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1st-2nd October - Tonga - Vava'u - Neiafu

We spent Friday and Saturday being blasted with 40 knot squalls and lots of rain so we utilised our time on the mooring buoy by cleaning and tidying the boat. After serious sailing passages the boat tends to get a bit out of control with toys and clothes everywhere, a backlog of washing up, stuff not in there correct places and my chart table seems to look like a bombsite of wires and un-placeable objects. So we tidied and stowed, then tidied some more. Helen started on the sorting out of Sophie's cabin, removing and stowing most of her toys and things so that it is ready for the kids grandparents arriving the following week. I converted the spare cabin on the port hull into a bunk and Sophie moved in, rearranging her things to make her space her own.

We managed to dodge the showers during the day on Saturday morning to look around the town of Neiafu. Looking a little more third world than the Pacific Islands we have been passing through, such as the Societies and Cooks, the town oozes with local charm. A huge white church dominates the view from the anchorage towering over the town. The streets are metalled, but dusty, the shops lining the streets have that worn out look that cries out for a new lick of paint. The daily market on the harbour front is large and sells a lot of fruit and vegetables (mostly roots and local varieties). The carvings, jewellery and Tapas cloth is the biggest display and choice I have seen so far since Tahiti. Then there is the sight that makes Tonga, Tonga; There are men walking around in customary long black skirts (ta'ovala) with various types of decorative matting on top that seem to have a varying quality based on profession, from intricate, synthetic, lightweight, woven doyleys fastened neatly around the waist, to large, course, handmade, almost thrown-together mats of palm leaves tied around the waist with a belt or piece of string. Big is beautiful here, and the men and women, as they emerge from their teens, become large around the middle and the behind. Vava'u, in the first day of arriving, seems to be an interesting and fascinating place, a place that we will enjoy exploring over the next couple of weeks.

The kids loved looking around the market at all the little nick nacks and then we went up the road in search of birthday presents for Emma (who's birthday is on the 6th) and Marco(Mahi Mahi) and George(La Novia) birthday Party on Monday 3rd. We searched around and found some paper and coloured pencils and some modelling clay and then on the pretence of buying it I took the kids off for an ice cream while Helen hunted around some more for Emma's presents. She found an Umbrella, and a small back pack. Helen couldn't quite conceal the umbrella, the end pointing out of an obviously long package and when she turned up Emma's face immediately lit up in concealed excitement.

Helen inquired about costs and details at the laundry, in the internet cafe right by the dinghy dock while the kids played with two puppies in the doorway. The laundry is reasonable and the internet cafe quite fast at 12 pa'anga or 3 pounds an hour. We jumped in the dinghy and headed back to the boat dodging more showers. In the evening we went with Omazey to another restaurant for another meal out.

After a couple of nights of gusty and strong wind we woke up Sunday morning to a calmer day and indeed the weather had changed to a higher pressure and we were in for a good week of fine and settled weather. We headed off away from the town 5 miles south through the Island group of weaving tree lined channels to an anchorage where all our friends boats had anchored ready for the joint birthday the following day. Sophie was skipper the day and successfully ordered the rest of around to slip the mooring, unfurl the foresail and motor sailed us down to the anchorage, piloting the boat through the channels, around buoys and dropping the anchor off the white sandy beach in clear blue water amongst the other boats of 33 children all ready for the party.

Helen has been working like a beaver cleaning and tidying the boat ready for the Grandparents to arrive. We have all been helping to do our bit. Cleaning out lockers, the surfaces and giving the boat a good airing in the dry weather. Everyone is looking forward to them arriving on Thursday, on Emma birthday.

3rd - 9th - dead pigs and ballons

It has been three weeks since my last log write up, I haven't felt like writing. We are now in our last month of journey before we end this chapter in New Zealand and I am getting tired, both physically and emotionally. I struggle to summon the inspiration to write when feeling that way and have only recently fought myself back into a positive condition. We are all looking forward to a "break" in New Zealand, craving for solid-land living and a taste of a few more feet of space between each other. The anticipation of the arrival of two more people aboard in the shape of the kids' grandparents has only made us feel worse. Within a week of them being onboard however, their help around the boat, kindness and tolerance has reduced our levels of concern and we are all feeling much better.

