Helen had not slept well the last night at Nomuka iti. The winds remained strong and despite two reefs to the windward side of us some swell was still getting through. She felt unsafe and couldn’t relax. She was therefore very keen, despite the continued strong winds, to move on. And that we did.
We first motor sailed eastward through the channel between the island until we had room to sail north, close hauled, to clear the reef to our south east. We tacked, missed the reef and made our way south, clawing our way upwind. The boat’s course was over 20 degrees off the way we were pointing so I tacked early to assess the effects of the current. We were making ground upwind but not a lot so I again engaged the engine to allow us to pinch 13 degrees off the wind.
As we approached Kelefesia we could see it was one of the most picturesque anchorages we have ever dropped the hook in. The anchorage itself has plenty of patches of coral so we took our time to find somewhere where we could drop the anchor and not foul the chain. Like the last place, we’re here all alone. Perfect.
This is were the sail boat La Tortue foundered a few weeks ago although their circumstances were somewhat different to ours. We’ve heard about this unfortunate sinking for some time and it was only yesterday that I saw the boat name in text. I recognized it immediately. Marie, one of the couple sailing her, was one of my partners in the tridecagonathlon at the end of the Vava’u Regatta (remember the pies). That struck home.
Despite the beautiful beach and excellent snorkelling opportunities we stayed aboard. Helen was tired and needed to rest. Ben wanted to relax after the bouncy passage. When I looked at the weather forecasts yesterday the wind was due to calm down soon and in a couple of days clock round more to the east. If these two things happen then it would be good to stay here another couple of nights making for an easier passage down to Nuku’alofa / Tongatapu.
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