Leaving Tonga - On the Way to New Zealand

Hi all,
As of Thursday December lst (this side of the dateline)we have left Tonga 36 hours ago, and are now 200 miles southwest of our starting point. We are sailing fast in rough seas. we are averaging 7 knots, but have seen 9.5 knots.
The seas are mixed swells about 10 feet high, coming from two directions - making the sea much like a washing machine. we are buddy boating along with S/V Fugue. It's strange to see a sail nearby on the horizon 24 hours a day. We just have to make sure we don't crash into each other.
Kids have been a bit green around the gills - especially Tamsyn. A few drips coming in as we are taking big seas over the bow and burying the rail frequently. We hope to reach Minerva Reef in 36 hours or so. There we can rest in the lagoon, and wait for a good weather window to continue the rest of the way to New Zealand.
To Jennifer & Aaron - please make a blog comment giving your email addresses (we won't publish the comment. We can't find yours and would love to visit.
Miss you all.
Owen, Carrie, Tamsyn & Griffyn
S 20 58.502
W 176 13.1188
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Update Tonga & A Relaxing Day, Sparky & the Barleys (May 17th)

Hi,


Still in Tonga. Having a good time. Visiting many islands and people. I've been working a lot - finishing up a couple projects. 
We are getting ready for our jump to New Zealand, and so are watching for a weather window. Hope everyone has a good 
Turkey Day! We will probably watch The Wizard of Oz with the kids and have our dinner with Bob & Sue on S/V Fugue. 
Hugs to everyone.

Malo,

Owen






Carrie's post "A Relaxing Day - Sparky and the Barleys" (May 17th) was posted retroactively. Enjoy


http://svmadrona.blogspot.com/2011/05/relaxing-day-sparky-and-barleys.html

Cave diving, isolated atolls, Halloween, and unsettled weather.

Hi all.

We're doing well.  The weather has been rainy and very cloudy - making sailmail posts very difficult.  The station we have to link with is over 1500 miles away, and when the weather is overcast and full of rain, we just cannot like up to that station.

We just came back from an atoll named Avalau Island (inhabited only by goats).  It was small and exquisite.  The beach was pure white sand, the coral was abundant, and the schools of fish very colorful.


Here is a time machine picture post - going back all the away to Bora Bora.

Here's a picture of Madrona leaving Bora Bora - courtesy of Joel on Balena.  We are reefed down as we motor past the reef.  Once out in the open we put out our very large head sail.  It was blowing 20 - 25 outside.

Griffyn doing a cleaning chore - sweeping the cabin rug.

Here's Bora Bora.

An amazing peak.

The main street in Bora Bora.

A nice house front.

This church has been around a long long time.

We bought a good percentage of the food on this table before leaving.  It was the end of the day, and the women at the table loaded us up with much fruit when we left - without us paying for it, as it wouldn't keep another day.  We ate over three dozen bananas over the next few days on passage.

Here's Tamsyn's photo of the selection.  Yummy!

This is for Allison at REECAS.  Nyco's for Nico!

Wish my alley looked like this.

Tamsyn at the Post Box.  This is where we dropped your postcards.

This guy was cool.

Colorful crosses.  Churches are big here - obviously.

Cutting up Breadfruit - Uru - into slices for deep frying.  Delicious!

Griffyn's corner - some of his precious things.

Some of Tamsyn's special things including Twinkle.

Our alphabet.  Our boat is a schoolhouse.

The Galley.

Griffyn learning to read on the high seas on the way to Tonga.

Close approach Palmerston Island.  The wind was blowing from the northwest so we couldn't visit - no way to moor or anchor safely with that wind.

S/V Balena - with Joel and Christine on deck, at anchor in Tonga.

Here they are on our boat for dinner.  Good friends.

Here's our Parrot fish - they taste lemony!  Delicious.  Thanks for the fillet knives Hink & Lois!

Storms over Tonga.  Looks like a painting.

A view of Neiafu, Tonga from our anchorage.  The flag is the Tongan flag made by Carrie.

 

After the sunset - night swimming.  Mom & Dad wore less clothes.

A beautiful cave.  One of two we visited.

Here's the entrance to the above cave.

The shoreline and the water color are spectacular.

Here's our favorite cave.  We went diving here.  The roof was 100 feet over our head; the deep blue pool below was much deeper.

Schools of fish, thousands strong flowed and undulated like a single organism.  I could pick out every stone on the cave floor - over 150 feet below.

Here's Tamsyn about 12 feet down in the cave.

After days and days of rain we came into civilization for the kids Halloween party at the Aquarium cafe.

It was a lot of fun for kids and adults!

Griffyn/Spiderman doing the limbo.  Must be the special spider genes that make it possible.

Princess' can do it too.

Egg toss.  It didn't end too well for the eggs in the end.

So that's all for now.

Letters from Tamsyn backlog - to Pat, Grandpa John, Lois & Hinka, & Grandma Jean

Here is a bit of a time machine of letters written by Tamsyn...

August 15, 2011 - Tahiti  (maybe on blog already)

Dear Pat, 

I am in Tahiti. We have a friend named Joel. We had him over for dinner yesterday. Joel is 30. He used to work on a NOAA ship and so did dad! And we have another friend who is 5 1/2, her name is Emma. I made her a gingerbread doll all by myself! I went swimming yesterday. Dad is going to get a fuel cylinder. Your sister is at the table not doing anything. Griffyn is still in the bathroom. How are things at home?

