Those still asleep arose to the smell of pancakes cooking on the stove. You know it’s calm when ship’s cook Donald is making pancakes. All square sails remained set throughout the night. Easy, steady winds and seas helped push us towards our goal of reaching the Kingdom of Tonga by this weekend. Tonga is held dear to our hearts as one of Picton Castle‘s long-time crew members, Vaiufia, hails from the island of Vava’u. This afternoon post power shower, the Captain will host a discussion on the island and all that it has to offer. We are all very excited to get to know and explore Vai’s homeland.
Ship’s work: Lots of painting and sanding on the agenda for today. The starboard breezeway watertight door is being overhauled, scraping and sanding off the old paint. The aloha deck rudder post received a fresh top coat of bright red paint, sprucing up our outdoor dining area. Today’s lunch was chicken sandwiches on freshly made bread, yum! Sunny morning, yet overcast skies and light rain after lunch has caused our sailmaker to pack up and relocate to the salon. Progress on our dory’s new, big and bright jib has been made, all of the strips of double-sided cloth have been cut, the next step is sewing them together. Productive Friday morning. If only the wind would hold, otherwise we’ll motor on to get our girl home.
From: Palmerston Atoll, Cook Islands
Towards: Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga
Date: September 7th, 2018
Noon Position: 18°22.1′ S x 171°35.5’ W
Course + Speed: W + 4.3 knots
Wind direction + Force: NNW + 3
Swell Height + Direction: 1 1/2m + ENE/ESE
Weather: Overcast, drizzle
Day’s Run: 100nm
Passage Log: 105nm
Distance to Port: 137nm
Voyage: 9003.8nm
Sails Set: All square sails except royals, outer jib, inner jib, fore topmast stays’l, main topmast stays’l, mizzen topmast stays’l, spanker