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Cruising thru The Kingdom of Tonga   
September, October 2000   

The  Kingdom of Tonga  is the oldest and last remaining Polynesian monarchy and the only Pacific nation never brought under foreign rule. The country comprises several island groups, stretching from the Niuas in the north at about 15 degrees S, to Tongatapu at 22 degrees S. We were there in September and October, 2000. SInce this is the spring in Tonga, we generally had rather wet, unsettled weather but a most enjoyable stay, nevertheless.
We left Suvarov Atoll on Tuesday, September 5, 2000, for a six day passage of 720 miles to Tonga. The first thing we did that morning was to advance our clocks one hour to Tonga time. Once we arrive in Tonga, the hour stays the same but we will advance by one day because Tonga is on the other side of the International Date LIne (although we will not yet have passed 180 degrees longitude). So today becomes tomorrow and yesterday is two days ago.
As it finally turned out, the anticipated six day passage became five days and was our most comfortable and fastest passage to date. The wind was fairly steady between 15 and 20 knots occasionally piping up to 25. The sea swells were about 1 meter rising to 3 meters in higher winds. We sailed on a beam reach most of the time, changing to a broad reach as the wind went further to the east and finally running before the wind, wing on wing, for a short time on the last day before motoring the last 10 hours because the wind died completely. Our average speed was 5.6 knots with 140 miles sailed noon to noon as the best mileage in 24 hours.  Vlad got teased by other cruisers for his reports of "perfect sailing" when describing our progress on the daily nets.
We made landfall at the Vava'u Island group late in the afternoon of September 10 (September 11, Tonga time).
Most of the cruising boats are making their way south thru the Tonga archipelago stopping at the Ha'apai island group and Tongatapu before sailing the last 1200 miles to New Zealand.    Take a look at more Tonga Photos
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