Year Two
Date: 28/5/2008 10:00
Weather: 26 deg celcius
Location: Tongatapu (21 08.28' S, 175 10.95' W)
Author: Peter

After our second major crossing we were starting to wonder what we had let ourselves in for. Our first crossing from Australia to New Zealand saw us sail through one gale and days of squalls with winds consistently up in the thirties and a maximum wind in the fifties. By the time we arrived we were both extremely tired and had had enough and we had a fast crossing (seven days). We had left Australia on a great forecast but the high pressure system on which we had hoped to ride the front edge of across the Tasman Sea decided to park itself in the Great Australian Bite. This in turn caused a set of three lows to also stall directly over New Zealand creating the squally conditions as they circled one another.

Our second major crossing from New Zealand to the Kingdom of Tonga again saw us leave on a positive forecast. Along with 4 other yachts heading for Tonga and a few more heading for Fiji we left on the back of a low with strong gale force winds from the stern. We then headed east of the rhumb line towards the Kermadec Islands for the forecast south easterlies that were to take us then quickly up to Tonga. Again the forecast was completely wrong. After three days of running in 30+ knots we then had a day of no wind. This was again followed by another unforseen low pressure system, giving us winds in excess of thirty knots but this time on the nose as we now found ourselves on the wrong side of the rhumb line sailing straight through the centre of the low (maximum wind 41.3 knots). By this point in time we were really starting to wonder if this is what ocean crossings were always like. Finally as we approached Tonga and we thought that the journey was over the wind again completely stopped and we bobbed around for an extra 12hours before we started to move again and finally made it. Apparently another fast crossing at 8 days.

Since our arrival we have gained some hope after discussions with fellow cruisers. Those on the crossing with us, and many more sea miles under their belts have commented that they have never had two gales in a crossing before and how rough this crossing was. Others here who are "in the know" have commented that we have done two of the hardest crossings possible (I am not sure) and come through well with only some very minor breakages. They have said that the Tasman Sea is renowned for bad weather and the winds around New Zealand for being notoriously bad.

They have all said that they usually spend most of their time in winds between ten and twenty knots (heaven) and it was rare to see wind over twenty-five. All this gives us heart that the rest of the journey should be nice and that we have just had a few difficult crossings. We also now have four months in which to forget.

On a side note after our depressed feelings after each crossing and our discussions with fellow cruisers we are contemplating heading back to Australia this season. The advice we are getting says this is a better option than getting slammed again while trying to beat back into New Zealand and then back to the tropics next year. Also New Caledonia and Vanuatu are easy sails from Australia (apparently).

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Year Two
Date: 31/5/2008 10:00
Weather: Beautiful
Location: Nukula'lofa Harbour (21 08.28' S, 175 10.95' W)
Author: Kylie

We are now Mediterranean moored in the small boat harbour at Nukula'lofa, on the island of Tongutapu in Tonga. Mediterranean moored means that we dropped an anchor in the centre of the harbour and then took lines from our stern to the shore pulling our transom towards the shore. It looks a lot like parallel parking at the supermarket except no lines are marked on the water. This is the first time we have ever come across this type of mooring and as is to be expected we struggled a little bit with it thanks to the outboard motor throttle needing a little lube. Luckily for us we were helped out by the neighbouring vessel Liberte (fellow Australians), and a number of other cruising guys.

We arrived in the harbour at 5.30pm local time, hoisted our yellow quarantine flag and Tongan courtesy flag and waited for the following morning to go through the process of customs. Formalities are quite layed back and are also not very organised, it was difficult to find out what and who we were supposed to visit however by midday we were all sorted having filled forms out for customs, immigration, health and quarantine. Health charged us a Tongan $100 fee that we think is really just a bribe, as some boats are made to pay and others are not. We also paid $25 to quarantine however they didn't come and check the boat and just asked for our rubbish so we were able to keep all our vegetables which were worth more than $25 anyway.