Having said that we have had fun with three huge kids birthday parties. There were thirty three kids at the first party; Marco (Mahi-Mahi) and George's (La Novia) birthday party on the beach at Nuku Beach (or anchorage number 8 as the Moorings yacht charter company has unromantically labelled it). Mike from La Novia had organised some local men to bring some suckling pigs to be roasted, Tongan feast style over a fire. The kids were unphased by the sight of what were essentially 2 baby pigs with sticks shoved right up their bum and out of their mouth. Even Mia from Omazey, who cried at the thought of having turtle for tea in the Tuamotos seemed to hold it together at the sight of browning, dripping pig flesh as it sizzled over the fire. There were party games and masses of food brought in by all the yachties along with four birthday cakes. It was incredible to see so many kids together and the thought they were part of our cruising world in some way made these get togethers special.

Later that week it was Emma's Birthday. Grandma and Granddad, were arriving on the 0930 flight from southern Tonga (after a 12 time zone journey from the UK via Los Angeles). We had a quick birthday breakfast and a few birthday presents and jumped in a taxi to the airport to greet them. They arrived somewhat jaded and shell-shocked after a long journey. They had a problem in LA not being allowed on the plane as they did not have a return flight out of Tonga. They had a letter from myself stating that they were to be crew on an outbound sailing boat to NZ, but this was not enough for the officials who demanded they buy another flight ticket out of Tonga for 700 dollars each. They were both disgusted with the lack of morality of the situation and it wasn't until Grandma started crying uncontrollably in the face of the officials that they softened and then suggested that they could buy a refundable plane ticket.

So we continued the day with a quiet birthday celebration lunch and a gin and tonic which made Grandma flake out for the whole afternoon. Emma's official birthday party was to be on the coming weekend, sharing it with Abi from "Kia Orana" a 12 year old girl. They were from New Zealand and had been in Tonga a few months already.

This birthday party was at anchorage number 14 (or more aptly named "Blue Lagoon") an anchorage surrounded by three islands and two coral reefs. The passage into it was easy in the midday sun, the day before the party and we anchored in beautiful clear water amongst our friends boats and 10 or so Moorings charter boats, who where here for lunch. It is strange and curious to be amongst so many boats after a sparse and deserted Pacific Ocean. The VHF crackles into life every few minutes and charter boats drag and swing their anchors alarmingly around us.

We had a pre-party gathering on the beach in the early-evening with the other boats and lit a fire on the beach while Helen and Grandma stayed aboard to cook dinner. The kids played nicely with three local kids from the Blue Lagoon Island resort until we discovered that one of the local kids had started a fire up in the hill above the anchorage and they came running down saying that it was out of control. Granddad took our kids back to the boat while I helped the others climb up to try to put the fire out. Peter from Imagine seemed to get a grip with the fire and proceeded to organise us to clear a huge ring of dirt around the fire so that it could spread no further while the kids and ladies carried bucket after bucket of sea water up to calm the flames. Once I noticed the fire was under control I felt guilty leaving the others to pour water and swam back to the boat to join the family for dinner. I arrived smelling somewhat smoky and sat there during dinner thinking back to my childhood and wished I had known then about the ring of dirt as I might have been able to control a local raging forest fire that my friends and I inadvertently started when I was 12.

The following morning we got ready for the party, Helen baking a birthday cake and party food while I hunted around the boat for items needed for some party games. It was a relatively calm morning compared to other birthday parties since there was no actual birthday in the morning.

The party in the afternoon was great fun, thirty kids again playing party games, this time, three-legged races, piggy back races, water-filled-balloons-in-the-teeth races. Getting the Mums and Dads to have their own races produces lots of screaming giggles and seemed to be more competitive than the kids races. Grandma and Granddad put in a sterling effort in the three legged race, keeping slow and steady they made it around the course and didn't even come last, beating the entangled pairs of legs that collided ahead of them.

