0600 position 20-37S 173-15W. 125 miles south of Vava'u, Tonga
We departed Port Maurelle at 845AM and headed south with a single reefed
main and jib in a fifteen knot easterly wind. Following the track Lori
and I sailed when we visited Maninita Island, the southernmost in the
Vava'u group, we left Tonga behind at 1045AM. The fish started hitting as
soon as we cleared Maninita. First something hooked up on our Fred
Morelli special, but it came off before I could get it to the boat. A
couple of minutes later the same lure hooked up, and this time we landed
a nice five pound awa. That's plenty of fish for a couple of meals so we
decided to pull in the lures. Just as we were pulling them in we passed
through a school of rainbow runners. Both Matt and I hooked up. Both our
fish came off and Matt hooked up for a second time, this time landing the
fish which we returned to the sea. Now we know where the fish are in
Vava'u!
Once clear of the land the sea was small but confused, and it has remained
that way since with quite a bit of water on deck. The leak in the port
forward opening port, which I thought I had licked, has returned. I will
work on it again at the first opportunity.
The wind has slowly backed from just south of east to north east as
forecast allowing us to slowly head up from our original southerly heading
to a south east heading. We are sprinting south for the freeway that will
take us to the east when the next low pressure system approaches in a day
or so. It is looking like the optimum place to make our left turn will be
at latitude 22 south, but that may change with the forecasts.
It was too bumpy to cook the awa for dinner so we had mac and cheese and a
salad. Matt saw what was either a UFO or a very strange meteorite during
his 6PM to midnight watch. I was typing the blog during my midnight to
6AM watch when I heard a noise on deck. As soon as I got into the cockpit
to investigate I knew that a flying fish had come aboard due to the smell.
Those have to be the worst smelling fish on the planet. I found him, a
big one, in the leeward scuppers and threw him back. At 230AM we passed a
ship heading north. Otherwise the evening was uneventful, just the way we
like it. Moku pe'a likes it too. She is romping along and loving being
at sea again.
At some point early in this trip we cross the date line from tomorrow into
yesterday. I've decided that today is dateline day, which brings us back
in sync with everybody in the USA. That's why it's 20 August here for the
second time.
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