our host family, that we should come to them if there is anything we need or want to do - they offered fishing, clamming and of course church and food on Sunday. We will do the Church thing. Carla told me Ma loves chocolate, so I will bring in a wacky cake. After all that, we walked over to the close anchorage to check it out, then back to our boat. We dinghied around a little first to get a feel for the place. It really is cool. The lagoon is huge, mostly sandy bottom with the requisite bommies scattered throughout. It was cloudy and rainy , so I didn't take very many pictures.

Thursday was a spectacular, picture postcard perfect day. We gathered our gear and toured the whole lagoon. At some point I will post pictures, because even those won't be able to show just how amazing this place is. Lots of white sandy beaches interspersed with islets that look like sculptures that have been haphazardly placed. We explored like crazy, were able to go out a pass into the lagoon on the east side of the island, stopped on a beach where we say a white eel. We drove the dinghy out the main pass thinking we might snorkel, but way too much current. There is a cool beach with a lagoon to the outer reef just west of the pass also right out of a post card. We ended the day on a small beach close to the boat, just hanging out with a bottle of wine and snacks. I can see why people suffer the 2 day bash to get here from Suva. Its pretty idyllic.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day. The forcasted winds came, so we moved the boat to the anchorage with the easy walk to the village and yeah.... that was it.

Today is forecasted to be windy again. There is a picnic planned with all the boats and villagers. I imagine it will go ahead unless its pouring down rain. I am going to make a peach crumble. We are down to our last 6 eggs, so am having to plan what I bake around them. No eggs or butter to be had here - sadly.

So we figure we will be here till a good weather window next week then head off to Vuda Point on Viti Levu. That will be a 2-3 day trip, depending on whether or not we go straight thru or break it up. It is an overnighter (90 miles) to the next closet Island and at least that again to Vuda, but we'll see. We are trying to eat thru the freezer as we will have to turn it off when we haul out. It is hard to believe that we only have 4 weeks left before we head back to NZ. I am torn, as Fiji is pretty amazing, on the other hand a grocery store sounds pretty good too. hahaha

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22 september

Currently at Komo in the Southern Lau. Did our sevusevu yesterday with our guide Matai and the aging chief. Matai gave us a tour of the village and we were able to buy a few eggs. He said the supply ship was due today and in fact it came in last night just before sunset. It will be a busy but happy day for the village today as they unload supplies.

The anchorage is on the north side of the island and the pass into the harbour was easy. Good thing as our 5 hour sail from Labeka took all day as it was of course upwind. We arrived at sunset and happily got the anchor down in 30 feet on the first try. The village is on the south side of the island, about a 20 minute walk over the hill. The first thing we came to was the school. Funny how kids playing outside is a universal sound. Then paved path from the school into the village was lined with painted plastic bottles - a very colourful and pretty way to use that plastic. Except for one barking dog, everyone was friendly. Matai showed us his house, and promised us bananas today. In exchange, we copied some movies onto a usb for him. Note to self, next time bring more empty usb drives. We are also going to give him some of our recorded DVDs. hopefully they will work on his machine.

Yesterday morning was a work morning. The raw water pump we replaced in Tonga, started leaking like crazy, so we had turned off the valve to the water inlet, which in turn overheated the pump to the freezer. So, Dennis had to rebuild the old pump - thank you Josh for bringing the parts. It is a pain in the butt to remove and replace, but it is done and appears to working, and the freezer is working again too. A hard but productive morning.

Today the plan is to hand off the usb/dvds to Matai, snorkel and hopefully have a fire and dinner on the beach. Its raining at the moment, but its not socked in, so maybe it will clear up enough to go on with the plan.

We will be here a day or two, depends on the weather, the next island is not far, but really dont want another day of bashing.

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21 September

Arrived Komo late yesterday afternoon. Fixed the raw water pump again this morning walked to the village to do our sevusevu this afternoon. Standing on top of the hill hoping for internet to send this. 

20 September

Leaving Lakeba heading to Komo. Of course that is directly into the wind. Lakeba crazy anchorage and long dinghy ride into the village to do sevusevu. At least we were able to buy bread. Loosing signal. Bye

13 September Vanua Belavu

Nicer day today. did a repeat dinghy ride with the video camera in the morning. Ran the generator, dicked with the engine oil, changed a filter on the watermaker and been making water all day. Usual day in the life.

This afternoon we moved to Mbavutu Harbour. It was an interesting drive thru the channel between the reef and the island. Thankfully we had good light and good waypoints, so got here no problem. Its like a lake in here. blowing 15-20 kts in the channel to get here and less than 5kts where we put the anchor down. had lunch then went for another dinghy ride, walked on a cool beach, saw some turtles, then had a snorkel. A Great snorkel. We will go back, hopefully with a little more sun. lots of fish and interesting coral - and Dennis saw another turtle.

We have to laugh, busy anchorage (not) - one other sail boat when we got here. 2 houses up on the hill, an abandoned looking yacht club and a dock at the southish end of the bay where we are anchored. around sunset 2 more power boats arrived. So wow busy compared to the last few days of being on our own. Saw the 2 people that came in on the first powerboat, and heard the people on the second one (really big). But yeah, not a lot of activity.

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11 September 2018 Vanua Balevu

Evergreen and crew have arrived in the Northern Lau group - Vanua Balevu.
We left Qamea before the butt crack of dawn this morning for the 50 ish mile crossing. OMG 4 am is early and dark!!! We dodged the catamaran that came into Naiivivi(sp?)Bay after us and except for one little bump on a coral head (helps if you actually follow the way points carol), made it out of the bay, put up the mainsail and were off. Managed to get a couple of messages out on the internet as we rounded the southern end of Qamea, but lost sight of the tower quickly.
Our course was of course pretty much directly into the wind. We chose to leave today as the winds were forecast to be the lightest for the next 8 days. So, motor on and sails up we made our way here. All told not a bad trip. The sails helped some and the sea state was pretty flat. I guess if you have to motor, today was one of the best. We arrived approximately 2-pm, and are tucked in just north around the entrance. It has rained off and on all day, but just a light to moderate mist.
It looks beautiful and we are excited to explore.

There is vicious rumor that there is internet to be had we will see. Definitely not at our current position. So, folks its sailmail for now.

