Vava'u to Ha'apai

Hi everyone,

We had a good overnight 75nm sail S from Lisa's Beach, Vava'u to Pangai, Ha'apai.  We departed at 1600 and arrived at 0800.  Wind was ESE, not the E promised, so it became a very close reach.  We arced W to get into deeper water and hopefully clear of the whales.

Sun set departing Vava'u

Here are the usual plots...

Track

Arrival Track

Graphs

It was fun sailing through the S islands of the Vava'u group in the late afternoon.  There are extensive reefs around some of the islands, and isolated reefs to avoid too.  As we cleared the islands we heard whale song through the hull.  Who knows how far off they were but we tapped on the hull every few minutes to give them a hint we were there!

We sailed under trisail-sized main and triple-furled yankee.  This kept our speed reasonable so we'd arrive after dawn.  Even so, we passed the N tip of the Ha'apai group in darkness.  We used the radar to confirm our position.  Once into the island group we continued on to anchor off the main town of Pangai.  We'll do our domestic clear-in there on Monday.

Sunrise approaching Ha'apai

Pangai from the anchorage

Sunday Brunch!

There are nine of us anchored off Pangai, lined up N-S along the bay.  We're expecting rainy weather over the next few days.  We hope to fill our water tanks after a week in Lisa's Beach.  The Vava'u town water is very hard so rain water will be a big improvement.

Trust all's well where you are.