Finally in snorkeling waters again

The 400 miles long passage from Santubong (close to Kuching) on Borneo to Tioman just east of Malaysia peninsula and Singapore took us almost 3 1/2 days. Again we were lucky (or rather, had picked the right weather) and had a pretty good trip with no squalls hitting us, only one night had lightening on the horizon. It seems that when the winds are more easterly (rather than the usual SW that prevail during this monsoon) there aren't as many squalls. We had no rain and no more wind than 16 knots. Very different sailing from back in NZ and even also the Pacific :-) Despite the light winds (often below 10) we managed to sail most of the time, and only motored about a quarter of the way.

Unfortunately Barry's lucky lure seems to have taken too many hits and has lost a lot of its colouring, so we didn't catch any fish. It would have been pretty sweet to have a third time lucky charm though.

Our only problem was the sink blocking up on day one. It drops directly vertical with no bends in the hose, so normally we just poke something down the drain and it clears. But this time it wouldn't budge. It meant we cooked even less than normal (which doesn't say much) and basically lived off sandwiches and snacks the whole time, as it is pretty hard to cook without being able to use the sink. Sure, we could have used a bucket, or the sink in the bathroom, but sandwiches seemed easier.

When we finally dropped anchor by Mukat at the very south of Tioman it was total bliss to be in clean and clear water. A poke from below into the sink drain quicky cleared it. The hull is filthy and slimy from all the dirty water in Brunei, Miri and Santubong so we now have no less than three remoras clinging to the rudder! The sun was almost setting, so there wasn't time start scrubbing, but we did bother getting the dinghy in the water so we could go ashore to find some proper food. The only place open was very basic, they could only do noodles, but it was still better than sandwiches.

After a lovely night of undisturbed sleep, we woke to rain and wind coming into the quite open anchorage, so we pulled up the anchor and are now anchored by Tekek, the main town on the island and where customs and immigration are (the different Malaysian states like you to clear in and out of each one!), it's still a bit rolly, but not too bad. There is also a small marina here, although we much prefer anchoring (much cooler with a breeze coming through the boat and easy to swim), it's an option if the weather turns.

When I jumped in to check on the anchor I swam a bit back from the boat towards some coral. There I stumbled upon a turtle and also a really big cute pufferfish. Yeah for clean water and good snorkeling, finally :-)

Approaching Tioman

Best place to keep watch (and read) while underway

Mukat village at the southern end of Tioman. A green tropical island, very beautiful

Sooooo many fruit bats!!!

Eventful passage from Brunei to Miri

Four and a half month since we first arrived to Brunei we have finally left the country. We were in and out of the country 4-5 times, both with and without Sophia, and all up we spent over half that time being out of the country, Phil more so than me. We have had a great time though and we really will miss the yacht club with it's nice facilities (pool, showers, dinghies, electricity, wifi and not least the washing machine), but mostly we'll miss the super nice people we have met. 

We left Brunei Friday morning (we're not superstitious about leaving on Fridays) and arrived in Miri (in the Malaysian state of Sarawak) almost 24 hours later. It was an eventful passage, which isn't necessary a good thing, we like easy plain sailing!

We're still in the SW monsoon season, although here on the Borneo coast, luckily, it's not very pronounced. We didn't leave with the best of forecasts, but it was either leave, or wait another week for better winds, and we (OK, me) was keen to get going and be on the move again. And 10-15 knots headwinds isn't that bad, although much more than that, really isn't fun.

We started out motoring into 5-10 knots on the nose, but at midday it changed a little bit, so we could actually sail close hauled. The wind did pick up to 10-15 knots and sometimes getting closer to 20 knots with small squall coming through, but it was still OK. Before dark we put on reef in the main, it doesn't slow us down much, but is much safer at night. Unfortunately a little later the wind had turned on the nose again and we were back to motor sailing.

And we caught a fish, yipee, our first fish since Philippines. It was Barry's (expat with a boat in Brunei) magic lure that did the trick, and we even had a hit a little earlier. A big Spanish mackrel, so much meat we gave some away here in Miri.

