We've arrived in Niue

Hooray...after our four day slog we are very happy to tie up to the one and only mooring ball left. The winds are still high and it will be rolly until this front passes in a couple of days - but We are happy to meet up with many of our cruising friends amongst the 17 boats here. We expect to spend at least three weeks exploring all the hikes, dives, caves, etc. that Niue has to offer. I'll update the blog next Friday with pictures of what looks to be like an exciting island. Have a great weekend.

Almost There

Good morning. We had another gruelling overnight sail, with sloppy, angry seas. To make it a little more interesting we had a few squalls, one of which caused a large wave to break in to the cockpit, drenching everything. Not the stuff that cruising dreams are made of. We have abour 40 miles left to go (at 7:00 a.m. local time) and we will both be very happy to make landfall in about 8 hours. There is high wind warnings in effect and a major storm forecast for Sunday, so many boats are currently hightailing it for Nieu. I will just do a quick update once we arrive and are snug as a bug on a mooring.

Almost There

Good morning. We had another gruelling overnight sail, with sloppy, angry seas. To make it a little more interesting we had a few squalls, one of which caused a large wave to break in to the cockpit, drenching everything. Not the stuff that cruising dreams are made of. We have abour 40 miles left to go (at 7:00 a.m. local time) and we will both be very happy to make landfall in about 8 hours. There is high wind warnings in effect and a major storm forecast for Sunday, so many boats are currently hightailing it for Nieu. I will just do a quick update once we arrive and are snug as a bug on a mooring.

Day Three at Sea

Good news. We managed to thread the needle all day yesterday and all evening, by somehow avoiding most of the squalls. We had the occasional short-lived rainfall, but other than that, we had ideal, cloudy weather, keeping the temperature quite pleasant. The winds were mostly 20 knots, with some gusts to 30. The seas are very high, with lots of rocking and rolling, but QuickStar is sailing well (and I'm not nearly as freaked out as I would have been only a year ago). For the most part, we been able to maintain course on the rhumb line (the direct route to our destinatin) leaving us only 155 miles left to go to Nieu. If all goes according to plan we should arrive before sunset tomorrow evening. Hopefully we'll start seeing whales soon. One of the other boats that we are maintaining radio contact with had a 40 foot whale come and rub up on one of his hulls (he has a catermaran). A little close for comfort. Will check in again tomorrow on our final day at sea.

Pink Sky in Morning...

....Sailors take warning.

We left Palmerston at first light yesterday. We had planned on staying a bit longer, but it was a bit too weird for us. I felt like we had been plunked down in the Stepford Wives movie set. Everything that we were "allowed" to see wasn't quite as it was. A fabulous experience though and not to be missed. More about this in the blog update on Friday.

Our original plan was to head for Beveridge Reef, which is a two night sail. Yesterday and last night we had a lovely sail; fairly calm seas and consistent, although light winds. It doesn't look like the weather gods are going to be shining on us though, as the forecast calls for higher winds (20 plus knots), squalls and high seas of 3 - 31/2 metres. We have decided to alter course to head straight for Nieu as we suspect Beveridge will be untenable. This will take another 2 days/nights and will most likely test my newfound sailing courage. It has now just started to pour - and so it begins.

A big thank you to Cindy on Beachouse for giving me the tip about napping for 20 minutes at a time while on watch. It does work and I'm not exhausted anymore, which is great considering that we'll need our energy for the conditions that are coming our way. THANKS!!!!

I'll do an update tomorrow morning, weather permitting.

We've just arrived in Palmerston

With the full moon setting in the West, and the sun rising in the east, we had our first sighting of Palmerston, after another slow, but comfortable overnight sail. Schools of flying fish escorted us in. There are currently five other sailboats here. Upon our approach we received VHF contact from Edward, our designated "host family". He was insistent that we anchor, as he didn't have any moorings left. There were two moorings still available, but they weren't his. As mentioned earlier there are three families and they take turns being your host. The seas are pretty big, with large swells and a very scary looking reef. There is no inside lagoon anchoring, so all boats are on the outside of the reef. As insistent as Edward was about us anchoring, Peter was equally as insistent that we go on a mooring ball. Peter won the "discussion" and we are safely on a mooring ball. Edward said he would go and talk to the owner of the mooring ball and see what he could do, but he emphasized for the time being we are "in his house". So, we've already sparked some politics on this quaint island.

We have a large shipment of supplies for Jock Marsters, and when we advised Edward he said that they were aware of that and he will make arrangements for its' delivery. Not sure if this will also upset the apple cart.

We are now to wait on the boat for "customs" to come out. We are rocking and rolling as if we are still out at sea, so this is not going to be a comfortable stopover while we are aboard. We will stay either one night, or two and then begin our next 3 night passage to Beveridge Reef. Thanks to our Ham contact, Peter in California who Peter checks in with every night while we are underway. We will be in touch when we are ready to leave to set up our next schedule. Thanks again Peter for being there with us on all our passages. To our friends and family back home, I will keep in touch by updating this blog daily once we head off on our next passage to Beveridge. Until then...stay safe and remember to smell the roses.

Underway from Autitaki

Just as we were about to get underway from Autitaki yesterday morning, a new boat arrived and started coming through the passage. They almost made it, but took the final corner a little too wide and ended up on a reef. We already had our dinghy on the deck, so were unable to render assistance. Two of the other boats in the harbour were also getting ready to leave. We spoke to the new boat on the radio and Peter gave them some local knowledge about how to proceed through the rest of the passage, once they floated free, to make it in to the harbour.

We had one last minute item to do before heading out, and that was accepting a shipment of supplies from a local family to deliver to Palmerston. Once we got loaded up with a box of fresh bread, boxes of fresh fruit and other items, we pulled up our anchor. We had a very small window in which to leave as this was the highest tide in the next two weeks, and due to our draft we needed every extra inch. Even this high tide was 2 - 3 inches less than when we came in. We finished draining our water tanks, by giving the anchors a great fresh water soaking and then we headed out.

As we approached the shallowest part, Peter told me to hold on, as I was on bow look-out. Sure enough we touched bottom, not just once, but eight times. Luckily it is a sandy bottom in this section, so Peter just powered through it. The good news is the bottom of our boat got a good cleaning! So without further drama we made it out to sea. The wind was light and variable all day, which made for a slow and sloppy sail (I was in the prone position for most of the day). Last night we had a good sail because we are one day away from a full moon, so it was like we were sailing in daylight. Our average speed is below 4 knots, so we will not arrive tonight, but hope to arrive tomorrow by lunchtime. With the full moon tonight, it should be magical!
P.S. The other boat that went aground did manage to get off the reef just before we left.