12 Sept

Moved anchorages this morning. Still rolly, lots of wind. put the dinghy in the water and went for a long wet dinghy ride. It is pretty spectacular here. Even in cloudy rainy weather. Hoping it will clear up some - better pictures. :) Quiet day after that. Just chilling out.

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Out of chronological order post

6 September 2018

Paradise Resort, Taveuni Fiji

I am behind since we got to Fiji, but just had to write this today.

Exciting day in the mooring field today.

Things started off to plan. Leisurely morning, coffee, run the generator. Dennis working on weather and route planning for our next couple of hops. North from  here to Matei and then on to Vanua Balevu in the Northern Lau. Yikes I did laundry and stowed dive gear and made water.
Around noon we went ashore  to drop off rubbish, refill the water jug i used for laundry and fill up on gas (petrol, not deisel).  Flat calm when we left the boat, but by the time we were  ready to head back it was rocking and rolling. No major though. We  got back,  stowed a few more things, had lunch and decided to sit out the bounce on shore. Really rocking and rolling by that time, but again no issues. Not fun, but not worrisome either.

On shore we were standing by the dinghy to make sure it wasn't rubbing on the rocks and chatting to the woman from the boat  moored in front of us. A couple of boats had already left, having decided to wait out the rollies in a more protected anchorage. As we chatted  we saw her boat moving down wind. Really,  that is not supposed to happen.

We quickly loaded her and her husband into our dinghy and Dennis drove them out to catch their boat.  (I swear she dove into the dinghy. Keeping in mind there was alot of surge, it was a spectacular leap) On the positive side they were able to board, get the engine started and get the boat under control. Sadly not before hitting Evergreen and damaging the port toe rail and breaking their own bow sprit. Our toe rail has two small fist size gouges and a 3 foot split. Dennis says that's okay, Ray will know how to
fix it!!!

To be honest, both boats are very lucky. Things could have been much worse. Two heavy boats colliding?  Yikes a recipe for disaster. And yet......Our toe rail is fixable and basically cosmetic. The other boat may have more damage, hard to tell at the moment. They are worried about their rigging
 
In the meantime on shore we were trying to move dinghies around so that the dive boat could come to the dock. After a pretty impressive chinese fire drill, the dive boat decided not to come in. Poor divers had to swim ashore.

During all this I am being told we have to leave the anchorage or wait, just add another line to the mooring, no leave, no....   in the end we are still here. Not having dinner ashore as planned, but oh well. All boats are situated, owners on board. Our anchor alarm is set tight, just in case. Sunset was beautiful  (no green flash) and fajitas instead of Fijian. Ahhhh the relaxing life of cruisers.......

Monday 20 August - Fiji

We made it. anchor down just outside of Savusavu, will have a good sleep and check in tomorrow. Overall not a bad crossing -82 hours. One fish, one broken and repaired whisker pole, a little rain, and no arguments. So another one for the books. More later

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sunday 19 august

unable to get the sailmail to send yesterday.
sunny and warm all day. winds calmed down. continued wing and wing through the night.
whisker pole down this morning. Motorsailing winds 5kts. would like to get to Fiji in this lifetime - lol. All is well.

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day 1

Saturday morning and all is well. of course directly downwind. Been running wing and wing until 0200 when the attachment for the topping lift for the whisker pole broke. Dennis spent 45 minutes on the foredeck getting it down and out of the way. its fixed now and we are back going downwind wing and wing. lost a lot of speed and miles, but still did 118 miles. sunny today, crew is already tired and grumpy. hahaha.

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Leaving Tonga

Well, it was a 2 hour process with a little bit of chinese fire drill thrown in to keep it interesting.(i wonder what the politically correct term for that is these days?  Lol i am showing my age).  We are officially checked out of Tonga and full of deisel. Evergreen heavy is ready for take off for Fiji. 

We are currently at anchor, still in VaVa'u..we have spent the afternoon finishing prep for crossing- running the watermaker  (which of course wasn't in a cooperative mood but Dennis finally beat it into submission), checking and filling oil, running the generator,  a quick vacuum, dinghy on deck, stowing all rhe miscellaneous stuff that explodes out into open space and now resting before dinner. 

The plan is to leave tomorrow morning which puts us in Savusavu Fiji Tuesday (local time, Monday N.Hemisphere).  Knock wood the winds are looking like a friendly down wind/ behind the beam passage. Fingers crossed. 

Will post as we go via SSB.

VaVa'u Tonga

Tuesday, 14 August

Our time in Tonga is drawing to a close.  Hard to believe we have been here almost 3 months. It has been a great experience and as expected we have made new friends in the cruising and local community. 

Surprisingly and pleasantly so, it has not been particularly hot. I mean I know it's winter, but I expected higher Temps. I don't think its ever been more than 28C (82 F).  Yes, there have been a few nights with no breeze that were hard to sleep through, but overall surprisingly mild. 

We left Nuku alofa, the main city on the main island of Tongatapu in June. I wrote at length about our time there. Next stop was the Haapai group. 

The Ha'apai were amazing. Navigation was challenging at times, but its a beautiful group of islands. If we come back to Tonga we will plan to spend way more time there. 

VaVa'u has also been great. Navigation is easy, provisioning is easy, internet is abundant and we have had a great time. 

Josh came for 10 days. It was so good to see him. He enjoyed the break from Wellington winter.  But probably the best part for him was that he got to come to the boat, enjoy a new place with warm weather and then go home. A vacation not a lifestyle. Haha. 

Paul (our inepid and handy crew member) left us at the end of July to return to the states. He was great crew. Hope to catch up with him in NZ this fall (spring in NZ lol).

The water here continues to amaze me.  It is so clear and the color is beyond  pretty, it even photographs well!  The snorkeling is good, not great, but we still enjoy it. 

Speaking of the water, we had an Evergreen malfunction first in Nieafu. The watermaker was having high pressure issues - seems we sucked up a jelly fish into the water intake strainer.  Funny in retrospect, not so much at the time. Honestly at that point there were so many jellyfish  (moon jellies) that you could practically walk on the water. There haven't been anywhere near as many at any time since. Regardless, therehas been no watermaking in Nieafu since. 