The Father of the local kids, owner of the blue lagoon resort came over and brought a Tongan feast of food along side the yachtie's dishes and a cool box full of beer and soda drinks. We had the most varied dishes of food that evening ranging from local raw fish in coconut milk, local curries, salads, as well as the usual variety of yachtie made dishes such as pastas, rices, curries and cakes and buns. We all ate like Tongan Kings and had many helpings before the candles were blown out on the cakes for Emma and Abi.

In the evening we all produced our Palmerston-made log drums and we had hours of fun sitting around the fire making tribal-sound rhythms on the 6 drums. The comments of others suggested that it sounded very amateur, but it certainly felt invigorating to beat the hell out of a drum with others. I had brought my guitar and belted out some songs from my repertoire and some new ones from Skip from Calliope's book of songs. Even Granddad joined in and gave us some of his favourite songs; the Wild Rover and Gosport Nancy, before his voice started cracking along with mine and we all went back to the drums.

After the Festivities of the Party on the following day, we set of to quieter anchorages away from the busyness of other boats and relaxed in the sun, a week of school and swimming before the following weekend of a triple kids birthday again.

10th 16th - Cave swimming and Cruising kids Tongan Olympics

After fixing the wind generator (the shaft had worn a groove), we left the Blue Lagoon anchorage in 15 knots from the SE and had a great upwind sail close hauled and tacking the boat around to anchorage number 15. My Dad and I tacked the jib with shouts of "Ready about" and "Lee Ho!" in a flat sea sheltered by the Vava'u reefs and Islands. We sailed the boat well which felt strange as we have been sailing down wind, without having to tack upwind for over a year now.

We dinghyed ashore the next day and we were shown around by Fat'ui, a kind and pleasant woman who lives with her husband and 4 girls in the small shack of a house over looking the minimal but functional fishing boat jetty. She showed us around the Village with her 2 toddlers in tow. The village has around 200 people and we visited the junior school and a group of men working on chopping out a small dug out canoe. There where 2 "shops" here that could only be described as small garden sheds with a few items of basics on the shelf. If you wanted to buy anything you had to go and get the owner from their house to open up.

The recoil on the outboard engine has been playing up and stopped working completely the following morning when the Grandparents, Helen, Emma, Louisa and Jack went ashore to another smaller village while Sophie and I stayed aboard to service the Starboard Jib-sheet winch which. They couldn't start the outboard so Granddad had to row them back to the boat. Their outing ashore was well rewarded. The kids didn't want to go ashore but on the way back from the village they spotted a horse and the owner allowed Emma and Louisa to ride it unaided from the village down to the dinghy. They were so excited holding the reins and steering the horse they couldn't stop talking about it to Sophie when the got back. We have turned it into a motto of ours now; "Come on, lets go ashore, you never know what might happen - you may get to ride a horse!". Amazingly the following week a similar thing happened too, reinforcing our motto.

Fat'ui invited us to have a Tongan feast in the afternoon with them for 20 Paanga an adult and 10 for a child. So after my Dad and I mended the outboard starter with a desert island fix, we watched them prepare the food to be cooked in their Umu; octopus, parrot fish and corned beef and onion with coconut milk wrapped in taro leaves baked in a package of banana leaves. They also made a really yummy Papaya and coconut milk dish that tasted like a sweet mashed swede. The baked yam was delicious a sort of dryer, sweeter boiled potato. We sat under the shade of a big over hanging tree on the edge of the beach and saw Andrew arrive with his horse - also called Andrew - to let the kids have another go. While the feast was being laid out around us, Sophie Emma and Louisa and jack all took it in turns to ride the horse by themselves up and down the beach. They then went holding on to waist of the Andrew with 2 legs for a gallop in the setting sun on the back of the Andrew with four legs. It was a tasty meal for us, the grandparents finding the food "interesting".