There are A LOT of oil rigs between Brunei and Miri, to the degree that even with no moon or stars, it was still very bright! Constant and vigil watch was required because suddenly one of the many lights was actually from a ship moving and was often hard to notice until it was close. Most have AIS, but there are still some without. Plus some of the old oil rigs seems to have been just left with no lights on them. Very different from night sailing in the Pacific where there's a whole lot of nothing and it's suffice to check the horizon every 10-15 minutes.

poor photo at night, but this has no zoom, just to show how close we are and the amoung of light

We knew it was very likely we'd be hit by at least one squall, but there isn't much you can do to avoid them, especially if you're avoiding oil rigs at the same time. Luckily the worst one didn't hit us until we were only half an hour away from Miri, just after day break at 6.30am. Torrential rain and 30 knots of wind hit us, so we had to stay out circling around as it was too dangerous to go into the marina inside the river mouth, but the good thing about squalls is they dont' last long.

You might have noticed all the specific wind speeds in this post. We finally have our Nexus wind wane back again, a bran new one even, and it's working. So, for the first time since Solomon Islands, almost a year ago, we actually know the wind speeds. The saying ignorance is bliss is actually onto something, for me anyway, because I didn't like to see 30+ knots on the speedo when the big squall hit, and would have been a bit happier not knowing it.

I have added the bunch of photos from Brunei on facebook, this is hopefully a direct link to the album. 

Arrived in Philippines

It took us just over four days to sail from Palau to Philippines and we couldn't really have asked for a better passage. It was only on the last days that we had a ton of squalls and variable winds. Anyway, a nice passage was especially nice after our last two uncomfortable passages. Sure, Sophia was still rolling around, but it wasn't too bad (eg throwing us across the saloon) and it is to be expected on any open ocean passage and especially with such a relatively light boat as Sophia. The plus side of her being light is we very often sail with just head sail and no main, where as most other cruising boats need both sails. One interesting thing about our passages in general is also that we have never been becalmed, well, not for more than a few hours anyway at the most. We wonder if that is just our luck, or if it's because even in very light winds we still manage to sail (and we're OK with only 2-3 knots of speed sometimes), where other boats can't sail. 

Out first impression of Philippine landscape is it's as green and lush as all the other islands we have visited on our way, and we have even seen quite a few nice beaches as well. The only problem so far is there aren't as many anchorages as you'd think. Not around the Hinatuan Passage anyway. We tried finding a spot in a really neat lagoon on the east coast of Bucas Grande Island, as it was indicated in our guide book (old and not very detailed, so that doesn't help it much either) as a possibility with a stern line ashore, but we only saw 35 m depths and shallow coral on the shore lines, although we did not search the whole lagoon. Instead went to the only other anchorage by Lapinigan Island and we only just made it before night fall.

There we even had the typical island welcome committee, two out-rigger canoes with motors came zooming up to us, one of them waving a tuna, and they told us which side to go around the island (south) because of power lines and where to anchor. Andrius, the one with the tuna, was quick to come and visit us after we had anchored off his village. He was keen to chat, he has worked two years in Qatar as an electrician and his English was pretty good. After a great sleep (and a yummy tuna) we went ashore to visit the village the next morning. We got the same royal treatment like in Melanesia with a huge entourage of curious kids following us around :-) Andrius told us 1000 people lived in the village, although that seems exaggerated, maybe he just wanted his village to sound more impressive. But there sure was an astonishing amount of kids. The biggest change from Melanesia is that they have electricity. This electricity also powered a karaoke place which explained the terrible music we had heard the night before. The houses were about the same or maybe slightly better, although still shags by NZ standard, for example many don't have glass for windows, just holes that can be covered. The houses were also crowded together really close. People were were super friendly and smiley, as far as we understood, we're only the second yacht to visit in several years!

We then sailed to Surigao, thinking we had gotten the tide right the day before when we were going through the first pass with a bit of current with us, but we ended up having the tide against us, a few times we were down to 0.8 of a knot on the gps, but doing over 7 knots on the speedo with the motor in high rev and head sail up helping as well! It was pretty much just about dark when we finally arrived, so we were very happy to drop the anchor. Surigao is a fairly big place with 130.000 inhabitants, and a ton of boats and ferries around, but being dark we couldn't really do or see much, so it was interesting waking up the next day! We walked into town, not sure what to expect on a Sunday, but most shops and all street stalls were open and crazy noisy busy traffic on the streets. A bit of a shock to the island mojo we have been in for over half a year! And we feel like giants walking around towering at least a head taller than all the Philippinos.