Whales.  We expected to see more whales and i really wanted to do a whale swim. I am sure there is a human related reason, but we just haven't seen that many whales. We heard them loud and clear in the anchorage at Nuku  (#8) and have seen them from a distance. Their singing is pretty amazing. Whale watching/whale swims are big business here in Nieafu and I wonder if that is not part of the problem or it could just be how it is this year. Either way I am not willing to take the chance of paying the big bucks and not get a swim with them. 

So now we are back in Nieafu in the mooring field prepping to leave for Fiji. Its about 450nm. Hopefully only 3 nights. We will check in at Savusavu. Not a huge passage, but our first as just the two of us. I will post to the blog each day, and hopefully our position will come up as well. Exact departure is wind/weather dependant as usual, but these westerlies/south westerlies are due to clock back into normal east/southeast trades by Thursday. We need fuel and of course to get it duty free you have to get it on the day you check out. Yikes what a pain, but it is what it is. Right?

I will keep you posted.

Avalau. VaVa'u

First anchoragw in the VaVa'u group.  Good snorkeling. Did a circum nav of the island in the dinghy. Stayed til Tuesday then onto Neiafu to check in and provision.

25 June. Va Va'u

Arrived Ovaka Island yesterday morning. Gotta love sailors never the right amount of wind.   This time too much, so we were getting here too fast. Tonga is not the place for arriving in unfamiliar anchorages in the dark. So at 0230 we practiced heaving to. After several tries we finally settled on a sail configuration.  Paul had the watch and Dennis and i went off. Dennis,went on at 0600 and got us back headed in the right direction. We had anchor down by 1130 and spent the rest of the day recovering. 

First impressions of this new group of islands is that they are younger in geological terms. There are reefs, but the islands themselves are rockier, lusher and taller. I'll post pictures when the internet is better. 

Not sure what is on the agenda today. Definitely need to provision in the near future which means heading to Nieafu. 

Big Happy Birthday to my nephew Eli!!

Leaving Pangai

Leaving Paingai and the Ha'apai group as we speak. Next stop VaVau!  Should be there tomorrow morning.

Sunday service at the Wesleyan Church

Today we went to Church.  Didn't understand a single word, but we were welcomed with big smiles. The singing was amazing and well worth the 30 minute rant by the minister. Hahahaha. 

It isnt legal to do work/strenuous activity on Sundays here in Tonga. So we had a lazy day just on case the work police were out.

Sunset at Pangai, Ha'apai Tonga

Evergreen with the volcano in the background

Cruising social life

I think one of the best parts about cruising is meeting other cruisers.  

We had sundowners on sv Letting Go with the crews from Double Trouble and Citation. Lovely way to end the day.

14 June 2018. Uoleva

Wow. Time flies. 

We are now anchored off Uoleva.  We finally got out of Uonukuohifohifa. It was pretty and we did some Snorkelling. Yikes the charts for this region are about as good as the grib files. Meaning not so good. Added a few gray hairs leaving our anchorage. On the chart we were no where near the reef, in reality we drove right over the top of one. Didn't hit bottom, but dang we were close. My poor stomach lining. Hahahaha.

It was a short hop to Uiha.  Spent the night there then another short hop to our current anchorage. 

Wednesday we met up with Jo & Rob on Double Trouble and walked around the Island - 10km. What was I thinking doing that?  Was worth it though. Saw my first sea snake of the trip and generally enjoyed the company and the exercise. Dennis is nursing a sciatica type pain, so did not join us.  Hoping that resolves itself quickly.  

Jo & Rob came for drinks that evening which was also quite enjoyable.  Yes this is the cruising life we like so well.

As it is actually 3am, not sure what we will do today. If its nice, we'll probably stay put and go to Pangai to check in and get greens/fresh food on Friday and Saturday, then head back out to maybe dive with DT & Citation. Who knows????  We are back in semi internet range. Not great but gets the job done all be it slowly. 

Saturday 9 June

Friday - stayed where we were. was a blustery rainy day. Good day to just chill - which we did.

Today (Saturday) we are readying ourselves to head to Uonukuhihifo. Its about 3 hours from here. Hoping to catch up with Double Trouble.

More later

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Thursday 7 June

Still at Ha'afeva. turned into a work on the computer day. I helped Dennis enter uncharted reefs into the navigation software and he then uploaded to the system and then worked on our back up navigation. A little rant here on how Windows 10 is compatible with some of our navigation software. We installed windows 7 on the back up computer - which now has a dead screen. we are able to hook up to the TV, but yep I sure would love to be doing that in crap weather - NOT. Anyway, I hate software and software companies at the moment. It was a nice day too. Paul snorkeled the reef by shore, so at least one of us did something fun. LOL pity party over. Comes with not sleeping well.

Wanted to leave today (Friday 8 June), but at the moment we are in the midst of a squall. Maybe we will move - maybe not. Only need a 3-4 hour window. I could happen.... ]

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Lessons in appreciation - Ha'aFeva

Wednesday 6 June
Rough night of sleep - wind died down and its been pretty muggy. Then we had to close up as it rained in the middle of the night - I assumed my customary position in the cockpit and after being rained on my legs for an hour I was cool enough to go back to the comfortable bed.

Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day, so we decided to swim into the beach and walk to the village. Paul took the paddle board because its not proper to walk in the village in our swimsuits, plus we needed water, camera and shoes. After a hearty breakfast we donned our gear, packed up the dry bag and took off.
Too bad the snorkel over was part of the plan to get to the village. The reef between us and shore was pretty amazing. The plan is to revisit it today.

Not too much beach on the side of the wharf we swam to, so we tied the paddleboard up in the bushes and headed along the beach to the wharf. At some point it must have been pretty modern, but some cyclone at some point has taken care of that - and as we were to find out - only subsistence living on Ha'aFeva, so they are at the mercy of their government or aide from another country. The "road" into the village is an over grown double track, muddy in places from the rain overnight. So pretty though. First thing we noticed was the barbed wire fences. To keep animals in or people out? We eventually saw cows, so figured the fence was either to keep them in or as it turns out - keep them out. We passed a boggy spot, curved around and started seeing plantings of banana trees and yam/tapioca. I guess we had been walking about 20 minutes when we saw a man working in the trees and another man walking towards us. Both were friendly and the man on the road asked us if we wanted papaya - that was a definite "yes", so he asked us to follow him and so began the days lesson in appreciation.

