ocean passages

Day 1- Tonga to New Zealand

With a good weather window we spent our last Paanga on cheeseburgers and cokes at Big Mamma’s yacht club and set off from Nuka’Alofa. The skies were sunny with 20 knots of breeze. As we got out of the lee of Tonga’Tapu the breeze built through the day until we were seeing 25-30 knots with gusts into the low 30’s. View More

Simplicity at sea – Day 1 – By Josje

Left the land of Australia about 3:30pm. Embraced the moment as I consciously stepped from Land onto Delos. Released the lines, went through the lock where Brian dropped the fish gaff after dropping his glasses the first-time coming in. Feeling bittersweet. It just feels like another day in Darwin, but we’re actually leaving the country, in a way we’re kind of sad. But the excitement has been crawling in for a little while and now we’re checked out, physically on the boat and not turning back. Leaving the land down under behind us, heading north for Indo. This is the moment we’ve all been talking about all year so it’s a bit unreal too. The sun beamed down on us, the wind in our faces. Nina painted my nails, something I hadn’t done in forever. I felt pretty, happy and simple. Put both hand lines out but caught nothing. Brady took them in by sunset which was pretty once again. Darwin always seems to have the most amazing sunsets, intense reds and pinks streamed across the sky. We’re making good progress, a comfortable 7 knots, although breeze is out of the north at the moment, let’s hope it switches soon. Easy and tasty dinner of spag bol that Karin made before we left. Lazy, tired moods and an early bed for most. Let me tell you, there is nothing like sinking into a perfectly cozy mattress (you can use this sleepify Guide best mattress for find one) at the end of the day. Oh boy, it can have the power of melting down all your stress in one go. 12am – my time for watch, woken from a deep sleep, but I don’t mind, the stars are absolutely amazing. No moon tonight. It feels like we’re in a snow dome, but with stars hugging us instead. The Milky Way can clearly be seen. Breeze is light and inconsistent. Enjoying my cup of tea and see how many shooting stars I can count.

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