June 18, 2019 In a bit of foreshadowing – the photo of Joe and Marin is to show you that she is fully recovered and doesn’t hold a grudge. We had intended to leave this afternoon after getting fuel at the dock (quite a process – two fuel trucks were ordered for the ARC boats […]
Tonga
Tonga 13 – Still in Tonga
June 17, 2019 Greetings from Tonga. It feels like we have been here a long time and not seen much outside of Neiafu, the main city on Vava’u. Tully even said, “Are we at this place AGAIN?” The ARC schedule and other constraints have kept us on the mooring ball more than some of us […]
Tonga 12 – More Tonga
June 14, 2019 We had a beautiful afternoon today after a couple of days of off-again, on-again, rainy weather. Joe figured out a way to attach a hose to the little hoses that drain water off our bimini so now we can route the rainwater right into our tanks instead of me collecting it in […]
Tonga 11 – Tonga!
June 11, 2019 The big story in Tonga at the moment is the weather. Since about 2 pm today, it has been raining more or less steadily, with gaps for heavy downpours or brief periods of dryness, lasting about 15 minutes each. We are rafted (tied up with) Nikitoo, a fabulous Oyster (brand of boat) […]
Tonga 10 – Leaving Niue
June 4, 2019 We left Niue last night but I didn’t write because Joe took my watch and everyone else’s. I don’t know why he did but sometimes it’s just easier to let him do what he wants. Niue was an amazing experience. We met the kind folks from the yacht club with no yachts, […]
Tonga 9 – Niue
May 30, 2019 Wow! We arrived in Niue at 5 am and woke up to an island unlike any other we have visited. It is an “uplifted atoll” which I think means that it was sinking and then got pushed back up. I need to brush up on my geology before commenting further. Apart from […]
Tonga 8 – Niue
May 29, 2019 It’s a beautiful night with consistent winds and calmer seas. Charm is quite happy and therefore so are the rest of us. It isn’t quite champagne sailing but at least I’m only getting drenched by the odd wave once an hour instead of every 20 minutes. We did have another sail mishap […]
Tonga 7 – Niue-bound
May 28, 2019 Tonight I’m getting spray in my face as we clip along at 12 knots with rough seas and winds 15-18, gusting to 21. It seems far windier than that and Nikitoo said it has been in the 20-30 knot range for them all day. Joe thinks their wind meter is off but […]
Tonga 6 – Suwarrow
May 27, 2019 We are back on the open water, having left Suwarrow about 6 hours ago. We are motoring with very little wind but the forecast shows that decent wind should appear soon and stay with us to Niue. Suwarrow was a great stop. Like many of the places we have visited, it seems […]
Tonga 5
May 24, 2019 Everything went fine last night, at least until the end of my watch. After that, I went to sleep and someone else (Joe) worries about things. You can see the radar image – the squall just kept reforming on top of us but never really did much. Griselle said she got rained […]