Tracy
11/14/2008, Minerva Reef

We are at anchor in the middle of the ocean. After two days of motorsailing, the winds picked up just as we were advised by Commanders Weather to stay here to avoid a front coming up from the Tasman Sea early next week. We stared at the weatherfaxes hard and cannot really see the front, but Dave says all three models confirm it. So we decided to follow their guidance and will hang out here. Minerva is an atoll mostly underwater at high tide, with reef and breakers at low tide. It is rather surreal now, covered with grey clouds and sheltering a half dozen sailboats. If it is calm we will go off in search of lobsters on the reef. We won't check in to Pacific Seafarers' Net until we get going again; transmission by radio with them has been hard for various reasons, so don't worry if there are some of those dots marking our travel missing!

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Tracy
11/12/2008, Nuku'alofa, Tonga

After a non-stop work day setting up Hannah and a lovely evening with Big Mama at the bar talking about development politics, we are ready to go. Although we will miss the tropics, it is time to get out of the cyclone zone. We have unearthed odd clothing like long underwear and neck gators and pile vests and Northwest weather foulies, but hope for a few more days of temperatures that actually seem quite cool (77 degrees F in the cabin today). I am up at 4:45am checking weather maps, and Steve and Johan will be up within the hour for a big breakfast before taking off. Wish us fair winds. Our course will be plotted on the Pacific Seafarers's Net(www.pacsea.net) under roll call and tracking by KE7KIR.

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Tracy
11/10/2008, Nuku'alofa, Tonga

In the exquisite Ha'pai group, we met a family nurse practitioner dynamo and talked over tea about staffing of rural clinics, under-five mortality, our worst cases, carrying people who showed up by boat overhead in wheelchairs to the clinic, and a thousand other things. Of course, we also snorkeled healthy reefs and had fires on the beach and such. She insisted that we look up her daughter in the big city so we did. Tiane and her auntie took us on an all day, whirlwind tour across the island. Tiane was raised in the US and came back here at age 17, hungry for the family structure and culture and willing to let go of the material perks of Redondo Beach. She has an exquisite sense of being inside the culture while being able to look at it from the outside. So, for instance, she drove up to the house where Nolan's classmate Tevita's auntie lived, called out her name through the gate as if she had known her forever and then turned to me slyly and said "Tongans always talk to everybody as if they have known them forever". The trip included a flat tire and getting stuck in the mud. There is a photo that goes with the title, but it will have to wait; I spent hours in the "fast" internet cafe today trying to send that one photo and couldn't, much less any others taken in Tonga. We are very pleased to have a new president and vice-president. Around the election we were anchored off an island resort called Big Mama's Yacht Club, a casual sand floor place that does a great job helping boats get ready for the trip to New Zealand. They don't usually have a TV, but I asked Earl if he could rig something up for the returns and he worked it out that we got to watch. The beauty of being in Tonga is that one can stay up until 1-2 am Chicago time and still be in bed at 9pm. Steve and I had kicked around the idea of getting a third person for the trip to New Zealand ever since Nolan went off to school. Having heard many versions of "the crew from hell", we were reluctant to troll the bottom but felt that if the right person came along ...Shuttling back on the ferry to Big Mama's we met a young Swedish firefighter traveling around before working in NZ for six months. The conservation began with seasickness (he passed my test, which is that when I put the words "rectal suppository" into the group conversation he didn't pale) and ended with us all deciding to sleep on it. He has not been sailing, but has many skills as a firefighter that translate well--agility, focus, ability to be a team player, etc. We are delighted to have a hard-working, engaged, responsible young man for crew and it is really remarkable how seamlessly he has integrated into our lives. Weather to whether to weather. For weeks we have been watching the weather maps looking for the right time to go. The long and the short of it is that the usual predictable alteration of Tasman Sea lows and smooth isobar highs has not been happening and, as our friend says, "there has been a lot of tropical stuff out there". It has been a week of constant huddles, looking at different weather models and trying to assess their accuracy. Most likely we will go soon, probably in 1-2 days.

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