Today, Monday, we spent all morning with customs and immigration, mostly just waiting, but in the end, we are not even fully checked into the country, that will have to wait until Cebu City. We are now waiting here until tomorrow when Sheralee arrives, as she can fly directly and cheaply to here from Cebu City rather than ferry and bus to where ever else we might be. Then it's time to see as many islands and beaches and do as much snorkelling as possible for the next 9 days she's here.

Day 3, passage from Palau to Philippines and our first unpleasant bureaucrat experience

It's now our third day out from Palau, but we have done excellent progress and are now well over halfway. And even luckier, it's been a pretty pleasant passage so far (fingers crossed) with nice wind from the quarter stern, sunny and only very few squalls at night that we have been able to dodge. The first day out was the best and we did 135 miles in the first 24 hours.

Checking out of Palau was supposed to be an easy affair, all the other cruisers we have known have checked our in less than 10 minutes. However, we were not to be so lucky. The customs were 2 1/2 hours late (very unusual apparently), but furthermore the woman tried to get us to pay yet another fee we had already paid, but we weren't given a receipt for. It's a long story, but in the end her office did find the record that we had paid. The worst thing was the manor of this woman, she was just so unpleasant and very unfriendly. All other Palauans we have met have all been super friendly and smiley, a shame that she should be our last impression. Anyway, we finally left Palau, which is most important, and there's a good chance we will meet more troublesome bureaucrats in Asia.

Position: 9,03.225N 128,44.68E
Miles so far 350 and miles to go180

----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Day 7, passage from PNG to Palau and squalls

We're almost into day 8 on our passage and we're just really looking forward to ending it. The last two days have been quite windy, gray and very squally, of course mostly at night. We have had several squalls that have brought along 30-35 knots of wind when it's worst, sometimes lasting up to two hours. We're going for headsail only and often it's partly furled. We have had mostly 1 knot or even more of current against us, but luckily it's now down to about half a knot against us. All this wind and squalls (and worse weather north of us, exactly where the wind comes from) means a big seas and us bouncing around.

But, it does look like we'll make it to Palau on the 24th, fingers crossed, touch wood! Very typically, when I wrote the six months anniversary blog, I actually knew that our main auto pilot ram was playing up and needed work. Unfortunately this time Phil wasn't able to fix it and we're going to need a new one when we get to Palau. We're now using an old ram that still works, but it has already done a lot of miles and it's making some noises too. More fingers crossed it will hold up for this last bit as we wouldn't like to have to hand steer the whole time.

We played some Christmas music today to try and bring some holiday spirits to Sophia in the middle of this massive blue ocean. I'm also hoping I'll be able to do some xmas sweets and baking tomorrow, but it all depends on the state of the sea.

Position: 5, 44, 66 N and 136, 42, 15, E
Miles to go: 162
----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Day 6, passage from PNG to Palau and a mystery at sea

We're on day six now and there are three days to Christmas and it's still within reach to make it to Palau in time. Two days ago the weather file we downloaded indicated that a tropical storm/potential typhoon was forming NE of us and heading just north of Palau, so we have mostly been heading west (as opposed to NW which is the direction of Palau), so we could quickly head south if things were starting to look dicey. We also got Helen (Sala) to keep an eye on the weather (Guam is especially good for typhoon monitoring) for us, thanks for that! Thankfully it doesn't look as bad anymore and we are again heading NW.

Weatherwise it has also been up-hill, as we have had about 1 knot of current against us the last two days. This slowed us down considerable especially on day 4, but then suddenly (of course at night just after the moon had gone down so it was hard to see much) what initially seemed like a squall was just lots of strong wind coming (30 knots), but with a squally front also containing rain. Luckily it's on our starboard rear quarter, so no where near as bad as beating into it, but with it the sea has been very rough and consequently we're rolling around a lot. It has eased town to sometimes maybe 20 knots, but often more. At this point we're pretty keen to arrive at Palau and just get this passage over and done with.

The other day we spotted what initially looked like a ship. We're close to a shipping route from Chine or Japan to Australia/NZ, not sure, but anyway, it means we fairly often pass ships, or to be exact, they pass us. They always come up on the AIS before we actually spot them visually, so it was unusual to first spot the ship. As we got a bit closer, it was clear it wasn't a bit ship. Was it a fishing boat or something then? It did seem very square and strange. With binoculars and the zoom on the camera, we both realised at the same time it was a house! We weren't too far away from it and could make it on the tack, so we turned towards it. As we came closer we could see it indeed was like a raft with a small house built on it and it was actually fairly well made and sturdy. Lots and lots of birds were using it as a resting place. Very strange experience for sure. We're very happy we spotted it during the day, as it certainly wouldn't be nice to hit it at full speed at night time, obviously there were no lights on it.

