by Judy Handley | Nov 6, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Tongatapu |
Day 384, Year 1: Commander’s Weather Comes to the Rescue
Date: Monday, November 6, 2006
Weather: Still Sunny and Windy
Location: Pangaimotu Island, Tongatapu Group, Tonga
The decision has been made. We will leave here by 0730 in the morning and head for Minerva Reef. That is about 280 miles from here and we should arrive on Thursday morning. If some miracle should happen with the weather, it is possible that we would by-pass Minerva, but it looks best to go there and wait about three or four days before proceeding. We could wait here, but getting almost 300 miles out of the way gives us a better shot at New Zealand. Weather is fairly predictable five days out, and it should be no more than five or six days from Minerva to Opua on the North Cape.
We had a wonderful dinner aboard Windcastle last night and George of Gdansk, Doug of Windcastle, and Mark had a chance to talk more about the weather. They decided that we would contact Commander’s Weather in, believe it or not, New Hampshire, to get one last weather opinion before making the final decision. We have actually met one of the guys from this service at a Concord Yacht Club meeting, but somehow we never thought of using them as a routing service from here to New Zealand. We had gone with Bob McDavitt of the New Zealand MetService. He has years of experience and all kinds of resources at hand, but many sailors out here are nervous about this passage and some like McDavitt and some don’t. Actually some of George’s European friends use Commander and it was his suggestion to go that way. We sent an early morning email and got a reply by mid-afternoon giving us the go-ahead. They routed us all the way to Opua in one jump, but called it only an “acceptable” weather window. Right now “acceptable” doesn’t sound so good, so that is why we are going to Minerva and wait. Anyway, I think it is quite interesting that both our off-shore medical care and now our weather routing are done out of New Hampshire.
It is evening, but I am baking bread and doing some last minute cooking to get ready for the passage. Mark is still working on weather analysis. He’s becoming quite good at reading the weather and making the same interpretations as our paid routers. I think he is loving the challenge of learning this new skill. Let’s just hope all of this study pays off and that we have a safe and comfortable passage.
by Judy Handley | Nov 5, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Tongatapu |
Day 383, Year 1: Back on Track
Date: Sunday, November 5, 2006
Weather: Still Sunny and Windy
Location: Pangaimotu Island, Tongatapu Group, Tonga
We might be back on track. Many of the captains in the anchorage had a meeting this morning to share weather information, and it looks like we have a bit of a window. Those leaving tomorrow must get to New Zealand prior to November 14 to avoid some really nasty weather headed for the North Island. Those leaving Tuesday will probably make a stop at Minerva Reef and wait for the nasty weather to pass and then look for a 5-day window to head from there to New Zealand. There are some southwest headwinds predicted late this week, so getting to Minerva and waiting avoids those. It looks like Windcastle, Windbird (That’s us!), and Gdansk will wait until Tuesday morning and head for Minerva. There are still 12 to 15 foot seas here in southern Tonga, and by Tuesday those should settle down a bit and make for a better passage. We literally just received our “official” report from weather router Bob McDavitt and it agrees with the “leave here” plan, but he routes us straight to New Zealand, getting in just in time for the nasty cold front. Part of me thinks we should stay here and wait for better weather in New Zealand, but part of me thinks that wait could be a very long time. They are having windier and colder weather than usual this spring in New Zealand and no one is sure when that will turn around. We are proceeding based on this information and will probably leave here on Tuesday, but who knows what tomorrow will bring. New weather information-new decisions to be made. It is never ending.
Sylvie on Windcastle, Barbara on Gdansk, Mary on Aventura, and myself skipped the weather meeting this morning and went into town on the ferry to attend church. The other three are devout Catholics and always go to mass. That’s not the case with me, but I always find the church services fascinating. Today’s service was in English. I think a lot is lost when the service is not in the native language, especially the hymns, but I still find it fascinating.
