Day 368, Year 1: New Anchorage
Date: Saturday, October 21, 2006
Weather: Windy and Partly Cloudy
Location: Nuku Island, Vava’u Group, Tonga—Anchorage #8
We left Neiafu around 10:00 this morning and headed for an anchorage between Kapa and Nuku Islands. It is beautiful here with views of white sand beaches and shallow coral reefs. Wind Pony, Quantum Leap, and Jade are also here. After snorkeling, we met informally on Quantum Leap to compare Captains’ Notes on the passage to New Zealand. It looks like the weather is encouraging us to leave here on Monday. We have contacted Bob MacDavitt of the New Zealand Met Service to get his official advice. We are paying him to give us recommendations on a good time to leave here. Word has it that he has been encouraging others to leave on Monday, so we will probably get the same advice.
Our snorkeling today was not as good as we had hoped. We had heard wonderful things about the fish here, but we saw very little. I think it is just way too windy right now. We first went out to a reef between the two islands and when we returned to the boat, I went over toward the shore to check things out. Actually, it was quite good. All of the coral is dead, but there were lots of fish. We will try again tomorrow before we head back to Neiafu and hope to have more luck.
Arni, Cam, and their two girls, Nancy and Molly, are leaving tomorrow. They have already checked out and they are ready to leave. We said our farewells on Quantum Leap and will look forward to seeing them in Whangarei when we arrive in New Zealand. We sure hope they have a great passage.
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| 061021 Day 368 Tonga, Vava'u–Nuku Island, Anchorage 8 |
Dear Mark and Judy,
About this time last year we were in the Med Training with you folks. We have been continuously following your adventures. Very well done!! We are very impressed with your accomplishments.
We finally left the Chicago area on our boat Jabberwocky in mid September and the trip has proved challenging due to the late fall weather. We are currently in central New York State on the Erie Canal waiting for the canal to open after endless rainfall. After reading about your various challenges we have very little to complain about. As with you we are learning the meaning of patience. We hope to be in the Chesapeake by Thanksgiving and will probably winter there.
We have a number of technical and equipment questions to ask you. What is the best way to communicate?
Good luck on your trip to New Zealand. We will be following the trip with great interest.
Kind Regards
Gordon and Joyce