Departing Tonga

I let go of the mooring at 0915hrs, motored out of the moorings area and put up sdail. It was lovley sailing in flat sea down to the ocean, but now 8 hours later its not so lovley.The sun is shining but the wind is cool so I put on a long sleeved shirt. The wind is stronger than forecast but is supposed to ease over night which will be nice, as I now have 2 reefs in the main and tiny biy of headsail out, and we are still making a bumpy 6 knots in 2m seas. However as we almost going downwind, the boat is dry. Gusts have been up to 29 knots and its mainly around 23. We are 36nnm from Vavau, which has now disappeared behind me. We have just eased past the first obstacle, an uninhabited island called Late, roughly circular and cone shaped like Rangitoto in Auckland or perhaps Mt Fujiyama. There are cliffs all round and no lagoon so that might explain why its uninhabited. From here its about 200nm to my next waypoint, Nuku Songa reef at the southern end of the Lau group of Fijian ISlands that lie in a north-south direction like a barbed wire fence seperating Tongan waters from Fijian. There are a few holes in its array of reefs shoals islets and islands and a couple of recognised passages, but for me I think its safer just to go round the bottom, because inevitably I end up approaching these places at night when I need sleep and I am tired.

As usual on my first day back at sea I feel anxious and slghtly nauseated and have no appetite. Writing makes me feel worse so I will stop now. Hopefully tomorrow the wind will ease and make the sailing more enjoyable

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