Aradonna's blog

Went for a stroll around Nuku'alofa on Friday and stocked up on fresh fruit and veges from the large produce markets. Spent the night at Pangaimotu Island and treated ourselves to fish and chips (tuna!)at Big Mama's Yacht Club. Had a nice sail around the eastern side of Tongatapu on Saturday and anchored at Malinoa Island for the night. This is an uninhabited island and marine reserve. Crystal clear water, snorkled around the beautiful coral, which is teaming with fish of all shapes, colours and sizes. Strolled on the white sandy beach, easily circumnavigating this tiny island and gathered fresh coconuts from the shore. On Sunday we sailed north to Kelefesia Island, another wonderful snorkeling spot with large coral reefs extending on both sides of our anchorage. Sat in our bean bags on deck watching the sun go down while we sipped on Pina Coladas made from fresh coconut milk. Dinner was fresh Mahimahi steaks - Karl landed another one during our sail to the island! This morni ng Karl made pancakes for breakfast and Heather is baking some fresh bread for lunch. Time for another snorkel now, the water is 26.5 degrees, so quite bearable! Life is good.
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Now 24 yachts inside North Minerva Reef, which is a huge oval "lake" measuring 5km by 5.5km across, so plenty of room for all. The rim of the reef itself is 900m wide and only has one small gap in it, just big enough for yachts to pass through into the middle, which is like a lake in the middle of the ocean. On the outside of the reef the ocean is 2000m deep but on the inside it is only 20m deep and a good anchorage. At low tide the reef is 1m or so above the water and at high tide the ocean waves trickle over the top, but the waves loose their force in the process. A large low pressure system is over us bringing 30-40 knots of wind and light rain, but everyone is safely anchored away from the ocean swells. Made some "William" bread today for lunch, it turned out perfectly(yum!)so it looks like we are getting used to this oven. Good day for reading and playing bridge! Yesterday was better weather, caught up on some washing, went swimming and snorkeling. Karl went for a dive t o retrieve a towel that had blown off the line. The towel that Steph gave Heather for her Birthday went to the bottom of Minerva Reef! Happily it was only 18m deep and Karl retrieved it easily. Weather clearing a bit tomorrow but we will probably stay here until Tuesday before departing for Tonga. The sea outside the reef will still be a bit lumpy on Sunday and Monday but inside is it nice and calm!

Settled calm conditions here in the Bay. Perfect time to recalibrate the speedo, set up lines for the drogue in case we need it one day and adjust the bearing on the Radar. All done! Off to Kerikeri tomorrow to visit friends and get some more supplies.

There were no more excuses, we had arrived in the Bay of Islands with time to spare. Now was the time to attack the navigation lights. We crawled on our hands and knees, pulling and pushing wires that were bundled up in the bilges, tracing which wire was what. Eventually we found the problem.
Somewhere under the motor, the wire to the nav lights had been cut - recently. Why, we don;t know. Next came the challenge of drawing new wire through to connect everything up again. With perseverance and great team work we got it sorted. All working now. By the time we put the boat back together again (3 hours after we started) it was time for a well-deserved gin! In peaceful Paroa Bay for the night, will head over the Opua to join the rest of the fleet tomorrow. Happy Easter!