Well, we are looking at the last night at sea until Tonga. It's not been a long trip, around 1,400 nm, and we left on the 13th. We had a slow start with very little wind, a rainy middle and some mechanical adventures. And did I mention it's so cold?
It's 140 nm to Vava'u, so we will be there first thing in the morning, and I am looking forward to having a stable platform to work on things. It really adds a new dimension to the project when the screwdriver you put down has rolled into the bilge and the packet of cable ties has slipped out of arm's reach.
On a bit of a tangent, I heard a funny story yesterday, but I will have to give the background. Sometimes when we are about to leave on a huge passage, short-handed on a boat with a big freezer, I will go to McDonald's and buy 50 cheeseburgers and freeze them. Forty-five seconds in a microwave and they're perfect. A great snack if no one wants to make food because the weather is poor or they are tired.
Of course, this story has spread!
So yesterday, a friend of mine who is also a delivery skipper got in touch and explained that one of his crew, who is on holiday taking a boat trip up the Mekong Delta, was sitting at the bar and got chatting to someone next to him. They asked, "What do you do?" and he explained that he crews on yacht deliveries sometimes.
The guy at the bar said, "Oh wow, my brother does the same thing! A few months ago he crewed with a delivery skipper who went out and bought 50 cheeseburgers and put them in the freezer before they left!"
What a small world! What are the chances of that happening? It makes you think of all the times you didn't have a conversation with a stranger and there was some bizarre connection to discover. Or even that you have spoken to a stranger with a bizarre connection, but the leading question was never asked.
Spooky!
Back to sailing; it's completely overcast again and sprinkling at the moment. The breeze picked up to the mid to high 20s last night for a few hours, and we had a few big splashes on deck. But as the morning came, it eased off to 15 knots and came around to the east. We are making good time now with the headsail. Yesterdays 24hr run was slightly over 150nm.