Sorry for the delay in posting this. We couldn't get connected through our SSB..

Well, we are on the way again. We started Monday with a trip out to one of the reefs just south of the anchorage to see the manta rays that live in the area. We'd been there shortly after we'd arrived at Suwarrow but didn't see any. As we were leaving in a few hours, now was the time. The reef was only about a half mile south of where we were. As we headed south, we were passed by Warren and Maria off Night Fly. Nice people we had just met while we were anchored in Suwarrow. They had seen 4 manta while they were out there. We clipped Puff to the buoy that is there and dived into the water and started the search. A few minutes later as I swam along, I happened to glance back behind me and there was this HUGE manta just gliding along right behind me. The wing span was at least ten feet, probably more. He(or she) passed right below me. A few minutes later, more showed up gliding in a line or into a circular pattern above the ocean floor gathering what ever came along for food. There were other smaller fish that swam along with them gathering what they could that the manta didn't get. It was an amazing time. I did swim down to touch one just to see what they felt like. It was much the same as running your hand down wet velvet. I think I spooked him(or her) as the wings took a quick pulse and it swam quickly away. We climbed back into Puff and headed back for final preparations to get under way.

We had a nice lunch and discussed the easiest way to get the chain off the coral heads it had gotten snagged on. We finally decided to call Jason off YOLO(You Only Live Once) and asked his help. He came right over and after some discussion as to what was needed, I dove in and started releasing the small buoys we had used to support the chain. Jason gathered them on board all the while using the windlass to pull up the chain. Tracy was at the controls in the cockpit steering Zephyr exactly where Jason told her to go as I directed Jason from the water. A few minutes later, the chain and anchor were all free and I swam back to Zephyr's stern and grabbed the ladder as she slid past me. Tracy put the engine in neutral and I climbed aboard. We both thanked Jason for his help as he made what could have been a tough job easier. He was amazed at the great job Tracy did controlling Zephyr. Jason climbed down the ladder and took off for his boat. With the anchor loose, we stopped for a few minutes so I could get the anchor up, myself dried off and dressed then it was off for the pass to get us out of the lagoon.

We upped the anchor just about 1300 and headed out raising the main sail with a reef in it to keep us steady as we passed through the narrow channel. We made our way north and around Turtle Island, one of the motus that surround the lagoon at Suwarrow. Once there, we pulled out about a third of our head sail and changed course to 230 and headed for Tonga. Winds were about 15 knots and the swells were running about 3 meters so it was a bit rolly. We've stayed on that course ever since we left Suwarrow and have no reason to change it as it will drop us on the north side of the island we are headed for. The winds have continued in the 10 to 15 knot range and the swells are still throwing us around a bit. We will gently roll port to starboard for a while and then get hit by a bigger wave that causes us to roll quite a bit farther on our side. This has gone on ever since we left and is still happening. You hang on to what ever you can any time you move in the boat.

In our first 24 hours, we made it to 14 18.074S 165 11.646W covering 147 miles our first day. That puts our speed at just over 6 knots. Not bad for a big boat like Zephyr. We only have 567 miles to go to get us to Vava'u in Tonga where we expect to spend several months during the hurricane season. If we find we don't like it there, we may head north to the Marshall Islands, well out of the hurricane zone. I guess we will see. Meanwhile, there is a big sailing fest scheduled for Vava'u starting on September 7th that goes through the 15th. We're looking forward to seeing lots of our friends while we are there.

And that's the way the first 24 hours have been since we left. Good wind and a few showers to keep the deck clean of salt that sprays up from the ocean every now a again.

Tracy's two cents:

It felt wonderful being at sea again, no worries about hitting coral heads that were only a few feet away and had the ability to take off at least 6 inches off our keel. The entire lagoon is covered with coral heads, so even if we were in 90 feet of water the anchor would have gotten snagged by a coral head. Where we anchored is was 15 feet deep, so Bill could dive on it every day and check where the chain was and made sure the anchor was still stuck on the coral bommie where it first hooked onto.

I spent all day Sunday cooking passage meals so no matter what the sea state was we wouldn't have to scramble to get a meal together.

Bill told you all about the mantas, they are magnificent beasts. They are so huge with big gapping mouths. They are frightening to see coming straight at you, but they are gentle beasts and are fascinating to watch, but we had to leave the atoll on a falling tide so we had to get back to Zephyr and shove off.

The pass is very straight forward, but there is quite a current, 4.5 kts. outgoing. Warren from Nightfly told us to have our sails up when we went through and be heeled over when exiting and the standing wave will be much easier to glide through instead of getting bucked up and down as you go through, a la Fakarava. We had the mainsail up and getting through was a snap. There were lots of overfalls and eddies, but we managed to maneuver through and got out without a hitch. Atolls are such fun to enter or exit....NOT!

I couldn't sleep the last night in the lagoon and didn't sleep the first night of the passage as it was so rough, but last night I finally started to get into the rhythm and got a few hours of sleep, today I had a nap and feel pretty good. Life on board isn't fun if two people are sleep deprived, Bill has started to sleep also, so we finally are in passage mode and life is fine.

Suwarrow....it is a huge cruiser stopover out in the middle of nowhere. There is more hard live coral there than anywhere we have been to so far. Perfect Reef was exactly that, in my opinion. Lots of fish, lots of pretty hard corals, we got lots of good pictures to put up when we get to civilization. The two park rangers bent over backwards to be helpful. John, the younger ranger took people out fishing twice a day and Bill and John caught a Dogtoothed Tuna. I guess the fun of fishing in the lagoon is getting your catch onboard through the sharks. Bill and John's tuna made it successfully without a munch out of it. We have a couple of fillets in the freezer, the rest went to the rangers. One day, we went on a reef walk with James the head ranger...it felt criminal to be walking on live coral, but it's the only way to get to Whale Island and see the nesting sooty terns. There are thousands of them with nest right on the ground or in low bushes, most with a little hatchling nestled in. The rangers also host pot lucks once a week. Their custom at these dinners, is that the children get their dishes filled first, then the women go through the line and get their food, then the men get theirs. The hosts, I noticed waited until everyone had eaten then they filled their plates. James says a blessing before every outing or event. The Polynesians are very religious. They don't work on Sunday nor do they fish on Sunday. Naps are the order of the day, at least for James. It was an interesting and fun time, but two weeks, the time they allow you to stay, is enough.

We should be in Tonga in another four days, maybe five it depends on the winds. Another boat on their way to Tonga had a rigging failure, their headstay snapped. They thought for a while that the mast was going to come down, but they rigged up a halyard to take the place of the forestay and are continuing on, they left a day before us.

I saw a cargo ship this morning around 0630 about 5 miles to our starboard. That got my blood pressure up a tad, but he came and went in silence...just the way I like it.