Sailing to The Kingdom of Tonga

 Day 15-21 - Friday thru Wednesday, September 8 -13, & Friday, September 15

When we originally set sail from Rarotonga to Tonga (officially called the Kingdom of Tonga) our projected sail plan had us sailing 5.5 nights and 5.5 days.  The following is a summary of those 5.5 days & nights and the cause of a full extra 6th day.

We started at midnight on September 8th with few issues throughout the night.  But in the morning of the 8th the winds and seas began picking up and would continue to increase over the next 3 days.  During those days we encountered winds of 40 kts and 30 ft seas constantly bombarding the boat. Here’s a link to a video, but it’s really hard to capture the intensity of the waves and swells.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zmDUGC2DXV81tKYZ2Q0Th_g5GjQVlPwg/view?usp=drivesdk

A big issue began the end of the first day when we were struggling to  maintain a good rate of speed and auto pilot control with various high wind reefed sail configurations.  Our speed was 60% of what was planned and we were losing time quickly. 

This baffling situation lasted 48 hours until the end of the 3rd day when Xavier noticed that the new windlass had somehow released the anchor and over 80 M of chain and rope.  In essence we had been dragging the anchor and its entire length of chain and rope through the ocean for at least 2 days.

Now everything made sense, the lack of speed was certainly attributed to dragging the anchor and chain as well as the auto pilot’s inability to maintain heading control at normal speeds.  We estimated that we were a full 2 days behind schedule.

Thankfully we didn’t lose the anchor and after 1.5 hours we successfully unbound the rope from the windlass and retrieved the anchor back onto the boat.  We quickly resumed sailing and all speed performance metrics and auto pilot controls returned to normal.  

We were rewarded throughout these struggling days of rough conditions with beautiful sunrises and sunsets. 

Here’s some video of Mickey trying to cook with the bouncing seas. Notice how the gamble stovetop is cantilevered, allowing it to rock with the boat so that the pans stay on the stove and the food stays in the pans. Carol also had her turn in the galley. Xavier is very impressed with our cooking skills while riding a bucking bronco.  (See The Motion of the Ocean, Everyone Appears Drunk and Bruised blog).  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kmUcYsX1aYpc4Xdo3aRpOdb-5Soa3ySb/view?usp=drivesdk

That night and the next morning the weather remained rough but slowly began calming in the afternoon.  Finally we could get a nights sleep without “riding a roller coaster“. Unfortunately, this little guy didn’t make it.

The next two days and nights were calm and pleasant and we made up one of the extra days we had fallen behind. The seas were calm enough for Mickey to work on the flags. Our vessel Kanoa flies flags of Xavier, it’s captain (French) and Carol & Mickey its crew (United States) plus the country of vessel registration (Poland). Upon arrival in a new country, we fly that country’s flag (Tonga) and a tempoary quarantine flag until Kanoa and crew pass customs, immigration and the health department.

Our arrival was now projected to be midday Thursday September 14.  But wait, we cross the International date line just before Tonga. So we actually skip over Thursday September 14 and arrive Friday September 15. (see The Date/Time Conundrum blog)

In all the trip lasted 6.5 days and nights instead of the 5.5 originally predicted. This crossing covered ~1,100 NM (Nautical Miles) and since we started in Papeete we have traveled ~1,900 NM