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 […]
Tonga 4
May 22, 2019 It’s Wacky Wednesday! This is just a way to distract the children (or maybe just me) from the fact that our destination is arriving more slowly than we had hoped. Oddly, unlike car or plane trips, the kids almost never ask “When are we going to get there?” Maybe because, at least […]
Tonga 2
May 21, 2019 Good evening! Once again, I am writing from my 9 pm – 12 am shift. Conditions are still light with only 8 knots of wind floating around. We’re managing to convert that into a blistering 6 knots of speed which feels very slow. Many of the boats we travel with would consider […]
Tonga 1
May 20, 2019 Greetings fair reader! I have missed you. I picture you as a delightful person, face obscured in the shadows, with a congenial expression that I can just make out. Occasionally I hear a faint cough from your direction, to keep me on track. Otherwise, you just listen politely. You are kind, curious, […]