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Published: June 20th 2014
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Crew Adam
Leaving Raoul Island Hello, Anna and Adam here.
Our adventure with Cap'n Doug started with an initial contact through the Find-a-Crew website, we had decided we'd like to try sailing New Zealand to Tonga but didn't really think anyone would be willing to take on a pair of inexperienced poms...After a brief chat over the phone we arranged to meet on Hakura for a cup of tea and a few biccies. After having a tour of Hakura Doug explained he had a few other potential crew to meet and that he'd let us know in a week.When we got the call we were very happy (who could turn down our charming smilie faces). We met a few more times and as we were offered the Assam tea and Afghan biscuits, we knew we were in. We stayed on Hakura for a week before we set sail in order to get used to, clean and prepare the boat. The day we moved onto the
Crew Anna
I think that is land! boat we were walking down the pontoon and Anna recognised a smiling face walking towards us, it was Anna's Nan's next door neighbours from back home in England, such a lovely surprise. Sue and Andy were preparing to sail to Fiji after having spent the summer in New Zealand and we just happened to be at the same Marina! We met up nearly every day for either tea, coffee, dinner or a chat.We set off from Marsden Cove on Monday 26th May with a freezer full of Lorraine's delicious home cooking. The first 3 days were particularly hard as we were feeling a bit peculiar to say the least and not having to prepare food from scratch was life saving. On day one a pod of dolphins joined us off our starboard side which was a wonderful distraction for 10 minutes. Being up on watch was fine, lying down below was fine but the transition between these two positions was where it all fell apart. As we struggled to gain our sea legs Doug was really good, he did all
the food prep and clearing, silently dealt with our being sick and even let Anna get away without filling in the log book, what an absolute gentleman! For us these first 3 days consisted of taking our watches, sleeping, helping each other get in and out of our wet weather gear and life jackets and generally wondering why we even wanted to do this in the first place.By day four we had got over the worst of our sea sickness and we're able to fully enjoy Lorraine's cooking. We began spending more time awake between watches, chatting, listening to Doug's audio books and looking out for sea birds and flying fish.We were getting used to the general routine of the days and were now hand steering and getting more of a feel for sailing. The first sight of land was brilliant, we sailed past Raul Island, chatted to a couple of the rangers via VHF and as we passed they
set off a weather balloon (we like to think it was on our behalf). The wind began to pick up and we really got into the swing of things.That night Adam came up to take his watch so I let him know that I thought I'd seen lightning but couldn't be entirely sure. A couple of moments later Ad's was shouting down to Doug that there were 3 patches of lightning ahead. We put a 3rd reef in the main sail as a precaution and sailed on with lightning bolts all around us and heavy rain. It was quite impressive but the closest we got was about 4 Mississippi's so we didn't feel in any danger even if Anna did cower in her bunk with her head under the pillow.The following few days brought lovely sunsets, beautifully clear starlight nights and stunning sunrises. We began to really enjoy our watches and appreciate the big emptiness and unbelievable blueness of the Pacific.We knew we were getting closer to Tonga as the mornings got warmer, more humid and we began to spot Frigate birds wheeling around the mast. We were a day from Tonga Tapu and were doing our daily routine of charging the batteries. We fired up the motor... splutter splutter, tried again... splutter splutter. The oil warning light came on and a puff of smoke billowed out the engine compartment. We decided to continue under sail to our destination and conserve all remaining battery power for radio communication.We got in touch with Sue and Andy (Anna's Nan's next door neighbours) via the SSB radio network 'Southern Cross Net' and they helpfully contacted some friends that we're cruising in Vava'u. Graham and Dianne aboard Maunie met us and towed us the last few miles into the Port of Refuge. After 2 days without power our fridge had defrosted but Graham was at hand with a couple of nice cold beers, a great welcome to Nieafu.A massive thanks to Doug for a fun, safe and comfortable passage to Tonga, he took his responsibilities as skipper very seriously and as such we never felt in any danger. It's been a great experience for us and we'd definitely do it again.
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