Speaking of birds, this night we had two birds come rest on Sophia. We tried chasing them away, but they kept coming back. It took them a while to realise the swinging boom (we're going for head sail only) wasn't the best place to sit and rest, it was real funny to see how they were struggling to hang on.

Position: 4, 09, 58 N and 138, 46, 27 E
Miles to go: 318

PS: Last post, day 4, was a little unfinished, I had written it on my watch and Phil sent it while I was sleeping without my usual last check-over.
----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Passage from PNG to Palau, day 4

It's now four days since we left Hermit Island and we're making good progress. After heading north (and slightly east) the first two days, we finally started heading NW, actually towards Palau and it was nice to see the miles to Palau start diminish.

The wind is still on the foreward quarter or beam on, but that means good speed, sometimes, with 1/2 - 1 knot of current with us, up to 7+ knots. This is only possible as long as the wind doesn't go too strong, maybe over 15 knots or so, because then the sea builds too big and slows us down.

Day three was pretty light, we could still have sailed, but only at 1.5-3 knots, so we choose to burn some diesel and make way to Palau We were motoring for 6-7 hours before the wind came back. Normally it wouldn't have bothered us, but xmas in Palau seems pretty nice and still within reach. We would also have to pay overtime if we arrive on a holiday.

Position: 3,42,06N 141,27,15E
Miles so far and to go 474

----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Sophia across equator and now in the Northern hemisphere

We crossed equator at about 9am yesterday morning, a day after leaving Hermit Island. It was fun to watch the GPS count down and go all zeros and it's interesting that we're now in the northern hemisphere, but other than that, it was quite uneventful. At the time we had the company of another boobie (or some kind of a bird) on the solar panel and we got a celebration photo of all three of us, but then we had to shoe him away, as he was shading for the solar panel. We celebrated with freshly squeezed juice of Hermit Island oranges, banana cake and yet more delicious fresh pineapple. Yeah, I know, we're such party people :-)

So far, finger crossed, touch wood, it has been a pretty pleasant passage. We started with about 15 knots of wind, now we're down to 10 or less knots, but because we're closed hauled, we're still making pretty good speeds. The only problem is the wind is directly from the direction of Palau, so we have been sailing NNE (Palau is NW), but hopefully we'll reach the NE tradewinds in a day or two. We don't regret any bit going to Hermit Islands and having all that headwind, as the visit and experiences were more than worth the effort. We haven't had any doldrums or squalls of any significance either, which is surprising, but great. Just lots of stars and some of them shooting.

Palau is still 718 miles away, we have only gained 100 miles towards it the last two days, even though we have sailed about 200 knots since Hermit Island. There is a chance we'll be spending Christmas at sea, but that's OK, we're very far from in xmas mood, when it's 30+ degrees and all blue ocean around us. We did see a few Christmas decorations in the supermarkets in Kavieng, but that's the limit of our xmas exposure so far!

Position: 1° 15' 91 N and 144° 44' 68 E
----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Upwind passage

We left Kavieng almost 2 1/2 days ago and we are currently just north of Admiralty Islands (Manus) which is a bit over halfway to Hermit Islands (200 miles done so far, 150 to go still). We're making slow progress as the wind has mostly been on our nose and it usually dies at night. The first night we at least had about 2 knots of current with us, so we were still moving along, but last night there was none, and we were literally bobbing around. At times we almost welcomed the frequent squalls, as they usually bring along wind, although we never know from which direction or how much. We're also quite happy to at least have wind during the day and don't mind beating into it and luckily Sophia is also quite capable of it. We are hoping to stay a few days at Hermit Islands and maybe also Ninigo Islands before heading north to Palau, so we have to make sure we have enough diesel until then, hence why we don't just motor through the lulls.

Last night a bit before sunset a bird (maybe booby, not sure) came to rest on Sophia, at first on the solar panel, but a little later it moved into the comfort of the cockpit, although still in a corner furthest away from the hatch. After much grooming of its feathers, it stuck its head into one wing and slept all night. It took off a little after sun rise. It was fun and interesting to watch, but it was also quite a smelly visitor, though thankfully the rain had washed away most the mess it made.

