Position: 27 degrees, 12 minutes south; 178 degrees, 16 minutes east

Today was a slice of heaven. Sitting in the cockpit enjoying one of my favorite lunches. I finally made the meatloaf right, so the leftovers made perfect sandwiches. Ann made some of her great pressure cooker bread and I had a Maka-which is a Tongan beer. Yes, life was especially good today on Charisma. Last night and most of today were pretty nice sailing although the wind was up and down, so I had to make a lot of sail adjustments. One especially happy note was that we had light enough wind this morning that we could take down the big jib and put up the yankee. I should have done that in Tonga but I was thinking of the light air we might sail through not the heavy air. The reality though is that big jib really reduced our options in heavy air. I’m so happy to have it down and packed away-especially now that it’s so windy.

The last couple days have been nice, but we’re paying for it now. Late in the day we sailed through a squall line and what did we find on the other side? 25 knots of wind and two meter seas. It has gotten snarly out. We’re down to a double reefed main and just the stays’l and doing 6 knots close reaching toward Kiwi Land. The next step to reduce sail will be dropping the main and going with the storm trysail. Probably around 30 knots of wind or so. Getting to New Zealand means four days of this and the bonus is that sometime, probably on Friday (which for those in the US will be Thursday) we’re likely to see a gale. Winds in the 40 knot range. We’ll see. We can always hope that we’ll get far enough south to avoid that. Knowing we have some rough weather ahead, I made a green curry eggplant dish with rice today and put it in the fridge. All we have to do for a hot meal is heat it. So, if it’s stormy, we’ll have an easy hot meal with no prep.

That’s our report from the “other” side of the international date line.

Pumice on the water (this pic is actually the day before when there was little wind for a while)

Position: 25 degrees, 24 minutes south; 179 degrees, 14 minutes EAST

We’ve crossed the official date line of 180 degrees longitude. We’re now on the east side of the line versus the west side. Now today is officially your tomorrow even though Tonga has already designated they are in the east side time zone.

So…lumpy, bumpy. That’s the gist of the day. Last night was a nice ride but this morning the wind picked up around 0400 and built into the 20’s. In SF Bay that’s not a big deal, but out here the seas make it much different. You just can’t keep as much sail up or you’ll break something flying off a big wave. You have to slow down. So, I’ve been changing sails all day long. I think I reefed and unreefed the main about five times, the jib at least twice and put up the staysail, then took it down and now it’s back up again because the wind was getting back into the mid-twenties with 6 plus foot very steep and confused seas. We were going really well, but now the wind has dropped again and I’m thinking I’ll have to take it down in the dark sometime tonight and unfurl the bigger jib so we can keep moving. Not my favorite chore, especially if I just woke up and am sleepy. Oh well.

Keep moving. That’s the order of the day. It’s why we didn’t stop at Minerva Reef. We were within three miles of it but there’s a tropical depression building over in Fiji that is scheduled to move on toward Tonga and Minerva Reef by Wednesday. We considered spending the night anchored inside the reef’s lagoon, but decided that the time would be better used moving southwards away from the storm. The weather gurus are saying it might even turn into the first cyclone of the season. That’s a lot of motivation to move south fast, which is what we’re doing. We should miss it, but we’ll catch the outside of the low pressure area and probably see 20-40 knot winds at some point in the next couple days. The boats that didn’t make it out of Tonga in time-and it’s too late now- won’t have fun either as they will have to worry whether their anchor will hold as they get blasted and buffeted by 40+ knot winds. There are going to be a lot of stories to tell next week one way or another.

We took a lot of blue water over the bow today and guess what it netted us? Pumice! Yup, there’s a bunch of pumice in the scuppers that we scooped up by burying the bow into waves full of it.

That’s the news from Charisma for the day.

And…Happy Birthday to my daughter Christine who turns 25 today (the 4th for you)! Have a great one Chris!!

Position: 24 degrees, 04 degrees south; 179 degrees, 24 minutes west

Silently gliding through the night sea. Moonlight and friendly stars guiding us toward our next destination.

It never ceases to amaze and give joy-the wind gently pushing Charisma along. This is one of the nights where it all comes together. Gentle breeze, waves travelling thousands of miles to greet us, lifting us-for a moment- then softly setting us down, thousands more miles for them yet to go. Ancient light from the stars, hundreds of years old, reaching out to us just now. What message does it bring?

Following seas, the moon, stars and the bow slicing through the night, the water parts as we pass, gently gurgling like a mountain stream. Our wake glistening in the moonlight leaving a trail into the distance and for a few moments a trace of something that shows we were there.

And there’s not another soul out here in this expanse except us.

Position: 22 degrees, 27 minutes south; 177 degrees, 31 minutes west

Sea and sky. Never get tired of this view.

We launched our final rubber duckie. It has our blog and email written on it and we noted the Lat/Lon where we tossed it. Fun to see if anyone ever finds it.

A slow day. There’s not much wind right now, so we’re sailing in 6-8 knots of breeze at 4-5 knots boatspeed. Sometimes a little slower. It’s a little ironic that there’s so little wind right now because we’re likely to get plenty of wind in the latter half of this leg of the trip.

