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 weâd 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
thatâs not the weather weâd get. We removed them from the itinerary and
elected to head directly to Tonga, where weâll 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), weâre on a broad reach with breeze around 20 knots, a
sailplan of staysâl and three reefs in the main, the seas are mostly
behind us and weâre proceeding down our course line toward Tonga.
Clarkâs 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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