Tonga « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Another day after another night passage

by KC2RIY, on October 19th, 2010 (Tonga)

Almost everyone I know has trouble sleeping the first night at sea. That’s what makes one/two night passages such a chore as the day you arrive you’re wasted. The second night one does sleep but you’ve not caught up so it’s only three to four night passages or beyond that you get your rhythm. The alternative is to leave around 2-3am after a half decent sleep. We had thought of doing that to get down here but I’m glad we didn’t. First of all we’d never have got the anchor up out of the coral in the dark. Second, hindsight shows us, that we actually did quite well sailing down in all that nasty weather. Apart from getting a good wash and rinse we had the wind. Once the storm had passed there was almost no wind yesterday although it was gloriously flat and sunny. Had we left yesterday we’d have had to motor all the way. Glad we didn’t.

So yesterday, if you hadn’t guessed, was catch up day. We all had a few naps and did very little. We did all go out snorkeling on the reef just before lunch – it was excellent. Sand at 30ft with a wall of coral full of nooks and crannies to peer into. Must get the hookah out on this one as there just has to be lobsters in there somewhere.

We’re hanging around here another day and night. The weather isn’t as fine at the moment but we plan to go ashore this morning and get the hookah out this afternoon. We’ve invited the Sea Mists to join us on these events so we’ll have good company.

Arrived in Ha’ano

by KC2RIY, on October 18th, 2010 (At Sea, Scream, Tonga)

During the morning I visited Scream to lend Darusha my eBook where I had made annotations on her book. She is a science fiction writer and I’ve just finished reading her three books, the final one that she’s only just finished. She had welcomed my feedback on typos so my visit was to share these with her. I really enjoyed reading her books – particularly as it’s the first time I’ve read an author I knew personally. If you’re interested in them her books are published under the name ‘M Darusha Wehm’.

With light winds forecast overnight we (I) decided to leave before dusk. Good job we did as the anchor chain had fouled on some coral heads at 60ft. We only got out by sending Ben down with scuba gear on to untangle the chain from three coral heads. With that behind us we were still able to make it out of the bay and through the pass before it got dark.

And then the fun began. As soon as our radar was able to peer beyond the bay we’d been in we saw rain clouds all around us but mainly off to our starboard and slightly ahead. The winds were still very light so we motored to give us time to assess. We learned that although the wind was blowing from our port, the weather systems were moving from right to left. We dodged the first path of rain welcoming the increased wind on it’s far side. We raised the sails and killed the motor and sailed through the night. On my 8-11pm shift I ran into another rainstorm 6-8 miles across which I could not avoid. I reefed the main and plunged into it. This was to be the worst rain I’ve ever sailed through. While I stayed moderately dry in the cockpit I was still getting wet from the rain curling in over the bimini so I spent the latter half of my shift inside the cabin going outside to check the radar every 10 minutes.

The rains subsided before I handed over to Helen but both she and Ben experienced similar weather during their shifts. A very wet night. I began my 5am shift by noticing that Sea Mist were on our tail making a lot of speed. I contacted them on the VHF to learn they were motor-sailing with the same destination as us in mind. We had a brief chat and continued on our way.

Helen woke early and I asked her to cover me as I was tired having had very little sleep during my time off. I managed a short nap before the winds fell and Helen woke me to start motoring. The rest was uneventful. We’ve anchored in a beautiful spot of of Ha’ano. The water is beautifully clear with some interesting reefs nearby. After we’ve rested we’ve plenty to do.

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Not a lot

by KC2RIY, on October 17th, 2010 (Scream, Tonga)

Another day of doing fairly little which is in keeping with Tongan tradition for Sundays. Ben and I did go for a snorkel outside of the pass and in the evening we visited Darusha and Steven aboard Scream for dinner. There we were introduced to the card game “Fluxx” which we enjoyed immensely. We rounded off the evening with a heated argument (largely among the Southwoods) about the nature of free will. That’s what you get from too little to do and perhaps a tad too much rum.

