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19. day - 10/11/2007 - In the moorning a catamaran passed us. It was Lady Jane III SV.
Then we arrived at the Haapai group of Tonga. Here the anchorages are not very well sheltered and the islands are far away from each other. But we saw steaming vulcanic islands here contravene the limestone islands of the Vavau group. In Haapai we could find flat golden sandy beaches and also dark vulcanic hills. We stopped at one of the southern island of the group and we were having rest. Lady Jane III was also here.
The e-mail system had some prolems that time so we could not get the weatherforecast.
We left Haapai at 6.30 pm for an overnight sailing to Nukualofa. Finally we got all of our e-mails. It seems that the weather window is still not good to New Zealand. And a low is predicted from the 13th at Minerva reef. So we still have to wait.
Yagoona is still at Minerva and they could not get yet further from the reef. The weather still does not seem too good. We sent them also the weatherforcast to see the prediction.
Daily position:
13:00 20-16.30S 174-48.00W log= 24232.2
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20. day - 11/11/2007 - In the morning we arrived at Tongatapu. There are many reefs here. The main island, Tongatapu is surrounded by small islands. We first stopped at Fafa island. There is a hotel resort on the island and the manager is Joseph. He has a boat and his pactor modem did not work. (We knew it from Stephan - SV Muline.) After a few hours the modem worked again and Joseph invited us to the island. He showed us the nice and traditional guest houses and invited us for a dinner.
This is very nice in sailing. You never know what will happen on the next day.
Daily position:
12:00 21-06.00S 175-11.00W log= 24286.4
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21. day - 12/11/2007 - Today we sailed to Nukualofa on Tongatapu. This time we went into the harbour. It was free and we were the only boat here (everbody anchored outside, who knows why).
We checked in at customs and went into the town. It was very much different from Vavau. There were some tourists, cafes and restaurants on the streets. The cemeteries were very interesting mostly the burrial place of the kings. The churches are huge and nice. We also saw the palace of the king, but it was under reconstruction. It did not seem like a palace.
We wrote a letter to Bob. We would like to leave as soon as possible, but we do not want to hit a big low or bomb. Maybe we can leave very soon.. |
22. day - 13/11/2007 - Today we bought fuel, spent our last pangas and cleared out from Tonga. Tomorrow morning we will leave towards New Zealand. The weather does not seem to be perfect. There are many squalls, lows and the convergence zone also. However it seems that we have safe weather to the Minerva reef. If we get there we will be 250 miles closer to NZ. Sailors before us had not got very good experiences this year. It was easy to run into a stormy weather so none of the weather window was really perfect for sailors.
See next chapter.... |
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