A life on the ocean waves

Position: 17 11.1S 179.00W Weather: wind NE 25 knots, and raining heavily for past few hours Hello from a very wet and windy Fiji.  Sorry I completely failed to sign off at the end of our two day passage from Tonga.  We arrived here safely 50 hours after leaving Neiafu, and it has all been pretty hectic and windy since then, so I haven't made time until now to sit down with the laptop.  It's currently  11.30pm  and everyone else is in bed.  I am on "water watch" as we are filling the tanks from the current downpour, so I need to keep an eye on them and replace the filler caps when the time comes.  I'm also slightly on anchor watch, as the harbour we are in has such high rocky cliffs all around it that the gusts funnelling through are making all the boats do circles on their anchors.  Fortunately it's very big and we are all quite well spread out so fingers crossed I won't need to go out to deploy fenders in the monsoon.. Anyways, back to the passage.

Position 17 33 S 176 33 W Course 290 degrees true Speed 7.5 knots Distance to Fiji 140 nm Hello from the sea again.  It's great to be underway and Victoria is loving the downwind sailing from Tonga to Fiji.  We left Neiafu yesterday at 0900, along with most of the fleet, and we have all been making our way west with the sun shining down, and the wind and the waves pushing us along.  Yesterday there wasn't quite enough wind and we were lolling around a bit, slightly in the wrong direction, and overnight we motored for a few hours, but now we have perfect conditions and are screaming along.  As I write this, Angus is helming, a pasta bake is browning in the oven, and the kids are all up in the cockpit, tucked up forward in their safe places, harnesses on and tethers attached.  They have been making and decorating drums this morning, made from cups, elastic bands and paper, as well as "guitars", made of tupperware and elastic bands, and singing music of the sea whil

Neiafu, Vava’u, Tonga 18 39.7 S 173 59.0 W The Kingdom of Tonga is also known as “the Friendly Islands”, and we feel lucky to have found out why.   We have been to lots of beautiful anchorages and beaches, but we have met very few locals, as not many people live on the small islands.   Last week we spent three nights in the “Coral Gardens” on Vaka’eitu Island.   Angus and Eloise were busy crafting a long-awaited wooden shelf for her bunk, so Jack, George and I kayaked ashore to explore.   A Tongan man rushed along the beach gesturing wildly to us – we were about to and head straight in over some jaggedy kayak and foot-shredding reef – and he waved us towards a better, sandier, more forgiving landing spot.   “Malo e Lelei!” we all said as we hopped ashore, which means hello.   Fortunately, the second language here is English, as that was the limit of our Tongan, and we got chatting with David and his wife, Hika.   They are the only family on the island, and they have eleven (

Position: anchored off Vaka'eitu Island, Vava'u, Tonga. 18 43.3S 174 06.0W After our slightly crazy passage from New Zealand to Tonga, the worst bits are just a distant memory now, and it's hard to believe that we have been here for well over a week already.  We are experiencing truly tropical conditions, and I don't mean blazing sun, blue sky, hats and sunglasses and regular applications of suncream.  In fact, it's quite the opposite at the moment.  It's hot and humid, with grey skies, and frequent squalls, complete with high winds and torrential rain.  This is caused by a slow moving "trough" to the South of Tonga.  The first huge downpour was a lot of fun. We stripped off (some more than others!), ran on deck, deployed shampoo and scrubbed ourselves clean, before giving the decks a good scrub.  Minutes later, we had the water tank caps open and we were filling with lovely fresh rainwater.  Victoria is so brilliantly designed that the water runs do

21 06.6S 175 10.0W Pangaimotu Island, Tongatapu, Tonga We made it!  We are safely anchored in Tonga after an action packed final 24 hours.  It feels like a pretty huge achievement, which we could never have done without the help and support of friends, family and complete strangers.  Thank you to everyone who has been a piece of the jigsaw that got us out of our house in Winchester and on to a boat here in the South Pacific.  Eloise kept saying today, "I can't believe we are actually in Tonga.  It doesn't feel real!"  I think we all feel the same.  There were some difficult times on the passage, and some scary moments too.  The wind and the waves were powerful, and reminded us of how small and vulnerable we are, even with a good solid boat to look after us.  The children were amazing, and put up with the motion and the discomfort and the very small amount of real attention that Angus and I managed to give them on passage.  We managed a few activities - colouring, f

Ahoy there friends and family.  Things are hotting up here.  We still needed thermals and hats on our night watch last night, but I think that could well be their last outing.  Today it is hot, hot, hot up on deck, and the sea is warming up too.  We know that, because we use saltwater for most of our washing up when we're at sea.  I splashed Eloise with some washing up water just now, and she thought it was from the hot tap!  We haven't seen anything except big rolling waves for days now.  No boats, no whales, no dolphins, no fish.  It's just Victoria, ploughing along on her own biscuit of ocean.  It might sound scary at all being out of sight of land, but actually it's not at all.  It feels completely normal now, and it's quite reassuring, especially at night - there's nothing to crash into!  We still have a good look around every 20 minutes or so, peering into the blackness for any sign of a light, and we also have an AIS monitor which most boats would show up

Position 25 24.7S 178 39.8W, course 35T, speed 7 knots. It's our sixth day at sea and you can tell when you look around the boat.  Things are fairly tidy but not very clean - the whole place is in need of a good scrub and a vacuum, but it's not quite cleaning conditions at the moment. The deck has had more water over it - both waves and rain squalls - than in any time since we moved on board, so that at least is looking lovely and sparkling.  The crew are also in desperate need of a wash.  For a while yesterday, we thought we'd get the big plastic washing tub out in the cockpit and have a good old scrub, but then the moment passed with the arrival of a rather cold and very windy rain squall.  Angus has quite some facial hair and we are on the verge of calling him Jim, so he is looking for an opportunity to shave (and a change of clothes wouldn't go astray!). At the moment we are rocketing towards Tonga, at over 7 knots, with 18-20 knots just aft of the beam, which is a

Position: 27 26.9S 179 50.0 E speed 7.5 knots in the right direction, sun shining, all crew on deck Hello from the good ship Victoria! As I write, the kids are all on deck, clipped on in the cockpit in their harnesses.  Every cushion, pillow, blanket and duvet on board is filling the cockpit and they are lolling around, taking it in turns to lie in the deepest, softest part.  The sun is shining, and Victoria is blasting along with full main, mizzen, staysail and genoa at 7.5 knots directly to Tonga.  We are on a beam reach (wind at 90 degrees to the boat), and the waves are well spread out and gently rolly, which is a welcome change from yesterday. When I wrote yesterday, things were just getting going in the weather department.  The wind was increasing and the sea state became horrible.  The waves were very close together; we counted just seven seconds between them.  The seas were steep and the breeze was strong.  Angus and I burned a few calories on deck getting ourselves organised f