Opua day 11

The waiting is finally over because tomorrow we are leaving for Tonga. Wahoo! Not a great forecast by any means but at this time of year you have to take the best that you can get. Already there are strong northerlies here stirring up the sea so we will be leaving on the back side of a front passing through quite quickly going from west to east. Then we will be motoring in light head winds on our way NE for a couple of days,which we must do at full speed because of the next cold front hopefully passing below us as we get close to the Kermadec islands on the weekend. Friday will give us the most boisterous conditions of the voyage from the NW so we may have to run more easterly to get comfortable. Then it will be full steam ahead for our run up to Tongatapu or Paingi in the Hai'pai group. Hopefully we will take no more than 7 days arriving there Wednesday of next week. Check out our trip at my.yb.tl/Alora on the web.