[password] pilot25041
[position] 21 44.87s 176 23.24w
[status] Sunday 14th October early morning & 15hrs in to our homeward journey to NZ having cleared customs and departed from Nuku'alofa just after 16.30 yesterday afternoon, currently fairly hard on the 20kts of wind with 8+kts SOG, heading directly to Minerva Reef.
On Thursday Allan completed the official paperwork and we then departed back across to the Pangaimotu anchorage, we ventured ashore for a walk along the beach and then the ladies (Pam & Anihera) decided to swim back out to the boat, as it was Pam & Lyn's last night on the boat it was decided that we would eat onboard.
Friday we went back across to the small boat harbour and again managed to tie alongside, the pre-booked taxi arrived and Lyn & Pam departed for the airport, the other grown-ups then went for some retail therapy, leaving Barry on board. The pre-ordered fuel arrived in 3x 200ltr drums, delivered to the jetty ....... do you need a pump? we were asked! Well yes! A while later the small hand rotary pump arrived ...... complete with just 1m of hose, to save pumping in to jerry cans and then pouring into our tanks, Barry used some 1 inch diameter white sanitary hose, connected to pump hose and was then long enough to reach our tank fillers directly. After much turning of the hand pump, we had filled our tanks and 3 small fuel containers with diesel, so we now have over 850ltrs to get us home to NZ. After these exertions we decided to anchor off Atata island for the night, so departed, once anchored we had a quick swim off the boat, dinner watched a turtle swim by, lots of lightn
ing flashes on the horizon and turned in ...... around 3am the wind started howling, Barry got up to get the washing in, just as the heavens opened and on returning to the saloon, found 3 other crew members awake and with the same idea!
After breakfast on Saturday, we headed back to the harbour to collect Tony, having reviewed the gribs for the next few days we decided that it was a good idea to leave immediately if we could clear with Customs, so after lunch and once Tony arrived so Allan had all the passports, he duly departed on his 'mission' ......... 1hr 40mins later, with mission accomplished we were ready to depart, as 'the crew' had prepped the boat and rigged the storm sails whilst Allan was away. We left the quay around 16.30hrs, raised the sails and had a quick reefing practice, before departing on our way, around 6pm, with many heavy clouds forming we put up the clears and just after the heavens opened and we had torrential rain ...... at least this gave us some wind for a while. For the next 3hrs we had an almost continuous lightning show, although it was some way off, the variable wind dropping meaning we also had to start an engine to maintain progress ...... good job we've 800ltrs to play wit
h!
Overnight, the wind has built until we have 20kts from 135degrees, as dawn has broken the sky is full of clouds and the wind has chopped the sea up, causing all our new crew members to succumb to the dreaded seasickness from the violet motion of the good vessel Surreal II. The wind is forecast to maintain the 20kts so we should reach Minerva early/mid morning tomorrow, whether we stop or continue southwards is grib weather information dependent, but for now we're making great progress!
Position 06.30nzt. 74nm run in 12hrs, DTG 178nm.
[speed] 8.6kts
[heading] 215T
[weather] 20knts SE, 1.5m swell from the SE, 100% cloud cover.
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