Kavieng was a pleasant stop and we stayed four days. The best part was the water was quite clean and inviting (and no crocs!) so cooling off was great. Usually when anchored near a town the water is too dirty for our liking. Close to the anchorage was also an interesting Second World war plane wreck that we could snorkel. It's situated at 7 meters and is quite complete still and had good reef and fish life around it.

----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Arrived in Solomon Islands

We have had a fast passage, about 200 miles, which took us 48 hours, but we were actually slowed down to only a scrap of head sail half the last night as not to arrive in the dark. We have had winds from 5 to 20 knots even gusting up to 29 knots, though mostly around 15-20 knots. A highlight was catching a small skipjack tuna just outside Ureparapara, first fish in almost 3 weeks since Malekula. The police officer in Sola did say that they had a problem with Asia fishing boats illegally fishing in Vanuatu waters, but they don't have any boats to go stop them, so there's not much they can do about it.

Speaking of which, I forgot to mention in the last blog that in Sola both police and customs officers had been to NZ and loved it. The police officer was educated at the police academy outside Wellington and had been stationed several places in NZ (and PNG, told us NOT to go to the highland and cities there!). The customs guy had been playing tuba with the army band, being based in Canterbury, but had visited many places in NZ with the band. They were both very happy to talk about NZ with us.

Back to our passage. Weather wise it was interesting that we had several showers-squalls during the day time, but none at night, but on the other hand, we had some lightening at night, especially the first night, but we never saw any at day time. Lightening is not good when you're a sail boat with a tall mast, but it did seem to be far away from us and upwind and we could never hear any thunder, Strange. Anyway, it meant that our most important electronics, such as a handheld gps, vhf, spare computer and sat phone lived in the oven the, whole time, as that is supposed to possible save them (faray's cage, not sure, can't google it?) in case of a lightening strike (which in lucky cases only take out all electronics, unlucky being when it makes a few exit holes in the hull). The moon was being particular unhelpful as it only rose about an hour before sun rise and then only a tiny sliver, so it was pretty dark nights with only some stars.

Now we're in Graciosa Bay on Ndende. We are anchored by in Shaw Point, directly east across the bay from Lata, as it's the most safe and comfortable anchorage. And comfortable it was, no rolling whatsoever, bliss after so many days of constant movement. Unfortunately the bridge to town is washed out, so we couldn't walk to Lata as we had hoped, but instead we caught a ride with a small local (church owned) boat across the bay to Lata. Normally you can't officially clear into Lata, but only kind of provisional, but when walking across town looking for the police station, we were approached by three different guys, three times. The custom and immigration guys happend to be in town because a cruising ship is arriving this afternoon and finally the quarantine guy also found us. They were all super nice and shared the same office, we came to see them after we had been at the police station/

Two things to indicate we're in a new country: betel nuts and canoes. Here they don't drink kava, but instead they chew betel nut! It makes their mouth and teeth blood red and it isn't exactly attractive. We have even seen 10 year old kids and nuns with tell tale red teeth! Around the streets are these red splatters on the ground, making it look like lots of accidents happen, but it is just betel nut spit! The dugout canoes differ because they don't have any outrigger, they are just plain single hull canoes.

Arrived in Vanuatu

Well, after the last blog post the wind almost died and we slowed right down, so much for hoping for a Tuesday arrival. We could have maybe made it if we had motored the last 16 hours, but we didn't feel like burning all that diesel, so decided just to take it easy. We spent some hours just bobbing around in the swell, but then the wind came up again, then slowed down again. We had everything from 2 to 20 knots those last 24 hours. We hove to most of the night, or more correctly fore-reaching, for we still did 1-3 knots depending on the wind, but it was fairly comfortable, (for non-sailors, we set the sails so they oppose each other and we stay put into the wind only drifting a bit). We arrived in Analgawat on Aneityum (Atamon apparently is the old French word for the island) about 1pm Wednesday, 8 days after leaving Tonga and traveling through two time zones. It was pouring down rain and pretty cold, relatively speaking.

