After a leisurely morning of coffee at the Aquarium Cafe, shopping in Neiafu, and a very thorough chart briefing by Martin at the Moorings base, Liz and I departed Neiafu at 3:00 pm for our first night out. It was cloudy, but not raining as we headed for Port Maurelle, Anchorage 7. The anchorages have names, but the names are so hard to pronounce all of them ae numbered. 90 minutes later we had picked up a mooring ball in the secluded bay and were enjoying a glass of wine. All night long the wind howled and it rained several time, so it was a relief to be on a mooring ball.
We awoke the next morning to sunshine, the first we'd really seen since arriving in Vava'u! But it soon clouded over... the cruiser's net that broadcasts every morning at 8:30 promised some sunshine, but also a lot of clouds and wind... they were right! At one point, we were sailing along in the lee of an island, living large on a comfortable point of sail, only to be almost knocked down by 25 to 30 knots of wind as we sailed into open water... (future accounts of this event will set the wind speed at 30 to35 knots).
We did get a chance to do a little beachcombing when we set a lunch hook at anchorage 8. The sun was actually out and the place was as you would expect the South Pacfic to look like. Note the picture.
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