5 June 2010
Niue is a three day island and anyway our 72 hours were up. Now we are three. Suzana from WARC joined us for the 255nm passage. She stood two night watches for us which meant some extra rest. It was wonderful, a real treat! We were back to light winds again and it was a combination of sailing and motor sailing. Niue had left us a present in the form of a plague of flying ants. When night fell they came marching down the decks, armies of them. I have never experienced anything like it before. By morning however the tidal wave of critters had receded and David's duty at first light was to dispatch them overboard.
The following night and we had a unique ocean experience passing over the Tongan Trench. This is the second deepest part of the Pacific Ocean and at its deepest part, a staggering 10882metres, greater than Mount Everest. Quite thought provoking but whatever might be down there in the watery depths, I try not to think too much about. Another experience occurred during the early hours of the second night, sadly though not unique. On the radar we had a boat four miles away to our port, one three miles away to our starboard and one ahead, seven miles away. Occasionally we could pick up the lights of the one ahead, the one to port we could see very clearly but the one nearest us on starboard we could not see at all. It is quite possible it was not a rally yacht. You would like to think they know better but it did let Suzana see that not everyone sticks to the rule of the sea...... Arriving in Tonga we had crossed the International dateline, losing a day by an addition of 24hours to our calendar.
Susan Mackay