The local police (and customs) officer didn't come out to clear us in until the next morning, but then unfortunately the bank was closed, as it's only open every second day, so we had to stay another day, so we could get some money out and pay our entry fee. Just off the anchorage is a small uninhabited island called Mystery Island. Every month a bunch of cruisie ships stop here and the island is flooded by cruise ship passengers exploring a southern sea 'paradise island. The locals have actually set it up really neat and organised and they make a living of selling crafts, food, entertainments etc to the tourists. I haven't seen so many toilets since New Zealand! We had it all to ourselves and I went snorkeling on the adjoining reef, it was OK, but not spectacular, but I was also a bit limited by a strong current. Phil cut his finger on a fishing knife, so is trying to keep it dry until it heals.

Speaking of fishing knife, we caught no less than three tunas those last 24 hours before arriving here. First two small tunas in a row, we think they were skip jack tunas. These we gave to the customs officer because a little later we got a big beautiful yellow-fin tuna on the hook, yummy, so delicious. Unfortunately we totally forgot to weigh it, but it's the biggest we have caught so far.

Now it's Friday and we got Vanuatu money, paid the entry fee and have wandered through the village. Ni-Vanuatu (as the people are called) are very friendly and smiling, the kids all seem to play soccer, even girls too. Landscape-wise it's very different from Tonga, as here are huge hills/mountains covered in pine-looking trees (as opposed to Tonga's pretty flat coconut islands).

Assuming the foreast we're about to download doesn't come up with any surprises, we're leaving for Port Resolution on Tanna tomorrow very early morning, then it's volcano time! Apparently there's also internet there, so we'll try and get some photos uploaded so it's not just all this boring text.

----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

On passage to Vanuatu, day 6

After the last post the wind turned more to our stern and also increased in strength to up around 20 knots, plus minus some. This is OK as we're just cruising along with the head sail alone, the sea is quite short, steep and very bouncy. We're rocking and rolling all over the show and are both looking forward to a quiet anchorage. It's amazing how quickly we forget when in a beautiful calm anchorage how rolly it can be. It takes two people to cook, one to hold the bowl to stop it bounce away, so about the fanciest we cook is pancakes...

This sounds like a lot of complaining, but we're still fine, we just looking forward to arriving. Depending on the weather, we'll get to Anatom (or possibly Tanna, if it looks like westerly, but unlikely) either Tuesday late afternoon or else we'll have to slow down and wait until Wednesday morning for day light, but hopefully we can just make it on Tuesday.

Position: 20, 20, 17 S and 172, 11, 25 E
785 miles so far, 135 miles to go

----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

On passage to Vanuatu, day 3

It was a bit hard to leave Tonga, all the new and old friends, the beautiful anchorages and great weather. In between preparations we went to a Tongan feast at Lape Island (photos already on facebook). It's a very small community with only about 20 adults and a bunch of kids. They are hosting these feasts every few weeks to raise money to further improve boating facilities for cruisers. They have 5 moorings in order to protect the coral (we had to anchor, as the moorings were already taken) and it really was quite corally bottom and I felt bad seeing our chain and anchor going through coral, basically all the beautiful fish's homes. With the funds raised so far they have built a wharf and are now planning to make a floating dock at the end of it. The locals also have a market where they sell traditional Tongan handicrafts to cruisers, which is a nice way to encourage the young to learn traditional crafts and sustain their life on the islands (thus stopping them going to the cities). We met a few new boats and enjoyed hanging out with old friends, especially Sala, whom we'll miss as we continue our travel.

Anyway, departure couldn't be put further off and we left Neiafu late Tuesday afternoon, making this our third day out. We have been very lucky with the weather so far, mainly 10-15 knots southerly, which makes for lovely beam reaching (as we're heading pretty much due west). It also makes for good speed, we have quite often seen 8 knots on the speedo, especially surfing down the swells, but we usually slow down overnight with reduced sails. We're sailing right past Fiji, and yes, it is a little bit unusual not to stop there, but we don't have the time if we are to be enough west and/or north for the cyclone season by end November. Another good reason not to stop is saving money on the entry fees, which isn't exactly cheap (we understand about $250). We can also easily visit Fiji some other time, with or without Sophia.

Currently we're just south of Fiji (Matuku to be exact), so not quite halfway yet. We're heading to Anatom, the most southern island in Vanuatu to clear in and are looking very much forward to going to Tanna to see the active volcano.

Position: 19, 29, 87 S and 179, 30, 80 E.
366 miles so far, 550 to go (916 in total), average speed app 5.6 knots.

