Rover

Birthday underway

14 July 2023
Eric
A northwest-southeast front with strong winds was predicted to move
north through the area between Rarotonga and Tonga. It was expected to
be passing through Niue and Beveridge Reef about the time we’d hoped to
be visiting them. Niue has mooring balls offshore, with a crane to lift
dinghys and occupants onto a pier and Beveridge Reef is a sunken atoll,
with some protection from waves and no protection from wind. They
sounded like great adventures in a calm sea and with low winds, but
that’s not the weather we’d get. We removed them from the itinerary and
elected to head directly to Tonga, where we’ll do a crew change.

With the front moving across our path ahead of us, we slowed down for a
day (hence the last post about an idyllic day in the South Pacific).
Overnight the wind dropped and we motored for a couple hours. After
midnight the wind increased as we approached the back side of the front.
This was exactly as forecast, so gave us more confidence in the weather
prediction. We tucked in the third reef on the main and the wind clocked
around to give a fairly smooth ride along our course. As I post this
blog (noon 7/14), we’re on a broad reach with breeze around 20 knots, a
sailplan of stays’l and three reefs in the main, the seas are mostly
behind us and we’re proceeding down our course line toward Tonga.
Clark’s on watch and Ginger (the windvane) is doing an excellent job of
holding the wind angle around 130 degrees. The rest of the crew is
resting below. Boat motion will prevent the crew from baking me a cake
for my birthday (Linda provided ingredients and candles). I have high
hopes for a late celebration after the seas calm down in a few days.

--
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Comments
Vessel Name: Rover
Vessel Make/Model: Valiant 42
Hailing Port: Seattle. WA
Crew: Eric and Linda
About:
We're making a big change to a cruising lifestyle. Eric retired in 2012 after 32 years in R&D (mostly) at HP. Previous passions included flying and bicycling. Linda will retire in 2013 from Oregon State University. She's been active in Zonta, was a Scoutmaster, and is a champion baker. [...]
Extra: Linda was barrel master and Eric participated in the Jackson Street Vintners; a group of friends that made wine from 2000 to 2013
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