Quite a lot accomplished yesterday. At 7am we were up on the deck working on the head sail. Once the sail was down on the deck I could more closely examine the tear. It was about 2 feet long and away from the sun strip. By it’s position I think it may have caught on the spreader during one of our maneuvers. That will mean a trip up there soon to sharp for any sharp edges. I decided to sew the tear then tape it over. That should be enough to get us down to New Zealand. It took about an hour of work to repair the sail and then get it hoisted and furled again. Fortunately the early morning air stayed light enough for us to complete this work.
At 9am it was all aboard the water taxi to do our checking out and final (?) provisioning. First stop was immigration. This went smoothly. Immigration is opposite an excellent bakery (I may have mentioned this before) so we all sampled sausage rolls and doughnuts.
We then walked to the fruit and veg market and picked up some fresh food. We’re currently provisioning for two weeks with the last few days being tinned stuff. If we leave now we’ll have fresh food all the way. If we leave in a few days the tins will come out. If we leave later we’ll being reprovisioning.
We then blew the next few minutes walking through the center of town stopping at a cafe for some very tasty samosas and coffee. With the day heating up (another rare sunny day here) it was nice to sit somewhere air conditioned while we passed a few minutes. Overall we were aiming for the 1pm water taxi back so we didn’t want to rush.
Next we took a taxi to the port authority office where we cleared out there. Again we suffered (as in the Galapagos) from overstated tonnage on our ships documentation as this was the basis of our fee for clearance. We must fix this on our next papers renewal. Not too far away was the customs shed. There was no-one there so we had to find a customs officer in the wharf to clear us out. The guy we found was not overly pleased I had not checked into Nuku’alofa but did the paperwork anyway after making his protest for our failed adherence to full formalities. Our final bit of beaurocracy was a visit to another customs office back in the port authority building where we obtained our paperwork for duty free fuel. Having been delayed by having to find a customs officer earlier we just made it before they closed for lunch. Phew.
Another taxi ride, this time to a supermarket to pick up the rest of our provisions. This being done our final taxi ride of the day was back to the dock with a detour by the palace (Tonga is a monarchy) to have a teeny bit of sight seeing.
The 1pm water taxi ended up leaving 20 minutes late so by the time we were back on Dignity it was time to set off to fuel up at our prebooked 2pm slot. Soon we were back in the dock area. Another cat, “Two if by Sea”, was on the dock shifting forward to make room so we waited for them to complete their maneuvering before heading in. With the wind blowing off the dock and the rocky wall of the inner dock off our starboard beam we needed to be reasonably quick. Once we were tied up to the dock we discover the fuel line would reach neither of our stern fuel openings so we had to untie, reverse out, switch the fenders and lines over then reverse back onto the dock. Having done this the fuel line reached our starboard filler which, fortunately, was the one that needed the most fuel. To fill the port tank we had to fill jerry cans and bring them over and siphon the fuel out. We were lent a siphon with a jigger by the other boat which saved me tasting diesel.
Once we had fueled up I had to run to the cash machine to get enough cash to pay for the fuel and to pay off our tab at Big Mamas. As soon as I returned and paid up we were off so as the next vessel waiting to fuel could come in and do so.
It was nearly 4pm by the time we dropped the hook more or less at the same spot as before. At 4:30pm we’d been invited over to Leu Cat with the Sea Mists where David offered Ben and Ian cigars. The cigars were open for all but none of the rest of us were up to them. We were all made Manhattan’s which are part of David’s daily ritual which he has with his cigar.
Back on the boat we finally relaxed watching a few TV shows. We’re still working our way through Prison Break – now in season 2 which is not so good but we’re soldiering on. More weather watching too. The GRIBs are not looking promising for a start south any time soon. The general advice is to wait for a ‘Big Fat High’ to pass which will bring steady trades behind it for approximately 5 days. No BFH’s are on the horizon and we have a good period of southerlies foretasted ahead of us. Our current strategy is to wait here until a BFH shows and set sail hoping that the trades will fall in behind it. If, after two days, they don’t we’ll stop in Minerva Reef 240 miles out.
Because weather watching is what we’re all doing here I’ve organized a daily morning meet up at Big Mama’s where we can pool our respected thoughts and perspectives on the most recent forecasts. If nothing else it’s something to do each day. Given the current picture we could be here for a while. At best we will learn new perspectives and sources of information from each other which can only enhance the decision making process. If we get pinned here for too long we may adjust our strategy and go for Minerva Reef and wait there. On the upside it knocks over 200nm and a couple of days off our final transit to New Zealand making it easier to shoot for a weather window. On the downside it’s a two day passage (which we don’t like) and, if we do get trades, it takes five degrees off our course which will make it closer and more bumpy for us. We’ll see.
Helen is almost finished her two year perspective. She’s been at it for a while now. She’s been cursing and swearing just now because she lost a paragraph while moving it around and now has remember and rewrite it.
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