----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Preparations for passage to Vanuatu

We arrived back in Neiafu, Vava’u early Wednesday morning. The passage took us only 14 hours. We had 15 knots on the beam the first 8-9 hours, but unfortunately that lovely wind disappeared and we had to motor the rest of the way. The best things on return here were: $3 fish burgers at the market, real NZ ice cream scoops at one particular supermarket and a good undisturbed night’s sleep. That doesn’t actually say that much about Neiafu. 

Back to Ha'apai. We had fun biking around Lifuka and the adjoining island. Our only exercise on the boat is swimming/snorkeling and a bit of walking around on the islands, so it was nice to 'proper' exercise and it was a good way to see several villages and we were rewarded with a lovely beach at the end. It would be great if we had room to store bikes on Sophia, but we don't (too many sails...). To be honest, it's actually very little we could have used bikes here in Tonga. 

We’re now spending the next few days getting ready for the passage to Vanuatu. Our new membrane for the water maker was waiting for us here, so that has to be installed. It’s really easy to get parts sent to Tonga from the US. Both the items we have bought (BBQ mount and this membrane) have arrived in Neiafu 10-12 days after being ordered online with West Marine (using fedex). As the parcels are for a yacht in transit, we haven’t had to pay duties, just some local fees (25 and 42 pa’anga (subtract about 25% to get NZ$)).

Other jobs are: oil filter change, fix a slightly leaking chain plate and tighten a loose stanchion.  Phil is also trying to combine our three auto pilot rams into two hopefully fully functioning one (I reserved the rights a long time ago to say I told you so when they break. I’m pro wind wane, Phil isn’t, I’m sure this won’t be the last time we have problems ). Plus the usual laundry and just general passage prep such as tiding up the boat and making some food and baking beforehand for the first few days at sea.

NZ to Tonga passage, day 10 and 11 (arrival)

We’re in Tonga!!! Yipee, it’s fantastic, beautiful, warm, tropical, exotic and amazing. OK, the last two words are only Astrid's, Phil doesn't agree with me on those. As a Dane, a pacific island is just about one the most exotic things I can think of.

We arrived Tuesday 2^nd July about 1.30pm, so the passage took us just under  11 days. On our 9^th night out, we could see the mountainous island Eua just south-east of Tongatapu (where Nukualoafa, the capital is).  We then sailed up alongside the whole of Tonga on the eastern side and north of Ha’apai group we turned west and then we sailed north directly into the Vava’u group.  We had anticipated we would have to find a quiet anchor that night, but thanks to the lovely 10-15 knots trade wind, it turned out we could make it to Neiafu (the ‘capital’ of Vava’u, where you have to clear customs) early afternoon.

Overall we're very happy with the passage and especially the weather. Sure, it was a bit bummer waiting three weeks in Gisborne, but it meant that we had good weather on passage. Minus the first few days it was a bit on the light side, but rather that than 45 knots on the nose. We had no major breakages, just a few issues. Our oldest spare auto pilot ram finally had it, the whisker pole used as a bow spit for the code zero needs strengthening and our toilet pump is leaking, annoying, but not crucial.

Clearing in was easy, even with four different people having to ‘clear’ us: customs, quarantine, immigration and port control. The only hick up was that we couldn’t find our clearance paper from Gisborne. This would have incurred a big fine, so we got quite nervous while looking everywhere and the Tongans sitting drinking tea in the cockpit. Finally Phil found it behind the drawers where it had fallen down and was hidden! Good lesson to keep good track of your clearance papers!

Neiafu is the Tonga’s sailing mecca, it’s here most cruisers go, plus there’s lots of charter boats. Still, it only takes 10 minutes to walk through the main street in town  and you have seen it all. It’s an extremely sheltered harbour, but quite deep (+25 meters), so like everyone else we have opted to pick up a mooring. Right away we spotted another Christchurch boat, Rapsody with Stephen on board, pretty funny. They helped us drink our celebratory bottle of bubbles.  However, the best thing was the extremely quiet boat at night time and a FULL uninterrupted night’s sleep :-)

For photos of the trip (mostly sun sets and rises!) see our facebook page: NZ to Tonga passage
 

NZ to Tonga passage, day 8 and 9

Yay, we're finally having really warm weather! It's now consistently about 25 degrees during the day and still over 20 at night time, so clothes are getting much more scarce now. Yesterday we even took down the sail and took turns holding onto the ladder and dipping ourselves in the ocean. At 21 degrees water temperature it wasn't warm, but nice and fresh. We're in the middle of the Tonga Trench, so it was pretty mindboggling to 'swim' in 8-9 km depth!