After all the formalities were over with we had the usual cleaning and checking for things which needed to be repaired etc. We unpacked our bikes and set them up in the cockpit, then rowed the 3metres to shore. Steve aboard Liberte was very helpful and rode into town with us and showed us around. The ride was easy, Nukula'lofa being nearly dead flat, although the potholes and bumpy surface made for a sore butt by the end of 16km of exploration. The Tongans are very poor by our standards, most of the cars they drive would not pass our registration- vans have no side doors, there is more rust then car in some cases, and the car fumes are terrible. They also pack so many people into the cars, no seat belts obviously. Yesterday we passed a Toyota van that was chock-a-block full of watermelons, from the rear to the back of the drivers seat to roof height!

The peopled do however appear to dress very well, especially the school uniforms. All the children are in immaculate uniform some being quite elaborate and fancy yet with a traditional style, equivalent to our private school uniforms (except no hats). Once school knocks off the kids all hang around socialising around the town, no one seemed to go home after school. Another strange thing was they don't carry bags or backpacks let alone any books for that matter.

There are several medium size supermarkets selling food, clothing and lots of junk really. They have some of the brands we know in Australia but each store varies greatly in stock and price. There are also these small roadside stores with a woman behind the counter and a display of longlife food on the shelves behind her. Apparently if you can't find something you want just keep looking in all the stores until you find it and we have also been advised to price check before we purchase. In terms of fresh food there is a large outdoor market where locals have set up stalls selling their produce. There is not a huge variety, mainly they all have the same stuff for the same price. Obviously watermelon, cucumber and sweet potato grow like weeds in the area as I have never seen so much in my life. Watermelons are grouped by size and have a torn cardboard sign denoting their price $3 $5 $6. The conversion rate is about AUS$1 = Tongan$0.66 (all prices quoted are in Tongan), although we haven't checked our bank account to find out the exact conversion, either way watermelons are cheap. Sweet potato is sold in woven baskets; looks like there is about 10 sweet potatoes per basket. I am not sure what we will do with that many sweet potatoes. Cucumbers are ridiculously cheap. When you walk into the market cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, mandarins and I can't remember what else are arranged on the tables in little piles, each pile is $3. Guess how many cucumbers you get for $3….. six massive ones! Pity we don't like cucumber very much.

We found bread shops (only white loaves of bread, no grain or wholemeal and only $1.50 per loaf), a hardware, electronic store, lots of cafes and heaps of internet places (very slow apparently), many churches (we can hear the bells ring in the morning from the boat). Our most important find was a New Zealand ice cream store, yum.

The bike riding is a little hairy, however the cars are considerate and let you in and give way and the speed on the streets rarely gets above 30km/h. Actually the bikes are really handy as it is a very long walk to town.

We are planning on spending the next week in the harbour. Steve on the boat next door is flying back to Australia for a few days and has offered to purchase a new DVD player for us and bring it back so we are going to wait here and watch over his boat whilst he is away. Florian, the backpacker we have on board is going to visit a nearby island so we will get a few days of privacy. Then we will head north up to the Ha'apai Group.

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Tongatapu is the southernmost island in the Tonga nation. It is the main island of Tonga where the capital Nukualofa is located. It is the most populous island comprising approximately 66 577 residents, 68.3% of population (in 1996). Tongatapu is also the home island of the king, (he has palaces in all the capitals of the major islands groups, but the late king's official residence (now of the queen-mother only) is the Royal Palace, Tonga)

Year Two
Date: 20/5/2008 10:00
Weather: Cool and 25knts
Location: South Pacific Ocean (33 35.51' s, 176 11.78' e)
Author: Peter

Yesterday we set sail again for the Kingdom of Tonga. We left Opua after a very short 8 day stay. We hired a car for 2 of these days to help with provisioning and to do some local sight seeing. In total we probably only covered a semi circle of about 100km in diameter to the north of Opua getting as far as the very scenic Doubtless bay, a rather nice place to have lunch. We also visited some of the oldest buildings in New Zealand near Keri Keri which again reminded us greatly of Tasmania. Last but not least we drove to a nearby forest to see some Kauri trees. These trees just get so fat so quickly. Not so tall just fat. We can see why they were logged so much given the amount of timber one tree would produce. A small one we saw was quoted at having enough timber for over 10 houses.


Our hire car


Doubtless Bay

Back in Opua (a caravan park for yachts from around the world) we also picked up a third crew member for the passage across. Florian a 24yr old French man. Also for those fisherman out there, the sea life just at the marina was amazing. Walking down the marina finger at night you would just see schools of fish everywhere, and the snap crackle and pop you hear through the hull was the strongest I have ever heard. It just goes to show how over fished the east coast of Australia is becoming.

