Sunday November 12, 2000 Departure day for Opua, NZ

At first it looked like we might not leave – Milan and Vlad were inclined to wait a day but Adrian and Paula wanted to go. The latest weathergrams seemed positive, so off we went finally, at about 1100. There was a minor panic in the morning when KIWEL MELEYA discovered they were low on coffee and we found we were low on butter. A swap of ground coffee for two cans of butter worked out for everybody.

Getting away from the breakwater required some forward planning. Since the wind was quite light and southerly, we detached two of our stern lines and left one continuous loop which we could let go, and pull into the cockpit, as the anchor came up. We lifted, stowed and washed the dinghy, then weighed anchor.

The anchor was absolutely covered with nasty, slimy, gray mud and we envied Milan his washdown pump as he washed the muck off his anchor easily while we struggled with buckets and left most of the mud on the chain. NEW TRICKS (Tim and Trisha) was left behind as they had their anchor tangled with that of SEA BIRD but there was a procession out of the harbour of FLIGHT OF TIME (Graham and Margaret and crew), KIWEL MELEYA (Adrienne, Tim and crew), EQUINOX (Tom and Nancy), AMALTHEA (Milan and Adrian) and ourselves. As we left, the noon gun was let off at the palace. Vlad said it was a parting salute for us.

With such light winds we motored up the harbour heading for the western entrance to Nuku’alofa; the Egeria Channel. We had been warned that it is not marked but in such clear, sunny weather it was easy to find the channel. The actual passage through the reef is also marked with a range, so no problem. We all jockeyed for position a bit as we left the pass but then settled down to sail as the winds, while light and southwesterly were enough to let us do 4.5 knots for most of the afternoon.

As usual, we had a light supper on the first night – mushroom soup (which without added mushrooms is rather blah, especially this Mexican version).

1100 miles to Opua.  Click here for Days one and two