HITCH HIKER

HITCH HIKER

Position: 14D16.561S 165D17.440W

563 nautical miles left to sail to Vavau in Tonga

Sunday, August 21- We have had good winds over the last 24 hours and are averaging 6 to 7 knots in the direction of Tonga. Last night the winds dropped and made things a bit uncomfortable in the cockpit with the boom clanging and the main sail slapping in the light wind. Luckily the wind has picked up again and we are cruising along comfortably. Yesterday we had an in water sailing lesson from Ken and Wendy on their yacht Cosimo. They caught up with us after leaving Suwarrow and asked us on the radio if we wanted any suggestions to improve our sailing speed. Of course we did so they sailed alongside and gave us some tips to reset the sails for better performance. During the conversation we found out that Ken had 50 years of sailing experience and was a sailing instructor so we were grateful for their advice. They are also headed for Tonga so hopefully we will meet up with them again in the next few days. There is no doubt that they will arrive in Tonga before us!

We've also had a hitch hiker on board Faraway during this passage. When I was on watch I noticed a young Booby Bird clinging onto the aft deck railing with it's webbed feet trying to balance in the strong breeze. I'm not an animal pyschic but I'm sure it was trying to work out how it could be moving across the ocean without making any effort. It kept staring down into the ocean then it would take off in the wind circle the boat and settle down again with a puzzled look on its face. It was having a nice time chilling out and pruning itself and wasn't too scared when it spotted me taking photos of it. After about an hour it took off to do some fishing and we never saw it again.

We don't have a busy schedule today so that's a nice change. We plan to do some reading then will try and catch a fish for dinner. We have been very slack on the fishing front. The fishing rod we bought seems to be of no benefit. All the other sailing boats use a lure, 10 metres of 200lb fishing line, 10 metres of venetian bling cord and 10 metres of bungy cord with a little metal weight attached with a shackle to a cleat on the boat. When the fish strikes the bungy cord flexes and you can hear the weight skipping on the deck. You don't pull the fish in immediately as you want it to be tired before pulling it up on deck for inspection. We won't keep anything we can't eat so if it's too big we will release it back to the ocean.