November 23, 2012
We had been sure to leave the Ha’apai Group so we could have a secure anchorage for the westerly winds due to arrive on Thursday. Now it was Friday and they hadn’t arrived yet, but looked like they could come in today. The group were all planning to leave around Monday and opted to go to town to check out of the country and provision. We were thinking we’d leave Tuesday or Wednesday and so didn’t need to check out yet. We were concerned about the winds and opted to stay in the anchorage with Legacy and keep an eye on the other boats, too.
I felt pretty silly around lunchtime when it was still and beautiful and we could have been in town enjoying internet access, coffee drinks, and really nice lunches at Friends Cafe or Escape Cafe. We were below reading around 2pm when Rich said, “Did you hear that?” I had subconsciously noticed some noise and now paid attention. It was the wind, picking up very suddenly. It ended up getting quite blustery very quickly! It probably blew 20 knots or more. The people who had gone to town were pretty horrified to see the conditions when they got back (Jim even put out a second anchor), but this is a good anchorage and the boats all held fine.
The winds blew through the night and into the next day, but it had lessened to the point we were comfortable going to town. It was a rather wet ride in the dinghy to Big Mama’s, and then we had to make a beach landing because they had taken the docks up (a common practice anywhere when it gets very windy). But with the promise of cappuccino in Nuku’alofa, we would practically have been willing to swim ashore!
I don’t have photos of the anchorage in the windy weather, but I have some really nice photos of it when it was calm; so here they are. -Cyndi
