It is time to leave Aitutaki and head for the Kingdom of Tonga.

It has been an absolute blast! Everything from making new friends with cruisers from Australia, India, France and Lithuania to swimming with the humpback whales.

The consensus on Friday was that there was a weather window on Tuesday before a lull on Friday this week, so five cruisers went to Aitutaki Customs to see Bob. I am sure he wasn’t pleased to see five check outs at the same time. In addition, we had woken up to two boats approaching the harbour to clear in. This created some drama, as the harbour was full. We squeezed one boat in and asked the second to remain on the outside until we had left as they could maneuver the pass and harbour more easily with fewer boats around. I was up early on departure day and was ready to untie the lines around 08.30 and pulled the anchor at 08.45 and waved goodbye to the guy in the backhoe expanding the yeti. I began motoring out of the channel and a humpback whale spyhopped right beside Sarantium. That finalized my stay in Aitutaki.

As soon as I raised the sails, I killed my engine, I noticed SV Wallis, SV Luka and SV Atlas on my tail. I sailed away leaving a very special place that will forever have a place in my heart.

The first few hours brought decent wind. In fact, I kept two reefs in both main and genoa sail. The winds were up and down and I had to work for my departure sail pretty much the whole day. With sundown the winds settled a bit into a more comfortable wind angle and waves became more organized.

The night was decent; I managed to sleep a bit, but rain and ocean spray kept me alert most of the night. The original plan was to sail the 575 nmiles to Beveridge Reef on the Friday when wind decreases. Today, I am thinking that I can make it to Niue and stay there instead, as it brings me closer to Tonga by another 130 nm, leaving only 238 nm to go. As I noticed, the weather report upgraded and shows heavy winds next week, I think it is a wise choice to continue to Niue. 456 nm to go and I will be in Niue!!

At 07.00: COG: 260 degrees; SOG: 5.7

18 degrees 32.714 South / 161 degrees 36.393 West

South West Wind…