Another lovely night. This time though the wind deserted us in the early hours and has been missing since. For the last twelve hours we have rolled around the ocean and just managed to keep moving at between two and three knots. Such a contrast to the previous days when we have been striding along effortlessly at between six and seven knots.
The wind is expected to fill in again this evening and we will welcome some breeze through the boat – its very hot today. I poled out the jib this morning to reduce the sail flogging, we are moving slowly south east, downwind.
We keep scanning astern looking and hoping for signs of a breeze. Its been a slow day today, only one hundred and eighteen miles noon to noon.
Last night we downloaded another weather file and found the winds forecast for Suwarrow had not diminished – in fact they had become slightly stronger, thirty knots. There is no point in us arriving in such weather, the anchorage will be neither relaxing or conducive to exploring ashore or by Kayak. We will just be stuck onboard, much like during our call at Christmas Island.
We have reluctantly made the decision to skip Suwarrow and head direct for Tonga. If we had been on an easier schedule we could have easily held back arriving in Suwarrow for a couple of days and then enjoyed some calm condition inside the lagoon. We don’t have that luxury so will head direct to Neiafu in the Vava’u group to check in with customs and immigration. It will probably take us another ten days to get to Neiafu, arriving around Monday 21st August.
The time that we have missed at Penrhyn and Suwarrow we will spend sailing down the Tonga chain of islands. We have been reading some good stuff about Humpback whales breeding at this time of year – hopefully we will catch up with some. Total voyage distance 540 miles.
The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson 
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