Tonga did not let us down on Silver Fern! We’ve had consistent rain and wind gusting up to 40 knots all of last week and into the weekend, as we’ve been preparing to head back to sea and begin our journey to Tahiti!

Our crew arrived on Monday morning, ready to catch our lines as we tied up at the wharf in Nuku'alofa. We spent the day provisioning in the rain, then going over safety briefs and attempting (not very successfully) to stay dry. As no one felt too dine in on the soggy and humid boat for our last night ashore, we headed to Nauti Rubi’s for some world class pizzas. Michael and John kindly braved the rain to find some ice cream for dessert!

Yesterday morning we got work on our to-do list, as we had a lot to get done before departing that afternoon. Scott and Andrea were on refuelling duty, which we’ve found is no small task in Tonga. We ran through a few more safety briefs with the crew, did a bit more last minute provisioning and John went to customs to clear us out. When all that was done we ran through our Mob training, and slipped lines by mid afternoon!

The weather forecast was showing a low pressure system developing right around Tonga, so we tried to plan our departure time with that, catching fairly strong Southerlies on our way to Niue. After getting out of the reef that protects Tongaʻtapu, we found 4-5 meter swells waiting for us, which always makes for an exciting ride. So the name of the game last night became simply getting through it as everyone found their sea legs. We had an amazingly bright moon, nearly full, guiding us along.

This morning the winds calmed down significantly, and the sea state along with it. Silver fern is much quieter, but we’re still steadily sailing along! We hope to arrive in Niue Thursday morning, just in time for some sunshine!

Cheers,

Liv

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