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


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