On a mooring in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga – 18 66.032S 173 98.303W

Departure

We left Niuatoputapu on September 10, 2024, at the break of dawn. There were three monohulls and us on a southern passage to Vava’u. The forecast was for eastern winds at 15-20 knots with a mild swell of 2 meters at 7 seconds. They call it a forecast for a reason. Here is the captain’s update for our journey.

After we exited the pass, we were met with rather nasty seas and the wind pretty much on par. We had to motor for a bit into the wind to clear the island so we could turn south and sail on. We set the first reef on the main and deployed the full genoa, making 7-8 knots of boat speed. Then a strange sight appeared as I gazed up to see how the trim looked on the mainsail.

Some Excitement

The mainsail had a huge pocket and was protruding through the stack pack. This is not normal! I went forward and noticed the reefing line was loose, a perfect explanation. So, I proceeded to tighten it, and wow, did it ever pull so easily. So easily, suddenly I had the end of the line in my hands. Damn it – the line broke. We quickly acted and installed the second reef. But this was not a long-term solution.

Let’s Go

We quickly found ourselves in the 4-5 knot range. We needed to be at a 6-knot average to make Vava’u by the next morning. So, we did something we have not done on Tartaruga – deployed a full mainsail. Problem solved, we were now making 8-10 knots and were working to slow the boat. This proved to be an exercise in futility. Then, of course, the wind decided to crank up to 25kn. Everything I tried seemed to speed the boat up. We decided that we would just ride this out.

All through the night, I worked at trimming the mainsail and bleeding off some speed. Finally, at around 2 AM, I had some success – a steady 7-8 knots. This was plenty to meet our sail plan to arrive in Vava’u in the morning.

Sissy Relaxes

As dawn broke, we could easily see Vava’u. What a beautiful sight! I was very happy we made it without breaking anything else, including Tami and me. Sissy was none too happy, but as we entered the lee of the island, the winds dropped, the swell dropped, and so did Sissy for some much-needed sleep.

In the end, we averaged 6.7 knots and arrived in 27 hours, beyond our former record. We stowed the sails and cranked up the motors to navigate the pass into the pass into the harbor, hoping to find a mooring as the anchoring is very deep in most locations.

We were lucky as three boats passed us while we were entering the harbor. We found a mooring quite easily. Tami is an expert at grabbing the line and hooking us up. Just like that, we were done and ready for sleep. This is the location where we will spend cyclone season, the location we will haul the boat and get some much-needed repairs completed.

The place we will get to know Tonga and its people – we can hardly wait.