Pita led us thru and to the "gardens". On the way he stopped and got a machete from his mother. Pita's english is not so good, and our Tongan is limited to Malo - thank you and "eyo" (sp?) - yes. But, we managed. We got to the Papaya "garden", which honestly just looked like more forest to me, but there lots of papaya trees. Pita cut us several papaya and then went to get us some bananas. OMG Dennis went with him and he said he was wondering how he was going to reach the bunch of bananas and "whack".... He cut down the whole tree, barely missing Dennis in the process. Meanwhile Paul and I were waiting in the clearing. Two small leantos, one covered with sides that had a bike in the back and one with just a corrugated roof made up the buildings there. Sadly with the ever present plastic bottles and soda cans littered about. This gave us some inkling that the village may have more in the way of modern conveniences than what we had seen so far. Pita brought me some yams (2 small ones, cuz I have no idea how to cook them), some spring onions and prize of the day - a watermelon. We offered him money, which he tried to decline, but at this point we had way more than $20 tongan dollars worth of fruit. I also gave him two of my granola bars - which I think he was happier about - those disappeared quickly into his pockets. We took pictures of all of us with him. It took a bit of doing, but we finally figured out he wanted us to print some for him. In the end we got his postal address - lol Pita Ta ufu'i Ha'aFeva. I guess with only 200 people on the island he won't be hard to find. He then asked if we wanted limes. We said yes so off we went to his "home". Pita may not be very tall, but man, he sets a grueling pace or maybe its the fact that we are boat bound and haven't spent much time on land in the last month.


We followed trails that barely qualify as such, but I guess there really aren't enough feet to keep the jungle at bay. Thankfully Pita knew where he was going. We passed cows and pigs (the pigs eat coconut, so bet they are yummy eating - can you say bacon? I know I am a terrible person...) We opened a fence, cut through a yard and boom we were on the main road in the village - on the opposite side of the island from our boat. Pita took us to his home. Running water and flush toilets, but no electricity in the "kitchen". We put our bags down, and finally said yes to a coconut. Pita has a stake in place and made quick work of the outer hull. Wish we could rig something like that on the boat. Then he sent us for a walk to see the village.

The village has a church, a medical center (about the size of a half container) manned by a nurse and with a generator running. When asked Pita said the generator was for a freezer - when I said medicine he said fish and laughed. We passed a building that looked like a school, but could have been a community center as there were no children there. There was also a big modern motor boat on a trailer. Of course we gravitated to the water. There we saw the remains of another wharf, some small fishing boats anchored - maybe some fish traps. There was a sign that said the work was done by Australia - must have been several cyclones ago. We caught up with Pita - on his way to the store to buy cigarettes for his dad. So we followed, curious to see the store. While we were waiting for the proprietress to open up Pita told us there are 3 stores - 2 Tongan and one Chinese. We were at one of the Tongan ones and the proprietress had a severe case of osteoporosis/scoleosis. We had a peek inside and besides cigarettes, she had nappies, cookies, oil, tinned corned beef, crackers, lollies, soda and lighters. There was another youngish woman with two small children there - I found a flower and gave it to her for her hair. Wish I would have snapped a picture. Her children were 2 and 4 and so cute. She said the school was further down the side street we were on. I guess that is where all the school age kids were.

Back to Pita's place to pick up our things. He showed us his hen with new baby chicks - I swear that hen was purring - never heard a chicken do that. cool. We took off back to our boat side of the island. Had a pit stop to drop off the cigarettes to his dad. Broken chain saw -and the tool they had didn't work - we promised a crescent wrench (had also promised a paint brush, lol should have taken more papaya, but we were loaded down as it was). They are building fence to surround a new yam garden. After looping back to the road, we passed a man cutting down bread fruit - dang I had to take one. They are a pain in the butt to cook, but I guess at some point we will have bread fruit fries.

Hungry and tired and thirsty we made it back to the wharf/beach. Dennis and Paul went back to the boat and I sat with Pita and our haul. Kind of difficult to make small talk, but I did discover that Pita (his wife is currently in Nuku'Alofa) has one son in school in Nuku'Alofa. I also told my share of little white lies. He wanted to know if we had beer - I said no, if we had waterproof torches - only one I said (this would have been to use getting lobster on the reef) and if our little boat (dinghy) was working - I said no. I hate that, but was easier than trying to explain why we were not going to give him beer or a torch or put the dinghy in the water just for him. I did however promise to go by the new boat in the anchorage and give them his name. Dennis made it back in the kayak towing the paddleboard for me. The wharf managed to get a bite out of both of us - I slipped and fell when we first got there and Dennis cut his fingers getting back into the kayak. Definitely time to get back to the boat. We did stop at "Libertee" to give them the scoop on Pita and Ha'afeva. Shared our grib info and headed to the boat.

The fruit and veg were a great score, but needed to be salt water dunked to make sure no critters came aboard with them. But the first thing we did after that was cut up some fruit. Papaya and watermelon. Yum. We tried the green fruit Pita called limes - yeah not so much. Not sure what it is but really sour. Thin green coating over a thicker white rind then orange inside with black seeds. Will have to ask someone that speaks better english at some point.

Of course can't have such a good day without something not functioning properly - the generator was out of coolant - fixable, but what a chore after such a big day. Dennis got is sorted though. We had the rest of the Mahi grilled for dinner. I did half with cajun seasoning and the other in garlic,olive oil and lime. Consensus is that they were both good, but the cajun was the best. Need to catch another fish now.

Well today will be a semi rest day. Dennis is replacing the kitchen fan as we speak, so rest is a relative term I guess. Making water, running the generator, tidying up and maybe a snorkel later. Will probably leave tomorrow as the wind is supposed to be SE. Its about a 20 mile hop to Uonukuhihifo, then Uhia,Tatafa, and Uoleva before we hit Lifoka and Pangai.

Wow long winded today.....

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Ha 'afeva

Moved today. Short hop and uneventful at least until we got here. Motored the whole way as it was directly up wind from our last position, and not the 5-10 knots as suggested by the gribs - more like 15-20. OH well, we should be used to it by now.

On the plus side, the anchor went down and caught first try. On the "are we space cadets or what" side, we forgot to bring in the fishing lines. Lady Karma must have been in a super good mood, because we did not wrap the prop. AND we recovered the hand lures that snapped during our afternoon snorkel. Nice to have some good luck - thanks to whomever arranged that.

