Sailing Tonga to New Zealand

Thursday and Friday, October 16^th to 17^th

These were our transition days as Cindy prepared to depart for Auckland and my crew started to arrive for the passage from Tonga to New Zealand.

The first to arrive was my cousin Tim whom I had just recently reconnected with back in Mexico. Tim and I had not talked for a few decades. No reason except time, distance, and simple failure to stay in touch. The years seemed to just melt away but there is a lot of lost time in between. A mistake we don’t intend to repeat!

My next crew member, Peter, arrived on the 17^th. Cindy left in the morning and Peter arrived in the late afternoon. Peter happened to arrive in the middle of a 3 hour parade as part of events supporting the Tonga national rugby league team. The team is associated with the phrase Mate Ma’a Tonga (English: Die for Tonga). The team was in Nuku’alofa for 3 days with a lot of celebrations. The Tongan’s are very enthusiastic about their rugby!

Here are a couple examples of Tongans demonstrating their support for their team.

The parade ran down the main thoroughfare in Nuku’alofa but because it was so long, it was periodically interrupted for traffic to get through. It was during one of these interruptions that Peter arrived at the dock from the airport.

Saturday and Sunday, October 18^th to October 19^th

Peter, Tim, and I spent the next few days doing some sightseeing as well as provisioning the boat and planning for the passage from Tonga to New Zealand. Here’s a few pictures of our time in Tonga waiting for our departure window.

Preparing for departure:

Sailing from Tonga to New Zealand can be a challenging passage. It’s not a trip for the faint of heart and requires some good offshore experience. The optimal weather window is October and November so we are in that window. The passage is about 1,100 nautical miles and often takes 7 to 10 days, depending on weather conditions. The trip may involve a layover of a few days in Minerva Reef to wait for a good weather window to New Zealand. Minerva reef is only 250 nautical miles from Tonga and is still in the region of consistent trade winds. Further south into the Southern Pacific, weather becomes more dominated by systems moving from Australia to New Zealand across the Tasman Sea. These systems can be less stable and often require a wait in Minerva for the systems to the south to pass.

We are planning to make the trip with Kallisti who is another sailboat we have been cruising with and have become good friends of the owners. Robin and Simon are Kiwi’s, returning home after 10+ years of cruising! We are consulting with them and a Weather Router looking for the best time to leave. A Weather Router is a professional who recommends routes and departure times based on weather forecasts and the boats performance. Weather Routers are often experienced sailors, professional meteorologists, or both.

Our Weather Router, Bruce, has told us that we can probably make the passage from Tonga to New Zealand without a stop at Minerva Reef. This would get us to New Zealand in about 7 days rather than 10 which would include a stop in Minerva. We like the 7 day window because it also aligns better with Tim’s and Peter’s flights back home. They were both willing though to change their flights if weather made it necessary. That’s one of the challenges with sailing and schedules. Sailing is very dependent on weather. There’s a saying that a sailor’s worst enemy is a schedule!

Based on Bruce’s recommendation we are planning our departure from Tonga for the afternoon of October 20^th. Our goal is to arrive in New Zealand as early as possible on Monday, October 27^th to beat a cold front that is forming west of New Zealand and expected to arrive at the north end of New Zealand early Tuesday morning bringing heavy winds. If we can’t make good time or something changes, we should plan on stopping at Minerva to wait out the frontal system.

Because we may have to stop at Minerva, we are planning to provision for at least 2 weeks at sea. There is nothing in Minerva so we need to provision for a possible stay there.

Monday, October 20^th

We spent the morning and early afternoon stowing gear and securing the boat for the passage to New Zealand. The past few days the wind had been blowing pretty strong, 20+ kts, but it was starting to reduce to more reasonable speeds, i.e. less than 20 kts. At 15:00 (3PM) we raised the anchor and set sail for New Zealand. Kallisti set sail about 1 hour after us.

We sailed through the Tongatapu Island group with the wind off our starboard quarter on a nice broad reach with just the Genoa. As we exited the island group, we raised the main but put in a 3^rd reef. The reef reduces the sail area and is important because we expected strong winds through the evening and didn’t want to be reefing the sail in the dark.

We exited the lee of the Tongatapu Island group around 18:00(6pm). Exiting the lee means we entered open ocean where the islands weren’t protecting us from winds. The winds are blowing 20 to 25kts from the ESE  which is right on our port beam. This means the wind and waves are hitting the boat from the side which translates to very rough conditions and very unhappy crew.

Tuesday, October 21^st

Same conditions continued into the late afternoon, beam seas at 20-25kts. We were still sailing with the main reefed. Here are some pictures of Kallisti sailing about a mile or so away from us. Kallisti is about the same size as Quid Sea so what you see Kallisti doing is the same thing we were doing. Sometimes the waves are high enough that you can’t see the hull and sometimes it looks like you are pointed down into the sea as you slide down a wave.

As evening approached the wind dropped below 20kts and shifted more easterly. What that means is the wind and waves are more behind us and the boat is rolling a little less. Still a very rough ride and wearing on the crew and captain.

