The Gauntlet - Tonga to New Zealand

The dreaded passage. Lo has been worrying about this passage since LA! The first 100 pages of Steve and Linda Dashew’s book on heavy weather tactics, Surviving the Storm, details storm after storm on this part of ocean, including the notorious and disastrous Queen’s Birthday storm of 1994. Watching the weather closely both before setting off and during the passage is critical to a safe passage.

We saw Wandering Star, another Vancouver boat, sail past us in Atata on November 17 as we were doing our final stowing. They were about 5 hrs ahead of us and would stay within 60 miles of us during much of the passage. Within 12 hrs of departing Tonga, the wind freshened and backed from 10 kts from the ESE to 25 kts from the ENE. With the genoa reduced and a triple-reefed main, we easily made a 125 mile day (our record, so far, on Demelza is 136 miles). The barometer dropped steadily and heavy rain bucketed down.

MINERVA REEF: We had our hearts set on going to Minerva Reef, a Tongan submerged atoll with protected anchorage for yachts approx. 300 miles from Tongatapu. This reef has the reputation of being home to incredible marine life, such as very large fish and sharks. Just imagine, a reef too far out of the way for fishers to over fish it and people to pollute it. There are no houses, buildings or industry – there’s no land! And no rivers to create turbid water - the visibility would be out of this world! However, the winds were now gusting over 30 kts and night was soon upon us, making us question navigating a submerged reef entrance. After hearing reports on our local radio net that we were about to get a full week of solid wind for getting to NZ (i.e., the back end of the storm), we decided for safety first and headed for NZ.

LO’S BDAY: Turns out, the weather gurus were wrong this time. The good winds held for only a couple of days (we clocked in a 130 mile day) and then the windless centre of a high pressure system sat right on top of us…our daily distance average plummeted. By Lo’s birthday on Nov 25th, we were on our fourth straight day of super light wind and sunny skies. We made the most of it and Gary organized a fantastic celebration for his gal. While Lo got an extra hour of sleep on her nap, Gary made birthday brownies and painted her a card. He made all the meals and we had drinks in the cockpit watching a gorgeous sunset over the flat calm ocean. We even went for a refreshing swim in the big blue...which is always a bit creepy, especially with all the huge gelatinous critters floating by!


ANOTHER GALE: The adage for this passage is “It’s not whether you’ll get hit by a gale, but by how many!” Watching the weather carefully, we were prepared when the next low came through from the west. Our weather faxes predicted strong winds within 270 miles of the centre, so we heaved-to early and were glad to have done so. Other boats on our radio net kept going into the storm, experiencing 40 kt winds and 4-5 m swells, where we had 30 kts and 3-4 m swells. Unfortunately, the storm stalled over the North Island, leaving us tantalizingly close to our destination…Opua, NZ in the Bay of Islands. The 250 miles, a distance that could be covered in 2 full days in good conditions, took us seven days (including the three days we were hove-to).

We were especially anxious to arrive, not only to end this dreaded passage, but to see Lolah, Gary’s Mom who was eagerly awaiting us. So eager, that she and her cousin Penny decided to wait in Auckland no longer, and made the 3 hr drive up to the Bay of Islands to await us there. Their timing couldn’t have been better – we were shocked to see them walking down the dock towards Demelza as we were drinking cold drinks supplied and delivered by our trusty friends Cress and Irena (Conversations) - only an hour after we arrived! Seeing everyone was so great after the long voyage!

The hot showers in their hotel room in Russell was heavenly! The first for us in 198 days.