13 October 2016 (+12 on UTC)
Dear Friends and Family,
We did the trip from \”New Potatoes\” as the cruisers call Niautopotapu in about 25 hours and covered 175 miles – all of it motoring into light southerlies.
We beat the re-establishment of the trade winds which was our goal as it would have made this trip very uncomfortable. The trade winds will start to re-establish late this afternoon. No whales so far!
We\’ve already caught up with several old friends on the radio and many of the boats we came across from Panama are here as well as many of the boats we met in French Polynesia. This is sort of a collection spot for boats prepping to go south to New Zealand. About 85% of the boats will be headed that way within the next 6 weeks, the rest of us will call seasons end between Fiji and Australia. A few are heading north for the Marshall Islands.
For us, it will be Oz. Still another fun filled 2200 nautical miles to go!
We\’re on a mooring, settling in and we\’ll go ashore in the next few hours to check in and see the lay of the land.
KIT,
All well onboard.
Scott and Nikki
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/10/12 22:06
LATITUDE: 18-39.74S
LONGITUDE: 173-58.97W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 9
WIND_DIR: SSE
CLOUDS: 0%
VISIBILITY: 25
BARO: 1013.8
AIR_TEMP: 30.6C
COMMENT: Beach House – MOORED – Neiafu Harbor – Vava\’u, Tonga