It’s getting likely that we’ll be heading south within the next 24 hours. Winds are currently light and getting lighter so we may even leave before dark for a very slow passage.

Hunga

by KC2RIY, on October 16th, 2010 (Scream, Tonga)

After we had properly woken up we took around to decide what to do. There was still a visible swell coming over the reef which threatened to keep us away from the snorkeling on the far side. We agreed that all we wanted to do was to hike a nearby trail then move on. Once the rain had subsided we dinghied ashore and found the trail at the east end of the beach. The trail climbed over the hill through very lush (and muddy) vegetation. We were lucky to find a fallen pamplemousse which we ate as we walked On the far side, after sliding down a muddy bank, we found another beach which we walked along heading further east towards the end of the island. At the far end we were able to again cross to the inward side. Not much to see bar a few goats.

Back on the boat we were soon on our way, motoring in light winds. We squeeze through the shallow pass between Langito’o and Lape to our east before rounding south into the channel and heading west. Our destination was the island group to our west and the area known as Hunga. To reach the sheltered, almost lake-like bay, we had to enter a narrow cut. Fortunately we had good instructions taking the worry out of passing from swelly seas in through a gap in the rocks 100ft wide. Inside the bay the waters were flat. We saw Scream anchored nearby and looked near them for a place to drop the hook. Their shallow shelf in the corner didn’t have a lot of extra room so we found the next shallow area to our east requiring two attempts to drop the hook.

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And that was it for the rest of the day. We’re still in need of a recharge – ourselves that is, not the boat. We just spent the day reading and relaxing. Scream invited us over for drinks but discovering they’ll be here for a few days we suggested postponing till today to which they agreed. In the evening we watched 4 episodes of Prison Watch which we’ve just started and got into already.

Hunga is likely to be our last stop in the Vava’u group. We’re going to wait here until we get a decent weather window to press on. Ha’ano, our first intended stop in the Ha’apai group to our south is 60nm away. Because of the nature of the area we’d want to arrive within a couple of hours of midday so this would require leaving early in the morning – around 1-2am perhaps. We’ll need to wait for the winds to settle before we go as we have no intention of motoring all the way unless we have to. If the wind forecast suggests some strong north easterlies we may take an alternate route via the island of Late 30nm to our west where we have been reliably informed that we’re practically guaranteed of seeing many whales.

For now we’ll just kick back and listen to the rain which continues to fall.

Water, water, water

by KC2RIY, on October 15th, 2010 (Pursuit, Sympatica, Tonga)

The last two nights and yesterday involved a lot of water. Most of the water has been in the form of rain, lots of rain. We did have plenty of breaks though. We are near to a supposedly excellent snorkeling site called the “Coral Gardens”. This involves dinghying over a reef to our west which can only be done around high tide. We gave it a go but weren’t too successful. The winds have recently been all over and we have a westward swell. The swell is coming over the reef from the wrong direction. The result was that our dinghy completely filled with water as several waves crashed over us. We turned back and dragged the dinghy onto a nearby beach and attempted to cross the reef on our snorkels and flippers. That failed too as the current was too strong. We tried one other spot but it didn’t look too good. That was that for our snorkeling.

In the evening we had Jules and Lois from Sympatica along with Gary and Tiera from Pursuit IV over for sun-downers. As of time of writing this blog Sympatica have already left the anchorage so it was good to catch up with them before they headed off. There’s a small chance we’ll bump into the them next week.

Not sure if we’ll stay here today or press on. A lot depends on the weather predictions. I am now spending a lot more time listening to the southern radio nets and looking at the broader weather picture in this region. Two reasons for this. The first is that the anchorages in the Ha’apai group are not as sheltered as those here so attention needs to be paid to what could be happening in the short term. The second reason is to build up some familiarity with the weather conditions for our trip to NZ in 2-3 weeks time.

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Another day after another night passage

Arrived in Ha’ano

Not a lot

Hunga

Water, water, water