Not much action on the blog for the past couple of weeks – I’ve not been in the mood for writing. It’s been a strange period; coming to the last part of the crossing. All the island groups are now behind us so in some ways the exploration seems over, yet there are still over two thousand sea miles to go before we get to Australia. Ahead of us is a lot of time at sea, heading south, out of the tropics, into windier and colder weather. Mid winter’s day today down here in the southern hemisphere! At 18 degrees south it’s still pretty nice though. For now…
Rose is settling back into our place in Bristol, and I’m out in the boonies on the other side of the world missing her like crazy. There are so many things at home that I want to get back to, yet I don’t relish the thought of returning to crazybusyfrantic Europe. Very mixed feelings. But, sitting on the beach yesterday in the sun, carving bowls from coconuts, soaking up our last day in Tonga, I felt my mood lift. We’d filled the boat with fuel, water and food, and completed customs and immigration paperwork. We’d left Neiafu harbour and anchored in a bay around the corner; taken the physical and mental first steps towards Australia. Rafiki was ready, I was ready. The high winds we’ve been having for the last week are due to ease off over the next few days. Time to go.
So this morning we had our last swim, pulled up the anchor, and set out to sea. Clouds whooshed overhead, washing the boats at anchor in Port Maurelle with a light cool drizzle. Bright sunshine came out between the clouds, throwing vivid rainbows over the bay and lighting up the green hills surrounding us. I’ll take it as a good omen for the passage ahead 🙂
If we get decent weather I’ll catch up with writing about Niue and Tonga over the next few days.
Road and Ocean 