On October 7th, Demelza departed Alofi Harbour, Niue, and literally sailed into the sunset, setting a course due west for the Vava’u Group, Kingdom of Tonga. We had even stowed some live lobsters, with the hope of sharing them with Paul Kennedy and Krista Knight, who were joining us in Tonga from Vancouver. Unfortunately they died on the passage, so Gary forced Lo to have a Lobster Omelette for breakfast and Lobster sandwich for lunch to eat the whole lot in one day! NINE LOBSTERS! As we raced over the Tongan Trench (>10 km deep), we were excited with the anticipation of seeing the Kennedy/Knight clan…our first direct link to home since February. Luckily we had made contingency plans for them to stay with Cress and Irena (Conversations) in case we were delayed. Light winds and that pesky International Date Line slowed us for 12 hrs, just enough to require putting those plans into effect for a night.
Luckily though, the 250 miles went by painlessly with the light breeze blowing steadily from the east to southeast for the majority of the passage and star-filled skies at night… especially in comparison to our previous passage. On the second night, Lo was washing up some dishes at the sink while Gary was sleeping when she heard a strange noise “Pfhhhhh”. Gary? Nope. She listened again but heard nothing. Then it came again. And again. She couldn’t place it – was something leaking? Or shifting? It wasn’t one of the usual noises. It sounded like it was coming from outside so she went out and sat in the cockpit, listening for it. Then it came again. Louder this time as she was now outside sitting right beside the Humpback whale that was surfacing and breathing in the night air less than 10 m from Demelza’s cockpit. Truly magical.
After talking to Paul over the HAM radio from Conversations, we heaved-to overnight off the NW coast of Vava’u awaiting sunrise to safely navigate the aidless waters of these islands.
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