Position: 20 degrees, 30 minutes south; 174 degrees, 44 minutes west
Kelefesia. A beautiful island.
Such a shame we couldn't stay here longer.
Here we are at Kelefesia Island after a 33 mile, 6 hour trip today. 15-20 knots made that possible. We have to jump out early tomorrow to make it to the main Tongan island of Tongatapu, which is still 50 miles south-and we have to get there before the weather goes bad sometime tomorrow night. At least we’re hoping it waits that long.
Kelefesia is a fantastically beautiful island. Such a shame that we have to leave so soon, but we’re really racing the weather right now. There’s a front due through here that will bring rain and reduced visibility and then leave in its wake no wind for three or four days. Normally I would say, “Fine, just wait it out”, but the other problem is this front will bring westerly winds. Down here in the Ha’apai Group, the normal wind is out of the east, and there are very few anchorages protected from the west. When the west wind comes through you just have to get out and wait it out offshore. Up north in Vava’u there are protected anchorages and in Tongatapu it’s protected, but these islands we’re in are very small and most anchorages are just up against the west side of a little island tucked into the beach. They are very exposed in other than easterly winds.
So, we’re tucked in here behind the island and surrounded by a reef with waves breaking within 150 yards on both sides of us. It’s a little eerie. We explored a bit this afternoon after we got in. Now the dinghy is stowed and everything’s ready to head out. In case, the wind shifts tonight, I have a “route plan” programmed into the GPS so we can head out in the dark if absolutely necessary-although that’s a bad idea as attested by the yacht that sunk here on the reef a couple years ago. Its mast is half buried in the sand on the beach and the yacht lies out on the reef. Some folks we met a few days ago, scuba dived into it and retrieved the ship’s log from the bookcase! Cross fingers we can wait until sunrise when we can at least see where the waves are breaking. That’s when we plan to leave anyway since we’ll need the whole day to get down to Tongatapu. We’re looking forward to pulling into “Big Mama’s” on Pangaimotu. Big Mama is a local Tongan who has developed a restaurant and bar that caters to cruisers. I for one will be looking to get a “Big Mama’s Yacht Club” tee-shirt. And the timing could be perfect as we have heard that tomorrow is Big Mama’s birthday and a big celebration is planned!
So-once we get to Tongatapu we start preparing for the final leg from there to New Zealand. It’s the time of year when everyone has to get out of the islands before the cyclone season starts in December and most boats are in the process of migrating down this way. We’ll spend a week provisioning and otherwise getting ready (oil change, filters, winches overhauled, etc, etc) for the 7-9 day voyage. The “buzz” on this leg is that you are almost sure to hit a gale somewhere along the way. The trick seems to be in timing it so you hit the tail end of one, when it is the weakest and get into NZ before the next one blows through. We’re going to use a weather router for this trip. A weather router is a professional forecaster who knows these waters and can provide local knowledge to help time the trip.
We’ll also use as much of our own common sense as we have left.