Tonight we are going over to Windcastle to have dinner. Gdansk is also coming. I’m sure there will be much weather and passage talk. Early tomorrow morning we head to town to do the last provisioning and then it’s back to the boat to get ready to go . . . again The weather here is windy, but it is sunny and beautiful. Sure hope the sunshine stays with us throughout the passage. That will make the inevitable cold a little easier to take as we near the New Zealand coast.
by Judy Handley | Nov 4, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Tongatapu |
Day 382, Year 1: More Weather
Date: Saturday, November 4, 2006
Weather: Sunny and Even Windier Than Yesterday
Location: Pangaimotu Island, Tongatapu Group, Tonga
Momma Mia! How does one figure out this weather? Weather Guru McDavitt in New Zealand answered our Thursday email inquiry about leaving here on Monday or Tuesday with a “wait and see what I say on Sunday.” Jim and Pam on Aurora sent him a similar email wanting to leave on Wednesday and he said wait until November 15. Tonight we hear that Jay on Espri emailed him today and asked him about leaving on Monday and he said something to the effect that it would be tight but possible. Mark and Doug on Windcastle are meeting with Mark on Diva and Jay on Espri tomorrow morning at 10:30 to compare notes. We will wait for McDavitt’s Sunday report and then make our decision about leaving. It looks like there is a tiny window for leaving Monday morning, November 6. And if we can’t leave then, it will be at least November 15 before we can move. It’s a good thing we love it here because we could be here a VERY long time. We’ll know more tomorrow night.
The high winds arrived today and our calm anchorage became just a little bumpy, but nothing bad. Mark and I tried to clean the bottom of the boat, but the wind and current made it almost impossible. We got enough done that if we were to leave on Monday, we would be fine. But if we don’t leave, we will wait for calmer weather and make one more go at it.
We heard from Randy and Sheri on Procyon today. They arrived in New Zealand on November 1 after an eight day passage. It was a good passage, but Sheri kissed the ground when they arrived. After the health problems Randy has had, their goal was just to reach New Zealand and they did. We are so happy for them.
Not much else to report today. Life is good. The water is warm and even though it was windy, I was able to spend quite a long time in water in just my swim suit and wasn’t even chilly when I got out in the wind. I think summer is arriving here in the southern waters.
by Judy Handley | Nov 3, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Tongatapu |
Day 381, Year 1: Weather, Weather, Weather
Date: Friday, November 3, 2006
Weather: Partly Sunny and Very Windy
Location: Pangaimotu Island, Tongatapu Group, Tonga
The saga continues. All anyone can talk about is the weather and right now it is not cooperating. There is another tropical depression in the upper Southwest Pacific and could actually develop into the second cyclone/hurricane of the season. It is windy, windy, windy here. Thank goodness we are in a very protected anchorage. Just outside the anchorage there are white caps, but it is calm here behind the island of Pangaimotu.
On this morning’s Coconut Net, boats in this part of the world heading to New Zealand were asked to check in and give their departure date. There must have been about 30 boats saying that they were leaving here on November 7. Looks like we will have quite a flotilla. We took the Pangaimotu Resort ferry into Nuku’alofa today to extend our Visas. We will have been here in Tonga for 30 days on Sunday, and even though we will check out early next week, we felt that we needed to be legal. Besides, it gave us an excuse to meet the brother of Nia who emailed us from American Samoa last week. Nia’s full name is Lavinia Langi-Sefuiva. We thought she was a he until we received a second enail. Sorry Nia. She wrote to tell us her brother works at Immigration here and today we got to meet him. We love these connections.
Sylvie of Windcastle went into town with us today, and we had a great time shopping and celebrating the day. We spent the evening at the Pangaimotu Resort in the company of other cruisers. Tomorrow we plan to clean the bottom of the boat AGAIN. That will give us an excuse to be in the water much of the day. I look forward to that.
