Niue, not

Well we got to Niue last evening and made the tough decision to keep going. We didn’t have a chart, the GPS chart was usless and confusing, our cruising books weren’t greatly helpful and we saw waves crashing on a fringing reef that we didn’t think was there. We’re also a quite a bit behind our original schedule and we want to leave time for all the places with amazing diving and snorkeling. So, Tonga here we come.

We have nice winds and the ride is pretty good. However, we’re running into the same problem: we’ll be arriving in Tonga after dark tomorrow. So, this time we’ll slow down so we don’t encounter the same problems. The winds may do the slowing down for us. For now, we’re sailing at about 4-5 knots on a beam reach. Big seas are bouncing us around a bit.

Our trip today we’ve been accompanied by a school of what we think are small tuna. They stayed beside the boat for a couple of hours. They might be Aku or bonito, we’re not sure. They glow red and blue in the water and are silver when they jump out. They’re fishing for something next to the boat.

All these days at sea and I still get seasick dizzyness. Not much nausea, but I just don’t feel good. Passages suck. I can’t believe I was reading and baking bread just a few days ago. I am able to read a little, but too much makes me sick.

The cruising guides to Tonga (pronounced ‘tong-uh’ not ‘tong-ga’) make it sound a paradise of easy achorages, with lots of snorkeling and dive spots. We’ll be visiting the Vava’u group of islands. That’s the northern group and is well outfitted for cruisers. There’s several internet cafes and I hope to be able to send some pictures from there.

Two more night watches, ug.