School started the following day. A new year. Jack (4) starts 1st Grade, Louisa (8) starts 3rd grade (with 4th grade maths), Emma (10) starts 5th grade and Sophie (11) starts 6th grade (with an emphasis on self teaching and time planning). The grandparents went back to the school at Napapu to deliver coloured pencils and printed out digital photographs of the kids. We set off after lunch in search of the famous Tongan "Mariners Cave" but failed to find it, and the afternoon sun was starting to fade behind a grey over cast day. We motored back to anchorage 6 through a torrential down-pour of rain of "biblical" proportions as my Dad put it. We had a quiet night and headed back into the main town the following morning to check out and stock up.

Checking out was a little fraught as I wanted duty free fuel (available if you plan to check out direct to NZ) so I had to arrange for the fuel truck to deliver the diesel. It eventually turned up at 4pm and since the customs and immigration closed at 4.30 I had to hurry up. After checking out at immigration in town I jogged back to customs. The man in Customs insisted I had to see the port captain first (at 4.20), but he was in a meeting and by the time I finished with the port captain and paid my 1 Paanga a day fee the customs man at 4.35 charged me 55 paanga for over time fees. I tried to explain that the port captain was busy and it was only 5 minutes over, but he wouldn't have it. I paid the fee reluctantly, took the clearance papers and watched as he slipped the money into his pocket. Now call me cynical but I bet you he was going to share it with the port Captain!

Had another Pizza in town with Nowadays, Omazey and Calliope that evening and then went off en route to the triple kids birthday. We stopped on the way to have another look for Mariners cave. We found it once we discovered that the cave is marked with a flag that actually looks like the size and colour of a used sheet of toilet paper hanging from an over hanging tree. Mariners cave is an amazing cave that can only be reached by diving down 2 metres and through a huge opening that takes you 4 metres under the cliff before emerging up into a completely sealed cave lit only by the iridescent blue light shinning through the underwater opening. It was used many moons ago by a Tongan chief who had fallen in love with a beautiful girl from a family set to be exterminated. He took her to the cave and hid her there for 2 weeks brining her food and water regularly.

The Grandparents, Jack and Louisa looked after the boat by the cave as it was too deep to anchor and Helen, Sophie, Emma and myself swam from the back of the boat to the cave. With our snorkelling gear on we hovered around the entrance while I dived down and looked in a few times. My heart was racing as each time I dove I entered the hole a little further each time until one time I looked up and saw the surface inside the cave. I went for it and with a huge leap of faith I broke the surface in the cave, not knowing if there was any air, any space or indeed any huge monsters. I was amazed to find a cave of church like proportions, lit with an eerie blue. I gasped my breath while hanging onto a rock and dived back down again and out to let the others know.

I told the kids to practice swimming down and poking their head inside the tunnel to look before going in. On the second dive down Sophie went in the tunnel and expecting her to come out again she carried on swimming and went in. Feeling extremely protective I gulped a huge breath and raced in after her. She was whooping with delight when I found her. I checked she was OK and left her inside with the monsters and a torch and swam back down and out again to get Emma and Helen. Helen went down and straight through with Sophie. Then Emma too, fearlessly dived down and through the tunnel emerging while I watched following her from behind. We all marvelled at the cave, saw the little shelf up on a rock where the maiden held out for her time. It must have been terrible to stay there all that time, the air was thin and damp and a most incredible scientific effect happens every few seconds. As every surge of swell outside the cave raises the water level several inches inside the cave it compresses the air. Your ears pop and water vapour condenses instantly fogging the air right in front of your eyes. One moment a clear and brilliantly blue cavern, the next, a cave full of fog. We spent a while in there taking photos and marvelling at the blue light radiating through the entrance before we all exited back out and on to the boat.