Wednesday, October 22^nd

By morning the wind was down to 17kts and becoming more north easterly. Conditions continue to calm and crew is feeling better. We took the reef out of the main and sailed with full sails. It was a relatively good day of sailing.

Thursday, October 23^rd

Mid-morning the wind has shifted more NE and is down to 14-17kts. We are heading more southerly now as the wind has shifted. Our goal is to make more westing so as the wind shifts more north, we expect to have to gybe and go onto a starboard tack. What this means is we’ll turn more westerly and put the wind on our starboard (right) side instead of our port (left) side.

At 10:20 we crossed the International Date Line from the Western to the Eastern hemisphere!

About noon we started motor sailing to charge batteries and check for water in the fuel. Kallisti is about 6 nautical miles away and reported some water in their fuel tanks. They suspect the water came in through leaky fuel caps on deck where the fuel is put in when filling the tanks. That’s one of many things that can happen when taking waves over the boat. Since we had also been taking waves on deck, we thought it prudent to check also. Fortunately our tanks appeared to be free of water.

We shut off the motor about 17:30 (5:30pm) and sailed into the evening. We started talking about the cold front that is coming. Spirits continue to improve as wind and seas are more manageable but we know rougher weather is ahead.

Friday, October 24^th

A little after midnight, we gybed onto a starboard tack and starting heading more westerly as the wind had shifted more northerly. Overcast and light rain in the morning. Weather is changing as we approach a smaller frontal system. This is not the big system approaching northern New Zealand that we are worried about and trying to beat.

In the evening the winds started to shift from NNE to NW. It was a rough night trying to make more westing as we had to start sailing more into the wind on a close reach. Our goal was to make as much way west as possible before the next wind shifts to the SW. If we can’t get enough westward distance, we’d end up sailing into high winds on our final approach to New Zealand.

Saturday, October 25^th

We continued on a close reach trying to make as much westing as we could. Sailing on a close reach means sailing into the wind and waves at an angle and is usually rougher sailing conditions. The wind continued to build so we had to put a reef in the main and Genoa. About 17:00 (5pm) we started passing through the cold front which brought squalls with wind gusts and heavy rains. The wind shifted to the SSW which made it difficult to find a good sail angle that would allow us to stay on schedule and beat the big front heading for the north end of New Zealand. We decided to start the engine and motor. We motored into the wind and seas through the night which made for a very rough ride.

Sunday, October 26^th

The wind shifted more westerly by morning and we raised sails and motor sailed until about 10:30. We sailed on a more comfortable tack for most of the day and conditions were more comfortable. Here’s a glimpses of what conditions looked like.

Monday, October 27^th

About midnight the wind finally backed more to the north, coming from the NW. This allowed us to sail on a comfortable broad reach with the wind behind us. We are now sailing SSW directly for Opua, New Zealand. By 08:00 the wind was blowing about 20kts and the boat is moving at about 8kts. Great sailing conditions but we know winds will be picking up soon as we get closer to the major cold front coming around the north end of New Zealand. At this time, we decided to put a 3^rd reef in the main in anticipation of the higher winds.

Around noon the winds built to about 30kts. By 16:00 (4pm) we were in 35-40kt winds which officially are gale force winds. We clocked some gusts as high as 47kts which is 54mph. Not only were the winds high but the waves were 2-3 meters (about 6 to 10 feet). Waves that high are not necessarily bad except in this case their period was 6-8 seconds which means they are big and coming close together. We were in very rough conditions.

 We entered the Bay of Islands about 19:00 (7pm). The wind was still blowing hard but the waves started to subside as we entered the protection of the bay. We dropped sails and started motoring to our destination, the Bay of Islands Marina in Opua. We arrived at the Q-Dock in Bay of Islands Marina at 20:45 (8:45pm). The Robin and Simon from Kallisti, who had arrived a few hours before us, were ready at the dock to help us tie up. Q-Dock is the quarantine dock where we are required to wait until we can be cleared by customs and immigration. We were relieved to have finally arrived and were able to crack a few beers with Robin and Simon. Cindy and some other boating friends cheered us on from the docks across the way but they could not be with us as we are “in quarantine”.

Tuesday, October 28^th

We woke up to a beautiful morning on the Q-Dock.

Customs and Immigration as well as a representative from Biofouling management came onboard around 10:00 to clear us. Customs and Immigration are checking for proper documentation and visas as well as declarations for items onboard. Biofouling management is making sure we are not bringing any pests or invasive species both inside the vessel and outside on the underwater part of the hull. We were cleared by all and were able to move to our slip in the marina. We tied up at our slip at 12:00 anxious to meet up with Cindy at the Airbnb where she was waiting for us. We are really looking forward to hot showers and I am really looking forward to hugging Cindy!

As we gathered later in the day on Tuesday for a get together with friends and fellow cruisers, our trip was described by many as “Epic”. Needless to say, Quid Sea’s performance was stellar, and the crew’s resilience from one day to the next made the trip one we’ll not soon forget.