After stocking up with delicious food and completing some of the never ending boat jobs, we set sail for Tonga. 

The weather on this passage was very mixed. Ranging from 25knts on the beam to 6knts dead down wind and then everything in between! 

Our greatest wind speed was soon after we had set off from Tahiti. As we passed Moorea, we entered the acceleration zone. Within seconds the wind increased and so did the sea state. Our lightest winds were just before we entered a conversion zone of two fronts. With the wind doing a 360 rotation over 24hours. Within that period we were able to fly Big Blue and keep our speed considering the light airs. 

On this passage we had one successful fishing experience. We manage to catch and land a beautiful skipjack tuna 10miles from Tahiti. This provided us with two delicious meals. Our next fishing attempt didn’t go as well and sadly we lost our brand new lure! - we didn’t fish after that!😂 Our biggest success was our practicing and mastering of the sextant. By the end of the passage, we were able to use the sun to create a fix position which was within 5miles of our GPS.

Half way through the trip, we had a fantastic pod of dolphins who swam with us for over 20minutes. This was the first pod we had seen for a little while so we were thrilled to watch them play! The surf was big and they put on a brilliant show jumping in and out of the waves. 

An interesting part of our passage was the fact we would cross the international date line. This meant we were going from UT - 12 to UT +13. It took us a little while to get our heads around it but as a result we adjusted our clocks and lost a day! 

We went to the Vava’u group of Tonga, which had many inlets and anchorages to explore. We went to the main town which is the furthest up river and provided excellent shelter. It also had a fantastic cruisers community, with people often meeting at the Mango for a drink and to share stories. 

Tahiti to Tonga

Crew

Crew Logs

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