Its a little bouncy here, but those gribs suggest that the wind will clock around from north to east to southeast over the next 48 hours and then it will be better. Had a good snorkel - lots of pretty little fish. Sunset was amazing tonight - all fiery red with a volcano in the background.

WAs hoping for internet here to post some pictures - there is a tower, not sure what it is for, but definitely not internet. OH well we will cope- HAHAHA. We plan to stay here tomorrow and continue north the day after.

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Sunday 3 June

Happy Birthday Mom - hope you are having a good party in heaven. Miss you as always. Thanks for sending us the MahiMahi - it was yum.... LOL

So we moved today - left the bouncy/rolly anchorage at Nomuka and came to O'ua about 15 miles north. Dennis hooked the aforementioned Mahi on the way out of the anchorage. Yum!! Fish tacos for dinner tonight. The sail here after the fish was pretty uneventful - anchoring was a little exciting. the anchor chain wouldn't come loose (probably fell on top of itself during the sail) and I let us drift to close in to the reef. - A few minutes of pandemonium, but no harm and we are now safely anchored in a nice calm place. And we are all still talking to each other. Its a bit wild working our way thru the myriad of reefs and small islands. Very pretty though. We will stay tomorrow and swim into the beach - maybe score some coconuts.

I made more homemade corn tortillas for the tacos - wish I would have brought more than the one bag of corn flour.........

Still no internet - no casualties or withdrawal symptoms noted. Will be nice to post pictures at some point.

Until tomorrow.....

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Nuku'Alofa

So where did I leave off?
Last Thursday waiting for a part? Picking up what we thought was a fixed rebuilt starter/solenoid?

Well the part did arrive in Tonga on Friday, sadly we could not pick it up until Saturday. Spare Parts zone guy promised it would be ready first thing and that he would then call the guy at the Ministry of Industry to put the bearing into the housing. The waterpump fix was a bust, so we collected our parts to bring back to the boat. The solenoid/starter was ready from Phoenix electric. So we headed back to the wharf to wait for the ferry. Dennis was able to get packing gland material from Johnny, the engineer at the place that fixes boats at the wharf. Nice knowledgeable guy. And then, Lo and behold, who did we see there but our new friends on Double Trouble, getting ready to head to Big Mama's as they had just finished checking in. So, we hitched a ride with them - sweet deal for us. They had a crap run up from NZ too - same winds on the nose plus rain.

Back at the boat Dennis replaced the engine raw water pump with the spare - working like a charm. Rebuild kit ordered from NZ for Josh to bring when he comes in July. - wow can you believe it's June already!!
Starter/solenoid, not so much.

Saturday we were up and on the way to town on the 0900 ferry. We divided up - I went to the market and Dennis and Paul went to pick up the part and a solenoid (yay they had the one we needed) and go to MOI (ministry of industry) to have the rudder parts put together. Let me stop here to give a plug to Razak (head guy) at Spare Parts Zone - he was very helpful. He let us take the solenoid and the bearing (at varying times) to try before we paid. Very cool. That place has tons of parts. The guys picked me up and we headed back to the boat.

Saturday afternoon we installed the new rudder bearing - was not totally straightforward, but it is back together and working great. The solenoid went onto the starter and after some fiddling is working well too.

Sunday - rest day and a walk around the Island followed by cold beer at Big Mama's. AHHHHHHH......

Monday - back to town to pick up our visa's, get our money back from Phoenix electric. No go to both of those - Visa's not ready until the afternoon, so we decided to head back to the boat.

Tuesday - back to town - Visa's ready, starter money returned, jerry jugs filled with diesel - oh and did I mention that Sunday after everything was all back together and running - then the refrigerator thermostat fully died. Sigh. Fortunately we were able to pick up a thermostat (for free) from a place next door to the Total station (which takes credit cards)by the Small Industries Park. Next up was provisioning. There is a place out by the Hospital called CostLow - you guessed it - imports from Costco. I swear I got things here cheaper than in New Zealand. Lol - don't get me started. Anyway we stocked up from a variety of places - veggies and fruit from the market, dry goods - costlow and meat from the place next to Cowley's (which is a bakery - sweets and only white bread when we were there). A busy day ended with an 1.5 hour wait for the ferry. The digicel tower is right there, so we called and talked to Josh.

Wednesday - beautiful sunny day. We checked out of Tongatapu -don't forget to pay the Port Authority fees. Headed to Ata for a head start jump to the Ha'apai. We are having to remember how to navigate through coral and reefs again - yuck! Hard on the stomach. We had good light, so getting in was not too bad. It is coming back to us how the color of the water changes indicating depth and presence of coral heads close to the surface.

Yesterday we left early in flat light to head to Kelefesia Island. Had a great day of beam/behind the beam sailing. As we approached Kelefesia, the swell got big and then - breaking waves in the distance. Looking at the chart and the guide and the view in front of us - yeah - not so much. They are not kidding when they say the anchorage is only good in calm seas..... Pretty sure it would have to be absolutely flat calm before I would even attempt that entrance. Being smarter than the average bears, we did have plan B and hence the reason we chose to leave so early in flat light. 15 miles further to Nomuka and still lots of daylight. And here we are. Its a pretty rolly anchorage, but no breaking waves at the entrance. Lots of them that you can see, but that comes with the reef. I am sure it would be awesome here in calmer weather. We haven't even put the dinghy in the water, and won't unless it calms down. Poor Dennis - borderline motion sick. No internet. We were spoiled in Nuku'Alofa.

Another work day today. Dennis fixed the freezer - the hard ride up to Tonga from NZ, created a few leaks. He also installed the new thermostat for the fridge and worked on the water pump. I shudder to think about how it would be if Dennis was not so handy. Electrician, plumber, mechanic, captain........
Paul has now completed seal replacement on 4 port holes. I did my usual cooking and cleaning and general assisting where ever needed. Cockpit looks pretty good - I have to say.

Okay - all caught up. Hope you all had a good three day weekend (in the states) and are not freezing to death in NZ.

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Immigration and more boat maintenance in exotic places

And rhe saga continues.....

Wednesday, back to immigration.  Oh by the way, bring your own pen and exact change. 

