13 & 14 October 2024 –Niue to Tonga Day 2

Before I start I have another need. Someone now cannot make the New Zealand to Sydney leg in early January 2025 so I need ideally a sixth person. You would have to be in Auckland, New Zealand by about 3/4 January 2025 with a view to us leaving for Sydney, weather permitting, by about 7 January 2025. We should get to Sydney by about 14-16 January 2025. If anyone is interested please email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com  Thanks.

We motored through the night and when I got up about 7.00am there was some wind so I helped Keith and Joyce put out the sails and it was good to turn the engine off.  We sailed as best we could with the angle and Sean and I took over at 8.00am. We tweaked the sails and because the wind was light they would flap a bit due to the roll of the waves, which allowed wind to get behind the sail and when the boat rolled back again the sail will fill again and so would flap back. Other than sail closer to the wind there is not a lot you can do about this.

Joyce made some scrambled eggs for breakfast which was good and the sun came up and it was quite hot. We adjusted the sails as best we could but the flap continued and the wind gradually died. At 11.15am I decided to motor again as we wanted to get to Tonga the next day and if we continued at that pace it would be the next night. We therefore motored about 6.5 kts which should get us to our waypoint early morning and we would then go round the Vava’u Group into the channel into its capital Niufa.

Tonga is about on the International Date line which runs about 180 degrees longitude through the earth. This means that when you cross it if going west you lose a day and jump ahead a day and if going east you go back and gain a day. We were going west and so at 12.00noon from 13th October we suddenly came 14 October albeit the same time.  

We motored on as the wind was very light and so we did jobs, slept, read, chatted and did watches. Carolyn made a curried cauliflower for lunch which was interesting and tasty. I made sure that we had all the formalities ready for Tonga and also prepared what we need to do for New Zealand. The sea state remained reasonably calm and it was a hot day.

We had bangers and mash with ratatouille for supper which was great and all enjoyed. We chatted and prepared for Tonga and the wind picked up a little so we just put out the genoa and were able to sail slowly toward our destination which was fine. We were ahead of schedule so a slow sail overnight will be good.

It had been a frustrating day wind wise and we had used up some fuel which was annoying which we had not anticipated. However, we look forward to getting to Tonga tomorrow and will then work our way down to the main island Tongatapu.

The picture of the day is the ladies on watch.

Further facts about Tonga. From 1900 to 1970, Tonga had British protected-state status. The United Kingdom looked after Tonga's foreign affairs under a Treaty of Friendship, but Tonga never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power. In 2010, Tonga took a decisive step away from its traditional absolute monarchy and became a semi-constitutional monarchy, after legislative reforms paved the way for its first partial representative elections. It still has a monarch today.

Tonga is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Nations, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Alliance of Small Island States.

In many Polynesian languages, including Tongan, the word tonga (Tongan: [ˈtoŋa]), comes from fakatonga, which means 'southwards', and the archipelago is so named because it is the southernmost group among the island groups of western Polynesia. The word tonga is cognate to the Hawaiian word kona meaning 'leeward', which is the origin of the name for the Kona District in Hawaiʻi.

Tonga became known in the West as the "Friendly Islands" because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He arrived at the time of the annual ʻinasi festival, which centres on the donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga (the islands' monarch), so he received an invitation to the festivities. Ironically, according to the writer William Mariner, the political leaders actually wanted to kill Cook during the gathering, but did not go through with it because they could not agree on a plan of action for accomplishing it.

Opportunity Year Two

In year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025. I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we move through French Polynesia and beyond. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com