We headed out to a small Island (#40) and anchored in the lee of the Island. It was a beautiful little place with a deserted soft white sandy beach surrounded by a shallow rocky reef with only a small channel to take the dinghy to the beach. In the morning I swam there with Jack on my back while Helen, Granddad and the girls went in the dinghy. We walked the length of the beach looking for shells, and marking 'X's in the sand ahead of Jack, explaining they were pirate treasure markings and watched him dig for gold. Granddad and Helen swam back.

The following day we headed off to the triple birthday of Carter (from Imagine), Hugo (from Kia Orana) and Trym (from 3T). The parents decided to host it as the Cruising Kids Tongan Olympics and we all had to take our countries flag on a stick for the kids to wave around. There were many countries attending; UK, America, Canada, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand and even Uruguay thanks to Astrid from Omazey. They organised a flag relay race, coconut throwing shot-put, long jump on the beach and a team-dinghy push. (no oars!) There was as ever tons of food and plenty of people. It was the party to end all parties as Tonga tends to be the final congregation of cruisers before they head to different parts of New Zealand at different times.

We are all now watching the weather and planning for the 8 day trip to New Zealand said by many to be potentially the most dangerous journey in the blue-water cruising passage with weekly low pressures spinning out of the roaring forties pushing against high pressures squashing the isobars together bringing high winds and gales. This journey is somewhat pumped up out of proportion by the yachties telling tales of knock-downs, demastings, capsizes and even deaths on this passage. But with the amount of brilliant weather forecasting available and choosing the right weather window and passage plan it shouldn't pose to many problems. Having said that - Ill let you know when we get there !

17th - 23rd - strong winds at Hard Rock Island - calm enough to float candles

We popped around the corner from the anchorage after the Tongan Olympics and passed through the shallows just to the south of Mala Island a few metres from the hotel's beach. We had one metre of water below us and weaved our way through the coral gardens until we emerged the other side in the anchorage. Another advantage of having a catamaran and only drawing 1.2 metres, we managed to cut a couple of hours of getting there cutting the corner and not having to go around the Islands.

We spent most of the week at the Mala Island anchorage. After another cold front squall passed through dropping more "biblical-proportion" rain on us, we went out for a meal with Mahi Mahi at the hotel and became intrigued at the owner of the hotel who seemed to have a case of verbal diarrhoea, mostly of the bull variety. He consistently talked to us about how he was going to change the face of the hotel into the Hard Rock Island and was having Hard Rock Cafe T-shirts flown in by a private jet from New Zealand, he claimed George Michael and Tom cruise were staying there and that he was once a boy friend of the princess of Tonga and narrowly missed marrying her. He was involved with "The Cure", had numerous bands come to the Island to Jam in the resturant and is the only person I've ever heard name drop 10 times in a minute. When we ate there the food was fantastic, thanks to his extremely camp chef, Brian. He insisted he had 10 cases of a 1957 red wine, 1400 US dollars a bottle, of which he promised to open one for us, but we never actually got to see it. We left, somewhat shell shocked about the experience, our ears ringing from the excessively loud rock music being played all the time. It was a shame as it could be a lovely Tongan beach secluded "get-away" retreat. Granddad summed the place up; "The place was run by a Plonker!".

Granddad has been helping out with Jack's school. He loves school and He and Granddad sit there in the cockpit doing Maths and reading and science. They even went ashore one morning to collect flowers and plants to examine them in science to learn how a plant works. Grandma has been helping Helen with the lunches and the dinners. She has been getting a dab hand at making the bread every morning. They have been very keen to help and there addition to the crew has been very helpful and welcome so far.

We snorkelled the Coral Gardens off Mala beach and collected lots of Corey shells for Helen. We spotted Anemone fish (not quite the clown fish of "finding Nemo" but very similar, darting in and out of the waving sea anemone's tentacles. WE saw lots of vivid blue star fish. Grandma and Granddad managed to get the hang of snorkelling and had a fun hour looking at all the underwater marvels.