Anybody out there reading this and coming to Tonga. Take note. You need  passports, their form, a letter written from the boat requesting an extension. To be safe include the boat name, all the names of the people requesting the extension and forvhow long. They didn't seem to care who signed it.  A passport photo of each person. And exact change is helpful.  We didnt need it, but an other boat had to give copies of their passports.  Kinda random. All that and come back on Monday to pick up. Yikes.

At least we spent the afternoon putting the toys in the water. Earl brought back full jugs of fuel and again the beer was cold. 

Pictures

Heading home after a cold beer at Mamas

22 May 2018

Searching for Boat parts in Paradise

So the rudder bearing. OMG what a mother to get out, but we did. Who needs specialised tools when you have Morrison ingenuity on board. I won't go in to all the details, but it did involve all the key components that make this life so glamorous - head down ass up, hot, dropping things (thankfully not all the way to the bilge because we taped a catcher cloth in place), swearing and finally after 2 hours the part came off the rudder. With all that in mind the thought of putting it back on is daunting.

The next step is finding a replacement part. The shuttle from Mama's took us over to town at 1100. We got a taxi to Tonga Cool where Allo (sp?) said he couldn't help but the bearing should just spin over and pop out. Go to Spare parts Zone and get a new one. SPZ sent us to another place to have the bearing removed from the housing - sadly they weren't exactly on top of the program and cracked the housing. Back to SPZ. The head guy there helped us (thank god) and knew what we needed - he has the bearing, but not the housing/plate it goes in. He called a guy - it will be here Friday (would have been tomorrow if we had made the 0900 shuttle). Dennis is not confident that it is going to happen - I will call tomorrow. Next stop Digicel for sim cards for our phones after almost 2 hours we sent our helpful taxi driver on his way for a whopping 15 dollars US - a deal at twice the price. FOOD! we were all hot and starving - spicey chicken and pork? curry for lunch - lots of food for 3 people plus drinks - $12.50 US. From there almost an hour back at Digicel setting up the phones so we can top up on line. Can't complain - 2 GB for $10 US. 200pm now - and on our way to immigration to extend our visas. Customs guy yesterday either an ass or doesn't understand english too well - I mean it was his handwriting that only gave us 30 day visas.... Oh well. We were given forms to fill out at immigration handed them in and the guy says - oh we don't process these after 2pm. Come back tomorrow morning and bring passport fotos to go with the paperwork. Sigh...... Next the market - nice veggies and some fruit. picked up some lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and green beans, apples and oranges. Went to the "US" mini mart across the street and did some costco shopping - Man costco is everywhere!!! I am very happy to have picked up some pasta and kirkland canned chicken (its the small things right?). We were done, stick a fork in us done. Taxied back to the dock and waited for the 4pm shuttle - which arrived right on time, turfed off the cruise ship tourists, loaded us on and headed back.

AHHHHH. a beer, a swim, a shower..... Life is good. Need to check with Earl what time the shuttle is going in the morning so we can tie up the immigration loose ends. Then the plan is to blow up the paddle board, put the kayak in the water and chill. We will be here until Monday at least as the part doesn't come until friday and we can't check out on the weekends. Next stop Ha'appai group.

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21 May 2018

TONGA!!!! We arrived Tongatapu - Nuku'alofa approximately 1500 hours. The run up from Minerva was nice - sailed for about a day and a half then motor sailed to ensure we arrived here in the daylight. It is picture postcard beautiful. We anchored at Pangiamotu in front of Big Mama's place. We had a swim, showers a meal at the table then a good night's sleep in a flat bed. Heaven.

Today we completed customs and immigration formalities. We motored over to the ferry dock and tied up at the cement pier. The customs office is strategically hidden in an unmarked building surrounded by containers. But we found it and it had a/c - wow! and it is warm so it was definitely appreciated. After filling out forms with the same information in at least 4 different places, we were good to go from customs. The customs guy called the health guys and the quarantine (biosecurity) guy and lo and behold, the first one was there waiting by the time we walked back to the boat and the Health guy was there within 5 minutes of the Quarantine guy leaving. Sorted.

We mistakenly thought we had to go back to the customs guy - so we did. He told us we have 3 month visas - this is contrary to everything we have heard, so need to check that out tomorrow. Dennis asked him about fuel, and he directed us to the 2 fuel suppliers. No joy on having 400 litres of diesel delivered to where we were tied up. Seems they have no empty drums in the country and don't know when they will and won't bring the truck to deliver any less than 1000 litres (yeah not so much lol). So we walked back to the boat and got a taxi to take Dennis to the gas station to fill up the jerry jugs. 20 gallons down - at least 80 more to go........... An ATM was found and Tongan money obtained. Dennis brought back a cold diet coke from the gas station - OMG ambrosia from the gods. By this time we were all hot and hungry. It seems we forgot to have breakfast - we did have coffee, so at least we were awake, hot and hungry. Back to Pangiamotu where we managed to get the anchor down on the second try.

Nachos for lunch!!! The dinghy is in the water, the newly obtained fuel in the tank - YAY time to play. Met the neighbors (who also loaned us Tongan money to get through check in) and went in to Big Mama's for a beer or two. Sadly I am not all the way into cruising mode, cuz I forgot my camera :(. Oh well guess we'll have to go back tomorrow.

So Big Mama's. Yes there is a big Mama and her husband Earl. really only pictures can tell the story. There's a wreck out front that is used as the sign for the place. Gita did a number on some of the buildings, but the beer is cold and there is shade. They have pigs - 3 adults and 5 babies. Imagine a big pig running down the beach to cool off in the water. Crazy! Earl will help us get more fuel later this week.

Tomorrow the plan is to get up and remove the rudder bearing in time to catch the ferry into town at 0900. We will then try to obtain sim cards, fresh food and info on replacing the rudder bearing (cross your fingers there). If all goes well we'll get the 1100 ferry back and then relax in the water in the afternoon. I'll let you know how that goes.

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19 May 2018

another nice day. some sailing, some motorsailing. Will arrive Nuku' alofa tomorrow - using the engine to ensure that happens during daylight. Think the passage into the harbour is going to give us some new gray hairs. We are all looking forward to a new place.

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Friday, definitely Friday 18 May

We left Minerva Reef today - approx 0830. Beautiful sunny day, nice breeze and guess what? We are actually sailing!!! Wow this is nice. We are still heeled over some, but its a nice smooth motion. We are really enjoying the quiet.

