Walkabout - Day 7 - We have company!

S18:53 W163:38

After four days of not seeing a sole, at 1300 yesterday, we have the best of company join us for our last few days at sea.

Mary Doll just pinged up on AIS on the chart plotter and soon after they did, Letitia and Derek called up on the VHF and we all heard a loud HORAY when we answered! It was great and brought huge smiles from us all.
Its now 0745 the following day, our arrival day in Nuie and Escapade of London have also just pinged up on AIS so now we are three. It is so good to have company on the water, it feels slightly more comforting knowing there are others nearby, you may not be able to visibly see them but you can call up them up and say hello, and keep an eye on the AIS, check out their speed, bearing and direction in comparison to you.

Yesterday was a good sailing day with the winds light enough to raise the G1. Bron and Andrew worked the foredeck while Tom and I managed the lines and sheets in the cockpit. The wind needs to be between 7 and 14knots to fly her and she’ll come down in anything over that otherwise we can’t furl her properly creating an hour glass shape which is a sailors nightmare! We’ve not named our sails like many other boats do; TamLin call their Blue Water Runner ‘Casper’ as in the ghost because of the shape when she is up flying and Casamara call their big asymmetric sail ‘Big Bertha’. I”m not entirely sure why sails seem always to be female?

When at the wind picked up a little over 15knots, we reverted to our white sails for the remainder of the day and reefed the mainsail to take us into the night. It was forecast to be a settled night with wind picking up in the early hours of the morning. Bron had that particular shift with winds peaking at 19.5 so Andrew stayed on for an hour and I took over for the second hour. The Hydrovane did well in both wind and swell with Bron ‘tweaking’ her occasionally to keep us on a direct heading for Niue.

We passed the 1000 nautical miles sailed early this morning on Bron’s shift too. Not a bad distance for her first passage!

Niue is 77nm away and arrival is look like an early evening arrival, but definitely in the dark. There are a number moorings in the anchorage so we hope to pick up one of those and crack a beer and pack of Pringles to celebrate. We are unable to check in until 1400 tomorrow so we could have a morning on the boat waiting to go ashore.

Thats it from me and the crew :)
We hope you are all well and enjoying the blogs. We’ll write a blog once we have explore Niue on our way to Tonga which will be Tuesday 10th July.

See you all then
Signing off
T,A,T&B xxxx