On Friday, Omazey arrived at the anchorage after checking out and we arranged to go to the Mala Island restaurant for a drink with them while Grandma and Granddad baby sat the children. While we had a sundowner drink in our cockpit we sat in awe at the most marvellous sheet-lightening show in the southern sky. It was lighting the sky all around with long and lasting flashes of blue light. Eventually we heard the rumble of the thunder loom and we counted the storm getting closer to within a few miles before the gap between light and sound started to lengthen. We left the kids in front of a movie with G+G and headed of for drinks. We had a similar evening as before but this time, Astrid with her "South American Passion" as the hotel owner called it, insisted on changing the music to something more mellow and demanded that he open a bottle of the '57 that he had promised us.

It was at that stage that the evening suddenly changed. The guy brought out a bottle of '95 for us. But while it was still in his hand, the heavens opened and torrential rain poured down. The VHF radio flickered into life as Granddad requested we head back as the wind had shifted and was now 25 knots. So we left the bottle of wine and the bill and ran down to the dinghy where we motored back to the boat in driving sheet rain with lightening constantly flickering from all directions.

We kept all the kids on our boat while Jonathan and Astrid went back to their boat and we tended to our own. The visibility in the rain was only 60 feet and with the help of our 1,000,000 candle torch we kept a look out as we swung on our anchor in all directions amongst the other boats swinging around as well.

The wind then whistled up to 50 knots and we swung 180 degrees and started drifting over our anchor. We must have built up some momentum as we went from one side to the other, as when the anchor chain became taught and pulled on the bridle the shackle bent completely straight with a loud bang and the chain started to pay out slowly over the windlass. Twenty metres of chain ran out until the anchor rope went through and I tied the rope off to hold us tight. WE were now only 1 boat length away from two boats behind us and with the driving rain whistling around us we struggled to see what was where. We used both engines to keep the load of the anchor and to keep us positioned between the boats behind and Omazey infront. I wound up some rope and put the bridle back on with a new chain hook. The whole event lasted only 2 hours, but we were amazingly calm and collected. at 11.30pm Omazey came and collected their kids and we went to bed as the lighting storm passed away into the distance leaving us with calmer winds.

The following day it was Jonathans birthday. The weather was so calm you could drop a pin in the sea and observe the ripples. We rendezvoused at anchorage number 16 1/2 (half way between 16 and 17) and had a curry birthday. We all took curry dishes to the beach and had drinks and ate at "Pete the Meat's" Picnic tables with "Mahi Mahi" Omazey and Ocean Breezes. We ate and drank while the kids had hotdogs. As the sea rose around our ankles at the table and the sun set we started to light little "night-light" candles (the ones encased in aluminium cups). Then we had a romantic idea. We decided to light 43 candles and float them in the sea off the beach. There was no wind and they bobbed beautifully in the sea sparkling like the stars above.

After a while, as the kids got tired we all headed back to our boats to put them to bed and then back on Omazey for more drinks. The evening progressed with laughter and chatter until at around 10pm the candles started to glide with the outflowing tide away from the beach, passing either side of Mahi Mahi and straight towards Omazey like they were attracted to Jonathans Birthday party. Then before they came to the boat they turned right and headed off to the reef where they started to extinguish. for the last half an hour they turned back again and headed once again back towards us. We all counted them slowly dying out and then unbelievably on time, too perfect to be coincidence, the last one flickered out 100 feet from the boat at exactly midnight at the end of his birthday.

We had our final day in Vavau, Tonga on a Sunday (23rd). We went ashore to get off the boat. The kids never want to leave the boat, always keen to play aboard with toys. But we insisted reminding them that "they might even get to ride on a horse". Grandma stayed aboard however to have a lie down and make lunch and we landed on the beach of the anchorage number 17. We trampled through the undergrowth and passed a derelict school before emerging on a village with a church and a few houses with a population of 11 adults and 11 kids. After a brief tour of the village the Vicars wife insisted we take with us half of a huge feast of food that the neighbouring village had given to the Vicar that morning for hosting a service for them. We had roast suckling pig, Yams, Lamb, Taro, Chicken and Water Melon all wrapped up in tin foil for us. They wanted us to stay and eat with them but we explained Grandma was on the boat. We took the food back after profusely thanking them and we had a huge feast for lunch.

