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Niue
Island
August 19th
2006
Palmerston
to Niue: 19°02.58’S Lat. and 169°56.13’W
Lon.
Saying
goodbye to our fellow boaters over the VHF Kelly and I felt bad for leaving,
we just didn’t feel good about staying with the conditions as they were in
Palmerston. So we headed Moorea away
from the hard stuff  and into a W.S.W. wind that was on the
nose. Poor Moorea was getting slammed
by the oncoming waves; it was almost like getting dropped as we passed over
the larger swells. To ease the motion
and pounding on the hull, Kelly G and I lessened sail, this slowed us but
made the ride more comfortable for boat and crew. By the following 24 hours
we had put 111 nautical miles under our fin keel. The next 24 hours the wind had eased from
25-30 knots down to a more comfortable 10-15 knots, and on top of that
putting up more sail enabled us to increase our boat speed and the following
days run increased to 121 nautical miles.
Making a landfall is always fun, you are close enough to your
destination to see it and you look forward to exploring and meeting new and
different people. The following
morning we sighted land with yet another 111 nautical mile run, it would take
us another number of hours to reach the anchorage. Sailing in the lee of the island was
superb, we still had a nice breeze but the water was smooth, it was nice to
be out of the rock and roll from the 10-12 foot swell and wind waves. All of the moorings were taken with other
yachts, so the only other option was to drop our anchor on the coral and
listen to the chain grind away. Two
nights later a buoy was free so we moved quickly to the mooring. We loved the people and the island of Niue.
What is interesting to me is the fact that only a few weeks prior to
arriving in Niue, I didn’t know it even
existed! For me it is like watching a
movie that I haven’t heard or seen anything about and having no expectations
was thoroughly pleased with it. The island of Niue was so different than all of the
other islands being raised coral the landscape is very scabrous and dark with
green vegetation growing out of every nook and cranny. I highly recommend it. After many hikes and cave exploring it was
time to head for Tonga.
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