Despite the break in Niue, we are still on
Leg 8!
Our stop-over in Niue was limited to 72 hours, and
was a timed break in Leg 8, which runs from Suworrow to finish in Vauva'u,
Tonga. Yesterday dawned again cloudy with a difference. Overnight,
the wind had backed around to the North West, and a short, choppy swell was
entering the open bay. We were on a solid mooring, reportedly a 2-ton
block of concrete, which was just as well as the echo sounder was showing nine
metres, instead of over thirty as it had the day before. Clearly the
moorings were set on the edge of a shelf. We were safe enough, but Cleone
was pitching up and down, and the two mooring ropes to the anchor buoy were
straining and starting to chafe. Our time in Niue may have been up, but
anyway we needed to leave - Alofi Bay was rapidly becoming untenable.
So we tidied up and stowed away below, cleaned and
deflated the dinghy and shoved it under the saloon table (never an easy task -
ask Will), rigged the lee-cloths, studied the weather forecast, fed way-points
into the GPS, removed the sail covers, rigged the spinnaker sheets and guys and
we were ready to go, well before our target time of noon. And off we went; there
was no point in lingering uncomfortably. As it was, the foredeck crew struggled
to untie the bowlines on the buoy (mental note; next time use
round-turn-and-two-half-hitches as the book suggests), and we needed
considerable engine power to hold us to the buoy. An Estonian boat, that
has dogged the World ARC and Cleone in particular since Gibraltar, suffered an
engine problem in this bay and ended up on the reef only a couple of days before
we arrived. We did not want to follow his example. All was well, however, and
soon we were on our way.
The first few hours were plain sailing ? a couple
of reefs in the main and genoa, and one in the mizzen. But as we cleared the
island, the wind gradually eased. We shook out the reefs progressively, and not
long after nightfall it was time to start the engine or drift around with the
sails banging uselessly against the rigging. And since we had spotted a
damaged shroud, this was not good. So we've been fighting a slight
counter-current, but still hope to reach Tonga in daylight tomorrow.
Oh, and I nearly forgot. We will actually arrive
the day after tomorrow. Tonga keeps the same clock time as Niue, but being
the other side of the International Date Line, you lose a day getting
there. Weird. But, as Norfy pointed out, it does mean that Tongans with
urgent business in Niue can ask for results by yesterday, and get them!
As far as you are concerned, we will soon be 13
hours ahead of you instead of 11 hours behind. Enjoy your lead while it
lasts!