We went back in the afternoon and attended the church service at 3pm and gave our host kids clothes, books and money for the collection. We couldn't believe the generosity of these people and as always we are amazed that people with less than us seem to give more.

We had more feast for Tea and turned in for the night ready for a 6am start to sail south to the Tongan Hapaii group of Islands to hand out and wait for the weather window to take us to New Zealand.

24th - Sail to Hapaii

We pulled up the anchor in the dawn light and motored through the reef entrance in a very calm sea as the sun peeped over the horizon in the east forming a pink relief of high wispy clouds making them look very three dimensional.

we have been watching the weather and this seemed the best day out of the following week for any chance of a sail south. As it turned out there was barely 8 knots of wind from the east. We need just a few knots more and we would have managed 5 knots and therefore making our destination in daylight hours. But we could only make 3.5 - 4 knots under sail and so we motor-sailed all the 60 miles there, arriving at sunset to anchor in the northern anchorage of Haano Island. It was a pleasant sail with the sun beating hard down, the sea flat except a very mild Pacific swell. Grandma and Granddad had there first day out in the Ocean and it was just like being at anchor - very relaxing.

We arrived at Haano Island at sunset and anchored next to"La Novia" and they helped us find a patch of sand in their dinghy, then came aboard us for an hour for a drink.

We talked about the weather, both of us just hearing the latest "Bob McDavit Weather Gram" (The weather Guru from New Zealand). Bob states that now is the time to head for New Zealand, it will be the best window this coming month and we should make land fall in New Zealand before the 5th of Nov before the next low moves the Stationary high that is hanging over New Zealand right now.

The wind is due to fill in on Thursday (26th) and our plan is to leave Thursday morning to arrive New Zealand around the 3rd or 4th of November. The High to the south should give us SE or E trade winds all the way, giving us a steady but invigorating sail with the wind and sea beam on about 20 - 25 knots.

25th November - LEAVING FOR NEW ZEALAND.

We awoke to listen to the SSB radio net and heard the other boats talking about a Bob Mc Davit update saying that there is a low being formed over New Caledonia and it is expected to head SE and push against the high pressure over New Zealand producing a squash zone increasing the Easterly Trade Winds to 30-40 knots. The advice is to head south sooner rather than later ideally arriving now in New Zealand by the 1st of November.

We changed our plan and decided to leave today at midday, motoring the next 2 days to get further south.

While Helen and Grandma and a handful of kids went ashore to the village to stock up on fruit and veg and dispose of the rubbish. They even offered our dilapidated blow up Kayak to the kids there which was gratefully received.

Granddad and did the last remaining jobs on the list such as engine checks, stowed various items away such as anchors, and other deck clutter. We rigged up a loop of trailing 400 feet of line to be deployed as a drogue if we need it and lashed the dinghy securely on the davits. After a quick swim we left the anchorage at full steam SW with the sails up and both engines on, making 6.5 knots out of the Hapaii group.

The afternoon was another blisteringly hot day and the sea was as flat as pancake. We motored until sunset with 2 engines and then shut one down for the night. We are have a luxurious might watch routine with 4 adults on board. I'm on watch from 8 till midnight, Dad and Margaret sharing the 6 hours from midnight till 6am and then Helen gets up at 6am, shortly followed by me for the 7am SSB net.

We will be reporting positions for most of the boats we know en route to New Zealand; Ocean Breezes, Omazey, Nowadays and La Novia have already left, half a day ahead of us, and Imagine and Mahi Mahi plan to leave in the next day or so. Calliope are still in Tonga Tapu and will be leaving soon aswell. Watch this space for progress of all the boats, and a report on the weather and our conditions across the pond on the most talked about, weather-worrisome passage in the whole journey so far.