Tamsyn

September 28, 2011 - on passage from Bora Bora to Tonga (maybe posted)

Dear Grandpa John, 

Are you still coming to where we summer over? It's "summer over" because in the tropics there is no winter. "What a drag, I know." I think I heard you got a little snow last you wrote. We think we will summer over in New Zealand. But we are not sure, but if we do go, me and Griffyn get to go to a real school! 

An X for you and the cats. 

Add two OOs.

Tamsyn

October 3, 2011 - on passage to Tonga

Dear Aunt Lois and Uncle Hinka, 

I was up with the sun today. It was the first time I did it since I left home.  Guess what? Griffyn read 67 words yesterday. Can you believe that! I read these two great books called "Rowan of Rin" and "Rowan and the Travelers." How are things at home? We miss you both.

XXXX

from Tamsyn

October 3, 2011 - on passage to Tonga

Dear Uncle Pat, 

We are sailing to Tonga. I lost a tooth on the way. It was a molar. The place where it was bled for the whole night. We had left Bora Bora. They had French money and the tooth fairy gave me 100 pacific francs or French money. Darn it - we already left the island that the money works at. 

Hope all is well,

Love Tamsyn

October 5, 2011 - on passage to Tonga

Dear Grandpa John, 

When I wrote last I got mixed up. New Zealand does have Christmas, that is in the summer. It even snows there, that is in the winter. We saw these beautiful birds. The birds were as white as snow and have very long pointed tail feathers. I liked the way they flew. They glided along the wind with scarcely a flap. When one met the other, they soared tilting one wing and then the other right next to each other. 

I lost a tooth! And a different one is loose. Two molars! One out, the other half way! Today we will reach Tonga!! it is a Kingdom! How are things at home? We miss you and your cats.

X

Love Tamsyn

October 19, 2011 - Tonga

Dear Grandma Jean,

It is hard to miss the crickets, "sheesh!" Guess what? Once at twilight some how, (don't laugh) a cricket got on our boat! I caught him! We put him in my bug jar for a night and then when dad when to get water he brought him with him and let him go. The way you can tell crickets from grass hoppers is crickets have long antenna and grass hoppers have short ones.

I have been wondering. Do you have any good books? Maybe a Thorton Burgess or two, or "The Bobbsey Twins"? (Well you did run a bookstore, so.) Oh and please don't bring #8. I have it.  I really like the series. And please also bring some more of "The Boxcar Children", I have #4, Mystery Ranch. I love these too. 

XXXX for you and Samantha, do not forget Thomas and Danny

from Tamsyn

Daniel's Bay Video Postcard

Here is a video postcard from Daniel's Bay.

A Long Day - posted on May 14th, 2011

Carrie's post "A Long Day" has been posted retroactively on May 14th, 2011.  Follow the below link to read.

http://svmadrona.blogspot.com/2011/05/long-day.html

Night Watch is Sublime

(October 2011 (on passage between Bora Bora and the Kingdom of Tonga)

Night Watch is Sublime

You set your timer to beep every 10 minutes. When it goes off you look in all directions - for anything, a boat, land, something floating in the water. You scan the horizon carefully because missing a boat could be fatal. You wait until the waves crest, so that you can see far ahead of the bow, behind the stern, amid ships. Then you check the wind speed - does it make sense? Do the numbers you read "feel" like the wind hitting the back of your neck? Or have they increased lately and you watch the dials to confirm your suspicions (you may need to reef). You check the wind angle (the point of sail) and you check the compass, has the wind shifted direction? Is the boat still sailing the right course? And you check the speed - how many knots? Do all these mechanical readings confirm what you already feel? 90% of the time - they do, the other 10 % involve changing sail or changing course.
If everything is O.K. - you reset your timer. You go back to reading about Sookie Stackhouse, that village in Tuscany, an Elegant Hedgehog or some other completely absorbing novel that you would never have had time to read back home in your previously busy life. You go back to cat napping because you are at the beginning of your watch and it is too soon to wake up your relief - but for some reason your day exhausted you. You go back to journaling about your day - what you saw, what you thought, what you want to remember, any new epiphanies you might have had that must be recorded. You go back to star gazing because the stars are so bright out here over only water, without light pollution - it's no wonder people have written about them since the beginning of time. Serius is so bright is beams light like Jupiter. You stare at the milky way thinking about "Men In Black" and just how small we really are. You watch the moon set or rise - each night the rising or setting is 45 minutes earlier or later than the previous day. A full moon is so bright it feels like sun light when you look out over the shining water - it is easy to see everything and a moonless night is so dark especially if it is cloudy that you strain to see the horizon - all you can hope to see is a light from another vessel. You try to remember the constellations you learned in high school - Orion, the big dipper, and dig out a book showing you others. These constellations become your friends as you sail under the same sky night after night. You learn which direction you are sailing based on where Orion is in the sky. Or if this night is one of those rare special nights you get to watch the bioluminescence curl along the side of the boat with each bow wave spreading tiny beads of rippling light in arcs across the water. It is so beautiful - each wave sets off a different shape of twinkling lights. And this cycle of renewal to mind and spirit lasts as long as your watch (if all is well 3-4 hours) until your eyes can no longer focus or you feel sleepiness overcoming your ability to be on watch.

Carrie

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