Minerva was an awesome break I am so glad we were able to stop. At low tide the boat was so still i would have sworn we were tied up at the marina. We had a good rest, got necessary chores done and enjoyed being still for a few days.

So yes it is Friday here and we will not lose a day on arrival in Tonga. Big shout out to Peter at Northland radio. I don't know what the set up is, but he has been on the radio at 6pm (NZ) every night taking our position, answering questions (like will we lose a day) and generally mother henning the boats that check in. It is good to know he is there for us - so send some positive vibes his way.

We are back to our routine of watches etc., and expect to arrive in Tonga Sunday afternoon. We can't check in until Monday, but we will anchor, fly our Q flag, reinflate the dinghy and make ourselves presentable for dealing with the Tongan customs and immigration officials. I am really looking forward to the fresh food market. WE plan to stay in Nuku ulofa for a little while, we want to see what sights there are as well as try to deal with the rudder bearing. Hopefully the internet will be good enough to post some pictures.

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Thursday or is it wednesday??

17 May New Zealand time

It has been a really nice break - even if it has been a working one. MInerva is totally awesome and it has been heavenly to be still and sleeping like normal people.

So what have we done the last 2 days? The Forward head was rebuilt by Paul. KUdos to him for not jumping ship that was an all day nasty project. Dennis fixed/replaced a couple of fans investigated the rudder leak. seems the bearing on the rudder is loose - nothing to be done about it until Tonga - it is in no danger of falling off or not working. He also adjusted the packing gland around it. We'll see how she goes once we are back underway. Its not leaking much at the moment. Paul wanted to switch cabins (meaning a total resort of the food etc) which I did whilst he was slaving on the forward head.

Today was a little more laidback. Dennis added waypoints for Tonga into the navigation system (trust me not as straight forward as it sounds), topped up the engine oil and coolant. YIkes we motored more to get here than we did to get to NZ from HI. Crappy weather routing. so we also put all the diesel from the jerry jugs in the tanks. I cleaned and vacuumed the interior and the cockpit and made food (I am always making food). and we made water - the watermaker loves this clear water. THe filter I changed that only had about 5 hours on it from Russell was disgusting - in fact the water maker wouldn't work it was so yucky. Yep just boat maintenance in paradise - hahahaha. We all got a swim in today - the water really cleared up - you can see all the way to the bottom - 45 feet.

Toast and Dean sent some weather info which pretty much supports what Dennis is seeing on the gribs. We will leave tomorrow morning for Tonga (nukalofa sp??), hope to be there Sunday. ONce there I will figure out what the time difference is. I think we lost a day there somewhere - so its really yesterday and one hour ahead. Does my head in. We hope this next leg will be a little friendlier, but as always will batten down the hatches just in case. LOL.

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YAY! Minerva

15 May - 1600 hours - made it to N Minerva reef. What a crazy crossing so far. All upwind (close hauled) and motor sailing the whole way. Pretty much a first there. Oh well. We are here and after 3 attempts finally got the anchor to stick. Frustrating, but again we are here, we are stopped it is flat and quiet with a nice cool breeze coming thru the boat. AHHHHHH. the beer was good and so was the gin and tonic. Fajitas for dinner. Showers. Life is good.

So here we are anchored in the middle of the ocean. How cool is that? I will post pictures (eventually). There are 4 other boats here, at least 2 are leaving tomorrow. We plan to be here until Saturday and then only 250 miles to Tonga. It is warm here too. Of course we have one or two chores to do while we are here - forward toilet needs a new flapper valve and seat and the rudder is leaking - those are the main two. after that its just a lot of tidying up after 8 days of being at a 20 degree heel. Oh and we will all sleep in our own beds in the normal orientation. HAHA we have been taking turns sleeping on the settee and the floor in the main salon - I am short enough to be able to sleep sideways on our bed, but even my feet hang over the edge! Really it is the simple things....

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14 May

day 7 - definitely warming up. too hot to sit in the sun in the cockpit and still taking waves, so can't take down the rain flys. Nice problem to have. Still here, still bouncing along. We should be at Minerva reef north sometime tomorrow - its 80 miles as the crow flies. We still have to get some easting in - our plan is that south Minerva will be blocking some of the wave action and we will be able to head east more comfortably. Right now we are going as east as we can without a full on tack. So still close hauled.

Uneventful day. All well on board - looking forward to being flat and still for a few days.

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Sunday 13 May

Well Hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day. Uneventful and more of the same here. motorsailing, winds still from the north, bouncing along. Highlight of my Mother's day was having a shower. Or at least getting clean using running water haha. No hot water, but felt good. Did my 10-2 watch in shorts and a tee shirt - nice and warm. still have the enclosures up as still getting some pretty good wave action. Really nice to be dry. Trust me its the small things.

Its 5pm and overcast at the moment. time for me to start thinking about what to make with the defrosted chicken - I am thinking curry. pretty much our routine. light breakfast, snacks for lunch then dinner. Dennis does the checkin on the SSB at 6pm so we eat just after that. Our routine has been to turn off the engine for the checkin so Dennis can hear and then eat with it off and enjoy the quiet.

no other traffic seen - just us out in the middle of the great blue sea. Looking forward to Minerva, but not the day of heading east to get there. that will be a whole lot of not fun, but maybe not. Murphy's law says that the day we head east will be the day the east wind comes and we'll have more bashing.

Everyone seems to have overcome any seasickness and all is well.

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saturday 23 May

Nothing exciting to report unless you consider a broken toilet (head) exciting. good thing we have two as the sea state and point of sail are not conducive to boat projects at the moment.
The sea is that beautiful blue color that blue water cruising gets its name from. it is still sunny and pretty warm. THe high that is currently beating us up is pulling up a little of the cool wind from the south. Dennis says we will know we have gotten thru the high when it warms up more.
So yeah, still motor-sailing trying to get to the east as much as possible, wind has gotten stronger 15- 20 kts, but straight from the N/ NE, sigh.... one day i will have a behind the beam crossing - it could happen. haha. Josh knows what I mean. I have to say though that the new side coverings I made for the cockpit are pretty awesome. definitely not pretty, but hey we are dry and that is a major plus. We've been having water over the bow since last night. so score one for me and my sailrite!!