KEEP TRACK OF US

Click the "where are we now" link to see our latest yotreps update of our position heading to NZ

26th Oct - sailing in light winds

After using half of our fuel motoring for 24 hours we have decided to conserve the other half of the tank for land fall at New Zealand and have put the spinnaker up and attempting to sail in about 6-8 knots of wind from the ESE. We started off the day barely sailing 3 knots and ended up at sunset doing 4 knots.

We managed a morning of school in the flat anchorage like conditions during which one of the fishing lines buzzed and we started reeling in a 5 foot Mahi Mahi. With myself and Helen working the rod and line my Dad prepared the gaff for me. The beautifully powerful iridescent blue fish came to the back of the boat and I gaffed it in the side of its face and hauled it up on deck. It thrashed around and Dad attempted to open the small hatch at the back where we throw the fish to die quietly. Then in cartoon style he trod on a bunch of bananas that were on the cockpit seat and he slipped one foot away from him along the seat knocking the folded stools off with a huge clatter. With the excitement of catching a fish and the release of getting it in the hatch we all fell about laughing at the site of him lurching across the cockpit almost doing the splits.

WE left the spinnaker up during the night but the wind steadily climbed and at 15 knots at midnight we decided to bring it in. In the pitch black night as the sea started to bounce us around we pushed on at 7 knots and I fought my way to the foredeck and attempted to pull the snuffing sock over the sail after Helen had released to sheet. It wouldn't budge. I pulled and fought and pulled some more but it wouldn't move. The sail flapped wildly around in the night whipping the sheet loosely around narrowly missing Helens face. I released the spinnaker Halyard and with all my might tugged the sail down and onto the deck trying to tame its violent flogging. Eventually I had everything under control and tidied the deck of ropes and we pulled the jib out and trimmed the sails. Within and hour the wind had got up to 19 knots from the SE and we were bowling along at 8 knots.

If this keeps up we should be in New Zealand by the 1st or 2nd. Lets hope, so as there is a predicted westerlies coming to New Zealand later on the day on the 1st.

Its a shame to miss the stop over at Minerva Reef, now about 100 miles away. A totally enclosed reef in the middle of the Pacific with a small entrance channel that offers perfect anchoring and shelter in the middle of the journey. We need to push on though.

latest positions

Positions at 1830 GMT 26th Oct 2005

Dolphins 22 8 s 177 0 w Ocean Breezes 22 52 s 177 0 w Omazey 23 6 s 178 0 w Nowadays 23 7 s 178 0 w La Novia 23 8 s 176 0 w Endelig 24 10 s 177 0 w Imagine 21 14 s 176 0 w JASP 20 32 s 176 0 w calliope 22 20 s 176 0 w conversations 20 53 s 175 0 w firemoose 24 24 s 178 0 w sage 22 23 s 176 0 w

27th - blowing quite hard now

With the wind picking up in the morning to 16-18 knots on a v ery close reach from the SE. The sea is only a metre and half but it is very uncomfortable. school was cancelled.

Grandma pulled out a huge pack of plastacine modelling clay and the kids made all sorts of sweet replicas for a pretend toy sweet shop. Dad and I kept watch during the day keeping the boat trimmed perfectly for speeds of about 8 knots on average. But by the end of the day with boats ahead of us reporting 25 knots of wind we decided to put 2 reefs in the main for the night. Its a hell of a lot easier with 2 people reefing the main. We clipped our life jackets on and danced to the foredeck as the boat lurched around.

So as the night draws in, the over cast sky is getting greyer and I can swear that the temperature is dropping a degree or so. WE are definitely getting closer to New Zealand.

We are only moving at 6.5 -7 knots now and I hope we can make New Zealand before a small bit of adverse weather arrives on the 1st November. Maybe I'll shake a reef in the morning if the wind stays at 20 rather than reaching 25.

All the other boats we are with are reporting no problems. Nowadays has stopped at the Minerva reef for an over night stop in the middle of nowhere, all alone supposedly. We will be passing him at midnight tonight so even if we wanted to stop we couldn't.