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A visit from HAWK to check us out
before we went into the Bay of Islands
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It was not a perfect experience for the boys as the wind refused to blow
and apart from a short two-hour spell we motored or motor-sailed all the way to
the Bay of Islands where we had booked a berth in the marina for our last night
in New Zealand. We arrived in perfect calm at 10pm and settled in to sleep.
Customs clearance in Opua completed by 10am Friday, 11 May
2018, it was back to the boat, cast off our lines, wave goodbye to Jenny, Helen
and the two children on the shore and get underway. Once again, we had enlisted
the expertise of weather guru “MetBob” (Bob McDavitt) for our passage plan and
his instructions were to leave Bay of Islands by 6pm Friday and make our way
seawards.
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Moored in Opua marina before departure
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| Passage planning |
No wind once more so it was one engine on and trolling lines
out as we left the Bay. Two nice sized Kahawai and we had dinner almost
immediately. However, by 8pm we had hauled up the main and the jib and we were
sailing!! There was a bit of a swell, about 1.5metres, to ease the boys into it
and although neither was feeling 100% they were both coping.
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| A very pleasant sail away from New Zealand |
Saturday morning and all was well, the sea state wasn’t too
bad, a bit choppy but ok (the boys applied patches to avert seasickness just in
case). We saw our first albatross but no fish today. Night came and we settled
into our watch schedule, a delightful 2hr on 6hr off regime (not that Jamie or
I totally relax even when off watch). Saturday night we also saw what was to be
our last human contact for the next few days – a rather large ship which passed
just off our port side. Our AIS (Automatic Identification System) told us he
was on his way to Auckland to unload his cargo, was steaming along at 18 knots
and would pass us with his closest point of approach being 1.2 nautical miles –
the wonders of modern technology – so different to the days of Captain Cook.
The weather was not to be all our way, as is usual, and
Sunday we again had an engine on and were motoring along on a glassy azure sea.
Today was an opportunity to practice some Tongan (hello, thank you, yes, no), to
get the weatherfax up and running, for Devon to learn to tie some knots, and to
pull up the light weather sail – the screecher – not that we had it up for
long, there wasn’t even enough wind for that. Night fell, the almost spookily
eerie calm continued, the moon rising about 930pm, bioluminescence had the
ocean glowing like a star filled, magical skyscape. This sense of wonderment
continued with many shooting stars, satellites and even an asteroid with a long
burning tail being seen by the boys during their watches.
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| Squall ahead |
Monday the wind was starting to fill in and we sailed along
with the screecher up until late afternoon when it got too windy and it was
back to the main and jib. With a reef in the mainsail for the night we settled
to play a board game or two – Taboo and SmartAss were the games of choice and
much laughter ensued. We were flying along enjoying mostly a 10knot average
with our top speed of the day being 13.7knots.
Funny the things you see out at sea – we have not been in
sight of land for some days now yet there are some little robin-like birds
flying around us, tweeting cheerfully and occasionally landing on the boat, you
expect to see the big birds like the albatross but I was surprised to see these
little ones.
Tuesday the flying fish were all around, some landing in
the cockpit others on the foredeck. No big fish though but we have been
trolling all the way. The wind is all over the place today – we have gone from
main-sail to main with 1 reef to 2 reefs and full jib down to half jib and then
engine as wind died away – crazy indeed.
On Wednesday 9th May we crossed from 180o East
to 180o West – this called for a bit of a celebration – of course
not as much of a celebration as if we had crossed the equator but a celebration
nonetheless – we shared a cider between the two couples, raised our glasses to
being “halfway round the world” and thanked the sea gods for a safe passage. We
sent a message to MetBob asking for weather advice to visit the Minerva Reefs,
sadly the answer came back in the negative – “if you go there be prepared to
stay for a week as the winds will keep you there at least that long”.
Thursday, we trucked along much the same, with the swell
belting us from the starboard and sending more than just the odd wave crashing
over the boat. One of the lockers up on the foredeck was slow to empty and – of
course – there just happened to be a set of cables running from the base of
this locker, under the watertank, down to our cabin – and yes – the water was
tracking along and pouring onto our floor – not good – so we tried taping the
locker hatch to stop the water ingress but really only managed to slow its
progress, will have to fix that when we get to shore. Today, as well, was not a
great day for the boys – with both of them again succumbing to the dreaded
seasickness and both feeding the fish their dinner.
Friday the 11th May and we saw land – Eua Island
and Tongatapu were in our sights – but – we didn’t want to arrive after dark so
we “hove to” off Eua for the night. To be “hove to” means to effectively make
the boat stay in one place or near to one place by backing the jib and letting
the main sail out this acts as a kind of a brake and we sat off Eua until dawn
when we set off for Nuku’Alofa.
Making our way through the various reefs on the way to
Nuku’Alofa was interesting, Devon and Mike, on reef watch, kept us very well
informed as to what we were passing and the direction we should turn in order
to avoid obstacles. We raised our yellow “Q” flag and our Tonga courtesy flag
and entered Faua Harbour to proceed to the quarantine dock – which aside from
looking rather sketchy had another two boats tied to it, so no room for us.
Looking around we were spotted by a very helpful man in a taxi who motioned us
to a place to tie up against the rock wall – we had never ‘med-moored’ before
and were rather dubious, especially as the wind was a brisk 25knots. The only
place left had a couple of mooring buoys in front so we grabbed them, tied on
and while Jamie kept the boat pointing in the right direction Devon and I went
to shore in the dinghy and tied the stern ropes to a bollard fixed there.
Mike
was on SOL winding the winch to pull her stern straight when he suddenly
screamed and dropped to the cockpit floor – somehow, he had dislocated his knee
and was writhing around in extreme pain. We needed an ambulance urgently, even
if we didn’t have customs clearance for Tonga we were going to have to get Mike
to the hospital and worry about the formalities later.
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| Into the dinghy |
Next minute, the Customs official arrived, he called the
ambulance and explained the situation, came aboard, expediated our clearance and
soon the ambulance was trundling along the rock wall towards us. Customs left,
Ambo’s came aboard – strangely, apparently ambulances carry no drugs here, so
one person stayed on the boat and the other was dispatched back to the hospital
for pain relief meds (luckily for Mike I had given him some pretty strong stuff
as soon as he did it) and for a special stretcher so we could get him off the
boat. It was rather hairy getting Mike to the ambulance, first we got him into
the dinghy, then had the task of convincing the rather large ambulance officers
that they would be better off to take the ambulance around to the other side
rather than both (with a combined weight of maybe 300kg) standing in the
dinghy, straddling poor Mike – a disaster waiting to happen as they were not
terribly coordinated to say the least. So, with siren wailing, the ambulance
moved to the opposite side of the harbour and Jamie and I dinghied Mike across
to meet it.
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| To the waiting ambulance |
Mike and Devon were back on board with the offending knee
relocated and splinted by about 8pm and we all settled for a good night sleep –
our first night in Tonga.
