June 12
We had a lovely sail on Saturday, beautiful wind and smooth seas. Then at about 4am on Sunday morning it all went pear shaped - lots of wind and waves for 24 hours. We had to heave to in order to tie down the anchors and then later to make a meal. We crossed the international date line and went straight from Sunday to Tuesday morning. Steve from Southern Cross said he finally got to do something he'd always wanted to do - skip Monday! We arrived here early Tuesday morning and sailed slowly so we could enter the harbor once the sun was up.
We are all checked into Tonga now - the harbor is very nice. It's big and well protected with mooring balls as it's a deep harbor. The name of the harbor is "Port of Refuge" and after the weather/wind in Pago Pago and the weather the last 24 hours on our way here it is definitely a refuge! We're due to get a bit of weather later this week but should be a non issue in this harbor. It's much cooler here than in Pago Pago and the humidity is lower. I actually had to wear a jacket on watch last night as it was really cool overnight. Should make for the best sleep we've had in several weeks. Pago Pago rained so much that we had to keep the boat closed up and it was really hot and humid. This is a welcome change.
Made chicken and biscuits for dinner and now it's off to bed - it's only 8pm but I was on watch from midnight to 6am or so and I'm dead tired. I know Lee is too as he was on watch until midnight then again at 6am, and he woke up to check our progress during that time. We went into town and met up with some other arc boat crews and it's nice to know we are all feeling the same way - it's a comforting thought that we aren't the only ones ready to fall over from exhaustion. The pace of the rally is very quick, with only 2 people on board to stand watch...the passages can be brutally exhausting.
Looking forward to a good night of sleep!
Pauline