[password] TwinkY6433
[position] 18 41.792S 173 59.907W
[weather] E 6-12knots, 1018 baro
[speed] Anchored in Aisea?s Beach, Vava?u, Tonga.
[heading]
[status] We had to leave earlier than we would have liked to exit the bay we were in. There was a low shelf and bommies we had to get over and the tide was going out. The general rule of thumb is no travel between about 3pm and 10am, because outside those times you can?t see the coral bommies/shallow bits. The other rule is have the sun behind you - looking into the sun it is near impossible to see the depth of the water, but with the sun behind, it appears deep blue, blue, light blue, and then green, depending on how shallow it is. It was going to be low tide at noon, so we upped anchor and left at about 9am, and headed out looking directly into the rising sun.

We made it of course. We got down to only 2.5m under our keel after Steve directed us around a few bommies that were only spotted at the last minute due to the sun angle. We then had an uneventful trip to our next anchorage. We were quite undecided about where to go next, but the wind made the decision. 15+ knots so we decided to go to our favourite little ?flat as a pancake? anchorage at Aisea?s beach. We anchored up and then set about doing some washing. It?s a bit of a rigmarole as we have to unpack the machine from being stored on its side on the pilot berth, and put it in the cockpit. With the little genny running, we could then run it and the shore power battery charger to charge the batteries. The washing machine then decided to intermittently spin - ie, most of the time not spin. It?s 1.5 years old so no doubt out of warranty : \

We then spent the day chilling and reading, and now one (French!!) toilet has decided not to flush - guess we know what job is first on the list for tomorrow! Oh the joys of cruising! :( ;). Off to bed now - almost 10pm and about 21 degrees - can?t complain about that bit .....

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