Jura V is now the most loaded she has ever been. Everything is packed so tight as we are trying to carry 5 months worth of food as we hear that finding supplies in Tonga is not good. In the wind strengths we currently have it does not seem to have slowed us down any.

Sorry this one is so short but we have not done that much given the time it takes to purchase and then pack provisions. And writing about that is rather boring anyway.

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Hello from Opua, Bay of Islands, New Zealand!

Yes, we made it across the ditch and are now at the Opua Marina freezing our arses off. This cold weather is as bad as Tasmania and a rude shock from the warm (admittedly wet, rainy) Coffs Harbour.

We departed Coffs around midday on Sunday 3rd of May and were waved off by my family. We enjoyed a comfortable and fast ride as far as Lord Howe Island. The breeze from the SSE at about 18knots and we sailed on a close hauled course under slightly furled jib and double reefed mainsail. We experienced some ups and downs in pressure. In the log book Peter notes, "Wind doing weird things, 20knots then 2 90 degree shifts. Wish it would just settle."

For the first day and a half I was fine, no sea sickness however as the swell and wind increased so did my discomfort. In the end I learned to love the maxalon and gave up on the kwells. Yesterday we went to the pharmacy in Pahia and asked for "the seasickness pills that you can't buy in Australia". Multiple people have recommended these pills which you only have to take once when you first wake up. The lady in the shop showed us "sea legs" which she said were the equivalent of our kwells. We looked at them and said no, do you have anything else? We got out the phone and checked a msg but there was no name given for the pills. After much discussion with her she eventually said, "we do have these ones we make up ourselves, we can't advertise them though". So NZ$60 later I now have enough for 20 days. You take a white pill and half an hour later follow it with a blue pill. Apparently no one gets sea sick so I'll see how it goes. It would be nice to be able to help Peter out a bit more.

So the crossing wasn't the easiest passage for either of us but particularly for Peter. He noted in the log " After a great start the breeze last night was all over the place in direction and strength. A lot to do so not much sleep." Massive rain squalls hit us hard and we went from 20 knots to 55 knots! And we think our gauge reads under! Often Peter could see the squalls approaching and the radar often backed up his ???? and he would go on deck and try to reduce the sail before the wind and rain hit. We were unprepared for one rain squall and Peter was pondering going on deck to reduce sail when we broached under reefed main and poled out headsail. The broach was too much for the pole and it folded in half! There was some small damage to the luff and leach of the headsail and a lost batten. These squalls continued for most of the trip and we were glad to see the New Zealand coast albeit for a very short time as the visibility decreased. During the entire trip we saw 4 vessels, 2 off the Australian coast shortly after departure and then nothing until we were coming down the New Zealand Coast. We kept in regular radio contact (morning and evening skeds) with RCC Australia and also emailed daily updates to our families.

We were prepared for the trip to take 10 days and hoped for less. In the end we sailed in Opua on Monday morning and tied up on the customs wharf at 9am. We slowed ourselves up at times so we would arrive on a weekday to avoid paying double time to the officials however we later found out that unlike Australia, customs and immigration and free in New Zealand. In Australia it can cost you around $450 if you come in on a Sunday, so that was a nice surprise.

Customs and immigration was extremely simple. We declared everything and they took very little of our food. The only things they were interested in were fresh fruit and veg, chicken and eggs, and anything that may grow such as seeds ????. We had pre-prepared cooked meals for the voyage and thought we would lose what was left however the man was very nice. He said normally we could keep any Australian beef or lamb in its original packaging and our pre cooked meals would have to go however he let us keep them.

The Bay Of Islands is on the east coast of New Zealands North Island. Opua is a small quaint fishing village that used to be a bustling port. There is a marina, yacht club, charter vessels and a general store along with a huge marine industry including a slip way and hard stand, chandlery, sail makers, boat repairers, pretty much anything boating you could need. It is a popular arrival and departure point for cruisers like us and there are many boats sitting waiting for the right weather to head to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. We have already met two vessels heading to Tonga and hope to travel with them.

