Homeward Bound: Tonga to New Zealand

Just got off the phone from Russell and they are preparing to leave - filling up with water and fuel and getting ready for departure. Everyone is looking ward to heading back to sea and getting away from the town. They are a day behind schedule, no doubt due to the delay that was caused by the Royal Funeral. When we arrived on Thursday, everything was shut in preparation for the Friday funeral so there would have only been Monday to organise provisions and paperwork.

The new positioning crew arrived over the weekend. Bob Lourie and his daughter Kate, plus local Russellites Peter Stuart and Bruce Wilson. Sam has also returned from his 3 week break, complete with a new EPIRB. Our last one went off while in port in Rarotonga, the second time it had happened in 3 months. Having an EPIRB go off unintentionally has major ramifications (like search and rescue parties, Airforce Orions and Navy vessels heading in your direction) and so we decided to dismantle the unit to prevent further problems when we left Raro, while we got a replacement unit ordered. He had to pick it from a dark alley in Ponsonby hidden under a water tank in the middle of the night on his way to the airport. The taxi drivermust have thought it was really dodgy heading to the airport with a suspicious package!

Winds for the return leg unfortunately don't look that favourable (mostly South Easterlies) so it looks as if it may be several tacks across the Pacific in order to get home. But the voyage will be tracked on Pangolin as usual.