There’s talk on the radio of a tropical depression stretching from Fiji to North New Zealand this coming Wednesday. I’m seeing some heavy rain and moderate wind on the GRIB files, but don’t know what this might turn into at this point. I don’t think the water is warm enough yet to develop a cyclone-those usually don’t start until December, which is why we’re all leaving the tropics this time of year. Anyway, a big low won’t be any fun and we’ll hope to be south of it before it comes across this way. We should get a better read on its size and direction in the next day or so but at the very least it’s existence is likely to cause us to skip our planned stop at Minerva Reef and put some more miles in the bank to get further south by the time it’s due to come through.

Oh well, that’s part of cruising. Preparing for the worst and doing stuff to avoid it. We did a lot of work on Charisma in Nuku’alofa in anticipation of some tough weather along the way. We’ve got fresh oil and filters in the engine in case we need it in a crunch and the storm sails are rigged and hanked on all ready for high winds. We’ll take what we get, but seek to avoid the tough stuff if we can.

In the meantime, we’re enjoying some beautiful weather. The sunset was spectacular and the night is clear as can be. Some great stars and a late moon are up for our watches tonight. Here’s hoping there’s enough wind to enjoy them in peace and quiet instead of with the grinding of the diesel engine (although I’m not complaining mind you-life would be much tougher without our trusty diesel).

I almost forgot! We sailed through a pumice patch today. There’s a volcano somewhat around that’s throwing the stuff out. There were a lot of small pieces the size of a potato that alerted me to its existence, but finally I saw the patch. It was about 150 yards long and maybe 30 yards wide. Several actually and we sailed right through one of them. It’s just lots of floating pumice debris, most of which is about the size of pea gravel, but it’s very colorful. On a sunny day like today, the patch turned the water golden. Very dramatic.

Eight more days (more or less) and then New Zealand!

Position: 21 degrees, 13 minutes south; 175 degrees, 42 minutes west

Today was the day. The weather has switched. The wind is starting to come out of the southeast making it possible to sail on a more or less straight line southwest. We’re on a heading of 220 degrees magnetic in 8 knots of wind doing about 4 or so knots. Minerva Reef is hopefully our next stop unless the winds won’t allow it. That would be about two days from now- or around 220 miles.

We got up early this morning and Ed from Quixotic was nice enough to run us over to town to pick up fresh veggies and fruit. Then we took the rental car back and headed back. Ann and I bid Ed and Nila goodbye for this season. They are staying in Tonga and have rented a cyclone mooring which is basically a really strong mooring that is certified to hold in case of a cyclone. They should have fun staying around for Tongan summer. Fewer people/boats, although more rain and the possibility of a cyclone adds a little excitement to the stay. We hope to be able to meet up with them next season in Fiji which is our next step back up to the north come April.

When we got back to Charisma we did some final prep work, and a little cooking (we now have three dinners and a bunch of snacks pre-prepared so all we have to do is warm them). Then a quick trip onto Pangai Motu to say goodbye to Big Mama and thank her for the great hospitality, Once the dinghy was deflated and stored on the foredeck, we hoisted anchor and headed out. It took a couple hours to get out past the reefs, but we’re now in deep water and headed south(ish).

It’s kind of exciting being on the last leg into New Zealand. That’s about 1000 miles and nine days from now.

The east coast of Nuku'alofa and the blowholes

Tonga's version of Stonehenge

Lunch with Ed and Nila from Quixotic

Since we finished most of our boat work, we took a day off today, rented a car and drove around the Kingdom of Tonga with Ed and Nila on Quixotic. Actually, they were nice enough to invite us on the expedition, so Ed drove and we got to sightsee.

First impression: A very, very rural country/island. There is very little infrastructure here. It consists mostly of the 8-acre farms that we’ve learned about on other islands. Every adult male gets his 8 acres. We saw lots of those little plots that were being farmed. All of them mostly by hand. There are very few tractors or other mechanical devices here. During the whole day, I saw only two tractors. Most of the little plots looked like they were being tended entirely by hand-including hoeing the weeds. Lots of taro, manioc, some bananas, tomatoes, carrots and sundry other crops. All of the fields also kept their coconut trees for that element of the local diet. In fact, it would appear that the most dangerous part of farming here is the risk of being hit by a falling coconut-and they can be deadly. There is lots of evidence of cars parked under the trees in town. Cracked windshields.

So, a fun day. Now it looks as if there is a weather window tomorrow. Our weather router, Bob McDavitt is sending us a route plan tonight, but he hinted in an email today that tomorrow is a good day to leave for Minerva Reef. This is a spot 220 miles SW of here. It’s an atoll type reef a mile or so in diameter that is hollow on the inside. You can enter through the pass and then anchor in the sand around the periphery. Very much like Beverage Reef where we stayed a month or so ago on our crossing from Palmerston to Nuie. The holding is sand, so it’s a great place to just “camp” while waiting out a blow or better weather for the final 5 or so days to NZ.

Anyway, tomorrow early we’ll go into town and stock up on fresh produce and fruits. Ed (Quixotic) has graciously offered to pick us up at 0730 and drive us to the market and back, then he’ll return the rental car and hopefully we’ll be back on Charisma by 1000 and leave. We’ll see-and we don’t have a final passage plan yet from Bob McD so things might change.

Stayed tuned tomorrow.

P.S. We’ve been listening to all the boats who have left here the last three days or so and they are reporting head winds and seas that are making for a long and bumpy passage. I don’t know what made them decide to go, but am glad that we chose to stay here. Most are well into three days and the voyage with favorable winds should only be 48 hours at most. That’s the biggest thing we’re seeing change-the wind shifting from southwest to southeast or even east, which means going from a headwind to a following wind.

Cross fingers and check in tomorrow to see.