Yesterday we caught a private shuttle service to the nearby town of Pahia. It is a holiday village really, cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops, banks and many tourism operations. There is a woolworths although it is really more like a iga store with just a small selection of products. We took our provisioning list with us and started the huge shop. We plan to take as much food as we can fit as we know there are limited supplies in the areas of Tonga and Fiji we plan to visit. We anticipate that we will be able to purchase plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and maybe some bread and other basics but we know that the meat in Tonga is very poor quality and we won't be purchasing meat. Yesterday we spent NZ$300 in woolworths and probably are not even half way through the list. With little to no public transport in the area we have decided to hire a car for two days, looks like it will cost about AUS$100 and we can then go to the town of Kerikeri where there is a butcher and a larger grocery store and also do a bit of sight seeing in the area.

Today we are having some repairs done to the boat and will probably have dinner at the Cruising Club tonight so we can meet some new people. A lot of the boats here have already been to Tonga and Fiji so there is a lot of information we can gather.

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Year Two
Date: 7/5/2008 10:00
Weather: warm smooth seas and 15knts
Location: South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea (32 25.46' s, 163 30.11' e)
Author: Peter

We cleared customs and checked out of Coffs Harbour Australia at midday on Sunday the third of May. After a few hiccups in the harbour, namely forgetting to reconnect reefing lines after the twilight series, we got away on a close hauled course averaging 8knts. The breeze stayed SE for the next three days with intermittent squalls each evening and around Lord Howe Island requiring lots of sail changes. We Passed Lord Howe after two days and 6 hours of sailing and would have enjoyed the stop for a break but at this time the wind was up, it was raining and just on dark. Not a good time to enter.

Since then the breeze has slowly been rotating to the SW except during those nuisance squalls. We are expecting some stronger winds just as we reach the northern tip of NZ but are hoping the forecast is wrong. We will then sail directly to Opua in the Bay of Islands to clear into NZ. We were planning on ten days to cross but we are well ahead of this as long as we don't get another six hours of no wind like we had this morning.

Thankfully the seas so far have been kind. We have passed two whales, a pair of spinner dolphins, a few albatross and some mutton birds. Otherwise not a great deal of wildlife so far. The Tasmanian coast is still amazing in my eye's for this. Our only other entertainment has been chatter on the VHF around Lord Howe. We have not seen another boat since the first 10nm where we passed 3 yachts heading to Queensland for the season and 1 large ship heading north.

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Yes we have been extremely slack over the last few months with updating the blog but the time has once again come and we are about to set off. Tonga via New Zealand. Our first big ocean crossing!! The night before we set out and I have no nerves yet but I know they will arrive later tonight or tomorrow. Kylie says they have already hit.

During our stay in Coffs we have not only spent time making some money but the yacht has seen some upgrades. Externally we now have a bow sprit, mainly for getting the anchor tackle further away from our plum bow. The side benefit being we can also rig asymmetric spinnakers or code zero's (I wish) further out from the bow. We have also seen some minor signage changes to comply with our international registration. You will also notice that our registration denotes Sydney. This is because Coffs Harbour, although one of only 5 ports of entry into NSW from overseas is not recognised. Even stranger is there are other ports you can use for registration that are not one of these 5 ports and some around Australia are even land locked??







Inside we are starting to become one of those boats we were once jealous of. We have turned the ice box in the kitchen into a very efficient fridge. Its power consumption is so far ahead of the pre manufactured one we already had. If we had the money i would be tempted to remove the old fridge and and just build one from scratch as we had done in the kitchen. Put simply our home made one has much better insulation properties resulting in less running time.
We have also removed one of the toilets and installed a 2.2kg washing machine in its place. While travelling last year we regularly had problems getting clothes to dry due to the humidity or temperature. The spin cycle on the machine is there for a god send.




We have also constructed a new doorway for when we are off shore. The wash boards are good but to get out if you were shut in required firstly partly opening the hatch then removing all the boards. Once outside you then had to put it all back in place to keep the water out or take a risk. The new door simply swings open. All we now need to do is turn the handle, open the doors, step out then shut them. Quick simple and hopefully effective.





It also reminds me of hospital doors (its new nickname).

We have also added a boom brake to help control the boom. I wont bore you with photo's of that.

So once again we are back onthe blog regularly so that family and friends can keep up with our latest news and where we are.