Aitutaki to Beveridge Reef to Tonga

The weather looked good to cross so we set off on the 455 mile passage to Beveridge Reef in the company of Mr John, a British boat we had been hopscotching with since Rarotonga.
We had a great sail for the first half of the voyage but we lost the wind and were forced to motor for 36 hours—we had not needed to do this since Mexico but with fuel costing from $7-$10 a gallon in this part of the world it hurts a lot more!!
Ken landed another “record breaking” mahi mahi –this one was 4 foot 5 inches which made up for the motoring.
We sighted the breaking waves over the low coral atoll early on the third day and were able to enter easily into this huge lagoon. By now two other boats had diverted from their original Tonga route to wait out weather which looked bad further west so the four boats arrived within an hour of each other.
Inside the lagoon the water was so clear that as we crossed to the other side the 35 feet depth looked shallow with the amazing visibility and you could see the coral at the bottom.
After anchoring we snorkeled near the reef amongst the lovely coral and pretty coral fish. The fish here unlike everywhere else we have been are not used to snorkelers so were more skittish than we are used to. We had bought an underwater camera and later will see if we got pictures of the fish or just their back ends as they swam away. The white tip reef sharks although only 4 feet long are also more aware of us and it was disconcerting to have them circle us. The first time we saw 2 of them, the second time 3 and the third time 5 so we decided to go to a different place as the “shark telegraph” appeared to be active.
We had a pot luck with our mahi mahi and invited the other three boats, one young man came with his guitar which led to an impromptu jam session.
The last day we were there we crossed to the other side of the lagoon to find a shark free area but unfortunately by the time we got there the wind had come up so we settled for Mexican train and cake with Mr John.
We then left for the uneventful overnight passage to Nuie with good winds.
Nuie is one of the largest coral islands in the world and much flatter than the volcanic ones we have been experiencing and it was odd to see the pancake looking island appearing as we neared.
Getting ashore was a unique experience as the dock is exposed with no place for dinghies so you attach a hook to your dinghy and winch it up onto the dock. The system works well but the effort meant that once you were ashore for the day you stayed all day.
The check in was easy and the officials, as the locals proved to be, are the nicest friendliest people we have yet encountered.
We explored the town, visited the yacht club (they provide the mooring buoys) and had a great fish and chip meal. They had a “sausage sizzle on Thursday nights and it was fun to get together with the other cruisers again.
We rented a car for a few days as the island is large and the sights are spread along the coast.
A highlight was the one dive we did in Snake Gully; Nuie is renowned for its unique sea snakes. They are black and white striped and curl up on the bottom going up to the surface occasionally to breathe and then back down to curl up again. At any one time you are able to look around and see some floating up and some down—I felt we should have had some floaty music orchestrated for this surreal experience. The visibility is great as Nuie being coral has no rivers running into the sea from the land.
We toured the island and felt sad as it became obvious how many homes had been abandoned. The population has gone from 5000 to about 1200 with mass migration to NZ. It is a lush fertile island where a lot of produce is able to grow but with the small population much of the island is scrubby bush.
The coast has a lot of very unique caves and chasms and we used the car to explore these.
After four days here we decided to cross the 225 miles to Tonga, our last port before NZ.
We left and had a great sail for the first night but on the second night the wind changed and we hit a huge squall. It hit us so fast that we were unable to reduce sail in advance. The four of us were outside in the pouring rain and 42 knot winds trying to hold the steering and get the sails down. It was a crazy 3 hours with seas washing over the boat and howling winds and rain. The autohelm could not hold the course which meant we had to steer by hand as the rain and wind washed around us. We finally got it under control but not until two battens in the main sail had broken, the tab at the bottom of the front sail which holds it to our furler reefing system had ripped off. The UV strip on our front sail was shredded and the wind generator had caught a reef line and broken a couple of blades. This was happening in the pitch dark and although we were never in any danger—our boat is very solid—it was pretty intense. After the winds dropped totally and in the morning it was calm and sunny.
We felt a little shaken when we viewed our sad sails in the morning and hung out the piles of wet jackets and clothes. We look a little like a refuge boat. The damage will not require a lot to fix but along with the electrical problems we already had with our alternators and charging system we will spend some time in Tonga doing boat repairs.
We are entering Tonga as I write this and are very happy to be here. There are many of the other boats we have been traveling with from Panama as this is the waiting point for many who plan on continuing to NZ. This will be somewhere towards the end of October.
We feel that between hitting the reef in Aitutaki and weathering a huge squall we are finally “real cruisers”—our previous sailing had all seemed kind of tame. Hopefully more tame stuff is in our future!!!