Day 7 and 9 continued to be very light and a bigger swell developed (possibly from a big low around the South Island, glad we're not there...). The swell together with 3-6 knots of wind from all over the stern quarters made for very slow speed (under 2 knots) and the main sail continued to pop and bang, very frustrating, so we gave in and finally motored throughout the whole night. This morning the wind finally filled in and we are having a lovely 12 knots SSE breeze (tradewind!!!) and are doing 6 knots. Today we also saw our first ship since Gisborne. Saw and saw, our AIS told us a freighter was 12 miles ahead of us, too far to spot with our own eyes. It was the most excitement that happened all day and we both jumped up when the AIS alarm beeped.

We have decided on going straight up to Vava'u and then hopefully visit the Ha'apai group later on.

Position: 22,26,1 S and 175,00,6 W
1040 miles so far. (103 miles daily average the last 2 days, again exactly the same as last report!!) 240 miles to go to Vava'u (only 60 to Tongatapu, the bottom of Tonga). This means we might get to Vava'u on Tuesday, of course depending on the weather.
----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

NZ - Tonga passage, day 3 to 7

We missed getting day 3 and 4 update out last time we downloaded the weather, so this little update will cover 5 days. They are actually really hard to distinguish from each other and it's hard to believe we have already been out 7 days.

We have had almost all westerly winds, ranging from 15-25 knots almost close hauled (and waves splashing over Sophia) to southerlies. Overall it has eased more and more every day, the last two-three days we have been bobbing along to a 3-7 knot WNW'erly and our speed has ranged from 2 knots to 7.5 knots. There's soft rolling ocean swell, but it's not bad at all. It did take us at least 3 days before we both felt fine and had all our appetite back.

The sea temperature is now 21 degrees. When we remembered to check a day out of Gisborne, it was 18 degrees, so it's a good improvement. It's 20-25 degrees during the day, so we're still wearing clothes, but increasingly less. We have worked out a good watch system starting at 8pm, where we each get 3 hours sleep twice during the night, supplemented by day time napping. We have gorgeous sun sets and sun rises and I (Astrid) am taking way too many photos.

All in all, we're very happy out here in our own little 'bubble'. We're a tiny spec on a massive ocean (still haven't seen any other boats), at the mercy of the weather and winds, and we have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world, but we're content without the knowledge.

By day 4 this was our status:
522 miles so far (262 since last report), so amazingly steady speed! 575 more to go
Position: 30, 48, 0 S and 177, 41, 7 W. Parallel to but about 50 miles west of the Kermadecs

Now, day 7 it's:
807 miles so far (day 5-7, 285 miles, daily average 103 miles (corrected for the 6 hours missing to make up exact 24 hour slots). 290 miles to go.
Position: 26, 13, 3, S and 176, 02, 2 W.

We actually haven't decided where to clear in yet, we have the options of either Nukualoafa, Lifuka (Ha'apai), or right up to Vava'u. We'll make the decision when we're closer and it will depend on weather among other things. The 290 miles to go is to Tongatapu. Vava'u is obviously longer than that.
----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

NZ - Tonga passage, day 1 and 2

Thursday 21 June we finally got our weather window and left Gisborne and we have now been 48 hours underway. So far all is good. We started out in a 10-15 knots southerly, which build to 25 knots when we neared East Cape and stayed around the 20-25 knots the first night and day. This has been typical of most of our other trips, so we're fine, although the bouncy sea means we're both a bit green and mostly just sleeps when not on watch. This second night the wind eased and we even had to motor a few hours. We know there's some NW coming so we're trying to get as far north as possible, as it should be lighter there. All today a westerly has slowly been building in strength and is now close to 20 knots.

It's very exciting finally to be underway and on such a big passage. We haven't seen any ships since Gisborne, just endless blue waves. We were visited by a pod of dolphins yesterday and we still have some sea birds around us. It's surprisingly warm, well, compared to our Stewart Island trip in February, so we're quite content just wearing one or two layers of wool when below.

This post is an email sent via our satellite phone, and will hopefully automatically post itself on the blog and our facebook page should also be notified. We will not be able to see any emails or comments until we find internet in Tonga (except emails to our sat phone email address).

260 miles so far (average speed of 5.4 knots) , 837 more to go to the bottom of Tonga.
Position: 34,49,4 S and 179,40,9 W


----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.