Sailor's rule

Sailors have a rule: no drinking the night before you go to sea. Generally I follow this rule, but on Tuesday evening I got a bit carried away with my goodbye's, and before I knew it it was a few hours before we were to shove off from the dock (at O'dark 30).

Yesterday was tough. The only thing worse than being hung over is being hung over and seasick at the same time. Although I slept most of the day, we did about 10 sail changes that required putting up the pole, hoisting sails, furling sails, and taking down the pole, which felt like a lot of work. Usually we can set the sails and cruise all day, but the wind has been light and fluky so things weren't quite that easy. At least the seas are relatively calm.

You would think it would be cooler out here on the ocean, especially heading south, but it is still 87 degrees in the cabin and it is before 10 AM. I read somewhere that the average temperature in Tonga in the winter (now) is 60 degrees - which, as far as I am concerned, is f-ing freezing. However it would be nice to be able to move without sweating buckets. We shall see.

The reason I am most amped on getting to Tonga is that some of my favorite cruising people in the world are going to be there! It feels like I am going to be reunited with long lost friends, although I have only known some of them for a few months. I think it is pretty cool to be going some place as remote as Tonga and have friends waiting with cold beers for us. Should be a good time. We will lose a day when we cross the international date line - or have we already?? Who knows, but it won't matter until we arrive.

Tonga is our last stop before we head to New Zealand. We will probably spend about two months cruising the islands (of which there are like, 500), working our way south until we jump off. A part of me wants to turn around and head right back to French Polynesia - I feel like there is so much more to be explored there - but I also don't want to run into any cyclones. Down in New Zealand we will be safe from all those for the Austral summer.

We should arrive in Tonga tomorrow morning. Let's hope the winds stay fair and the waters calm until then.
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At 9/1/2011 6:16 PM (utc) Rutea's position was 15°46.35'S 172°56.92'W

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