For lots of different reasons - mostly the point of sail we are currently on, we are going to go to Minerva reef - look it up. a place to anchor in the middle of the ocean. Way cool I think. We hope to be there by Tuesday and will stay until Friday or Saturday.

ok, that's us for now. we are hunkered down and holding on for the ride. Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms out there. I hope you get lots of hugs and I love yous.

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day 4 rockin and a rollin

yep I knew it was coming. lol my favourite point of sail - close haul. yah - nahh. at least we reefed the main today - we are way overpowered with it fully deployed - better now. on a positive note it is warming up. Was cloudy early today, but sun is out again now. We are doing okay, Dennis and Paul back on anti seasick medication. I'm doing okay so far. hope all is well out there.

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Day 3 10 May

Still motoring with the main up. winds still very light. Another beautiful sunny day. Checked the fuel situation -still good only used 1/4 tank in 43 hours of motor sailing. We are all well, catching up on sleep. Dennis actually had coffee today, must mean seasickness is not a worry. I finally caved and had a diet coke - yay bye bye headache. Don't feel like I drink enough caffeine to have withdrawals, but there you are.
Feels a little warmer, must be the north aspect of the wind.? Last night was pretty comfortable on the midnight to 0300 watch. Everyone is in shirt sleeves today.
Crew is being fed well which is probably the only real upside to no wind. I made fried chicken with salad last night and huevos rancheros for brunch today. Thinking I should have brought more fruit - oh well we definitely are not going to starve. Tonight's menu is shepherds pie.
Another positive of flat motor sailing (and did I say it looks like a lake out there?) is that i was easily able to wash my hair - no hot water but still felt good. haha its the small things right?
oh the glamorous life of crossings. Some people have deep thoughts, but not me - I think about what to cook and when to sleep. Kind of refreshing to be forced to not worry about anything but those things. Trying to live in the now and enjoy what we have no way of changing.
yep off for a nap before starting dinner.

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end of day 2

position 33.31.82s, 176.59.57e, course 55T
sunny day and we are settling in, not too much wind so lots of motoring. good way to start, but wishing for about 5 more knots of wind. I know, I know, I want it all. Everyone caught up on sleep today, I finally feel human - just in time for night watch.
It's still a bit cool, we are all in long sleeves and long trousers during the day and bundled up at night. The moon came up last night and looked like a big ship on the horizon. Was pretty bright when it finally decided to come out from behind the clouds.
Not too much traffic out here, saw a freighter yesterday afternoon, and a sailboat passed behind us this afternoon. had a swallow hanging out today - way too far out for him. Paul said he was able to pick him up out of the cockpit. Finally flew off.
Boat systems functioning properly at the moment. the part for the refrigerator and freezer didn't come in time, so a boat coming to Tonga behind us will bring it. So, they are functioning, just have to turn them on and off as they are either on or off - lol.

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We're leaving!

Tomorrow is the big day. We have a window and ran around like crazy the last two days to take advantage of it.  Sadly we will not be stopping at Minerva reef. We have to make as much east as possible otherwise we will have wind on the nose for the last  250 miles or so. Definitely not my idea of a good time.  Its disappointing for sure, but one of those choices that come up from time to time.  Minerva isn't  going anywhere, so maybe next year.

It's about 1000nm to Tonga from here so figure 6 to 9 days.  Feel free to email us at wdj9035@sailmail.com and or follow us at www.oceantracking.com  using wdj9035 as our call sign. Getting email on a crossing is like getting cookies from mom when you went to camp.   The blog is not posting to FB or updating our track and I have run out of time to deal with it.

So why such a crazy day?  We've been steadily working on the boat for 10 days right?  Well I have been pondering just that as i sit in the marina  laundry doing the final loads.. and i guess it comes down to the fact that there is a pretty long list of things that cannot be done way in advance.  Laundry is a prime example  you do it and then you have to wear clothes or use a towel.  Same with fresh food - it doesn't last hence "fresh", filling water, getting duty free fuel, putting the dinghy on  deck, setting up the jacklines, setting up the wind vane steering and thats not all of the list.  So no matter how "ready" we are, the last days are always a scramble, and if  we wait for perfect.......  we would still be here in June. And frankly it is too darn cold now.

Yesterday we finished cleaning the hull using our hooka (no not the kind you smoke, it's an air compressor run off a battery so we can breathe thru regulators  sorta like scuba but attached to a hose).  It was my first time doing it  one of those things Josh and Dennis just did..wasn't  as bad as I had anticipated, went well.  My only complaint was about all the little sea criiters that decided that if the couldnt attach to the boat they would attach to me (my wetsuit).  Yikes i had whole colonies ewwww!

So thats us for today.  Our  appointment to clear out with customs is 9am, and we plan to head out directly  after that. Happy Mother's Day in advance. 

6 May 2018

Rainy day chore day. 

After spending all day yesterday fixing the really not broken (air lock) generator, we have another calm as day for doing chores. 

Dennis thinks we may have a weather window, leaving Tuesday at the latest. Not sure we can get  all the "must dos" done for that. However the next window looks to be 10 days out. We could be in Tonga by then.. email sent to Commander's weather for input. 

Honestly though the boat is looking prerty ship shape. Paul has been tireless in completing any task we throw at him.  Lots of things checked off the list of "nice to get done". For example floats on the dinghy line, toe protectors on the fittings on the forward deck and the latch fixed on the cupboard in our head.

I suppose the 3am wake ups thinking of things to finish up indicate its time to get a move on. 

Will update when we figure out what the plan is. For now. Back to prep work

Final FB try for today

Why oh why wont post to FB  i dont wantvto buy symphony

Test post 2a

Test 

Facebook test post

Testing testing again

3 May 2018

Re: Sunset back on our mooring

Its been a busy busy week at the marina. We checked off many things on the to do list.  

Today was a beautiful day.  We motored back to our mooring, put the dinghy back in the water and took ourselves in to Russel for a nice hike up to the much maligned Flagstaff. Followed by a beer on the  the waterfront and our first  (of many to come)  provisioning on foot. Steaks on the BBQ for dinner!  

We notice how quiet it is here in Lily bay. And a nice sunset to end this autumn day in the Bay of Islands  (BOI)

Test post

Preparation for Tonga in progress. If this posts, one more thing checked off the list. Watch this space....

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