by Judy Handley | Nov 2, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Tongatapu |
Day 380, Year 1: Time
Day: Thursday, November 2, 2006
Weather: Overcast
Location: Pangaimotu Island, Tongatapu Group, Tonga
We spent our day learning as much as we could about New Zealand weather reports. This includes listening to “The Rag of the Air” cruiser net from 0800 to 0900 local time, and then listening to New Zealand Taupo Radio weather reports at 2133 UTC which is 1033 local time. All of a sudden everything is in universal time and we have to add 13 hours. Next we accessed our email and got our Fleet Codes for today. This is a list of numbers that we copy and paste into a program called WIAC and it magically turns those numbers in to a weather map showing fronts, highs, lows, etc. We also get our GRIB files each day via email. These show us wind patterns and can be over-layed on our navigation program to show us what the winds will be like along our passage route. At 1130 am local time, it was time to download the first weather fax of the day. It was listed as valid for November 1, 2006 at 1800 UTC. At first we thought it was old data, but then we realized that if we added the 13 hours, we got 0700 am local time on November 2. That’s today here. What a world we live in out here. I’m lucky if I ever know when to do what. We actually had to make an Excel spreadsheet of the different times during the day when we have to be on the radio or computer getting information during this passage to New Zealand. We have to leave the computer on from 1130 in the am to 1600 in the pm to get all of the different weather faxes. They download automatically if the computer is left on. In addition to all of this, when we are on passage we will have to check into the Pacific Seafarer’s Net at 1630 (4:30 pm local time) and into Russell Radio in New Zealand at 1900 (7:00 pm local time). I’m already exhausted. And one more note on the time. I got an email from my daughter Heather last night explaining that you guys have gone off Daylight Savings Time, so now I only have to add six hours and subtract one 24 hour day to the time here to figure out what time it is back home. At least that is fairly straightforward.
So knowing what time it is out here can be confusing. And then the time it takes to wait to make a passage can be frustrating. We got an email from Bob McDavitt in New Zealand late today that told us to put time on hold. In other words, we need to wait. Our weather window is not here and might not be for quite a few days. We are still going to hold on to November 7 as a departure date, but we won’t know about that until Sunday. So maybe Tonga is the place where time stands still!
by Judy Handley | Nov 1, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Tonga, Tongatapu |
Day 379, Year 1: New Auto Pilot Sea Trial Is Successful
Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Weather Continues
Location: Pangaimotu Island, Tongatapu Group, Tonga
We moved the mile and a half from the inner harbor in Nuku’alofa this morning to an anchorage off Pangaimotu (pahng-eye-MOH-too) Island. The name means Royal Island and is owned by the Royal Family. It is beautiful here. The motu is a small, mostly uninhabited, palm-covered motu that is completely surrounded by a white sand beach that slopes into beautiful turquoise water. The thatched-roofed Pangaimotu Island Resort is on the southwest tip of the island. The total picture is that of the perfect South Seas island. And as we sat in the open-sided bar and restaurant tonight watching the sunset, we all knew why we are out here. As Doug of Windcastle said tonight, “This is the stuff dreams are made of.”
We left the inner harbor so that we could do the necessary sea trials to calibrate the new auto pilot. Everything seems to be working just right except that our steering is very stiff. That’s nothing new, but we are concerned that the tight steering might have been a contributing factor to burning out the auto pilot motor. Mark will spend more time tomorrow checking the steering mechanism and then we will just have to hope that we can make it to New Zealand before anymore problems arise.
Once we arrived and got settled, Doug of Windcastle came over to start comparing weather information. I already spend an hour and half of every morning listening to and recording boat locations and weather. Mark spends at least that much time each day studying the new weather information we receive. And now we need to start listening to detailed New Zealand weather reports at least once a day and begin downloading weather faxes a few times a day. Figuring out this weather thing surely takes a bit of time.
At this moment our current thinking is that we would leave here on Sunday morning. After tomorrow morning’s weather reports, we should be ready to e-mail our weather router, Bob McDavitt in New Zealand, and see what he has to say about our departure date. By Friday, we should have a pretty good idea of when we will be leaving. Until then, we will continue to study the weather, clean the bottom of the boat again, and take the local ferry into Nuku’alofa to continue our explorations there.
By the way, if we hadn’t had our auto pilot problems we would probably be in New Zealand tonight. Quantum Leap arrived and Procyon and Wind Pony were only 46 miles out at 8:00 this morning. The only report we heard from them other than position and wind speed was that the weather is COLD! Savior Vivre made it in yesterday and they said the same thing. Jade should be in tomorrow and that will complete the arrivals of those we would have been traveling with. Congratulations to our friends on a safe arrival.
