Good evening from night watch on the Pacific!  After two full weeks, we finally got a weather window to be able to leave Maupiha’a! While it was a beautiful place to be “stuck”, we were ready to move west. We had a final beach gathering with some other cruisers on Wednesday night and then a final walk along the shore with Meela before departing on Thursday late morning. We were very glad to have our entrance track to follow back out through the VERY narrow pass.  We had about 2.5 knots of outgoing current and Bob did a great job at the helm getting us safely out of the pass. 

As of Saturday, we are on Day 3 of our 7 day passage to Niue.  The first 24 hours were a bit challenging as it was a bit rainy and VERY rolly with inconsistent winds.  Neither Bob or I got much sleep on our first night of the passage. Plus I did not learn my lesson during our Pacific crossing and spilled the rice cooker all over the counter again. There was quinoa everywhere!  Eventually I will learn how to better secure it when we are under sail!  Day 2 had less rain and roll but still no wind. We did however get much better sleep when we were off watch which makes all the difference.  Currently, it is 8:50pm on Meraviglia (2:50am EST and 1:50am CST). Bob just went down to sleep and I am on watch until 2am.  The wind picked up significantly over the last few hours, so we are moving along nicely between 8 -9 knots of speed with winds around 20 knots sustained.  Because of the wind and the sea state, it is a bit rolly so I am tucked into the cockpit with my foul weather gear on to write this during my watch. We have numerous other boats in the 100 mile radius around us who are all, like us,  trying to move west during this weather window.  I suspect Niue will be busy upon our arrival!  They only have 15 mooring total available so hopefully everyone who wants to stop can get a spot, otherwise it means continuing on another 3 days to Tonga.

This week prior to our departure was a bit frustrating.  Sometimes having the weather dictate everything you do gets a bit annoying.  Especially when the weather forecasts often change, sometimes drastically, within a 24 hour period. But as I sit here tonight under a full moon, under sail with no engines on and just looking at all the stars, I am reminded again how fortunate we are to have this opportunity. We have our entire house with us and can take it anywhere that we can sail to.  Pretty incredible actually. For those who knew us in land life, you know I loved our house, especially our porch and outdoor spaces.  I loved all of our trees and our backyard.  I loved our kitchen renovations and all the work we did on our house.  To then move to a 47 foot, cosmetically challenged sailboat with a tiny galley might be considered a bit of a downgrade.  But Meraviglia has truly taken us halfway around the world and I honestly have been surprised that I haven’t really missed having more space or “nicer” things.  I actually love our little home onboard Meraviglia. We actually don’t even use all the spaces on a daily basis, honestly we spend most of our time outside in the cockpit or in the saloon. So when I get frustrated again about the weather or being “stuck” somewhere, I will try to instead focus on the amazing opportunity it is to see new places.  

We are planning to stay in Niue for up to a week.  We will then sail to Tonga and hope to be in Fiji by the end of August.  Our awesome boat buddies on Fortuna are still in Fiji so we hope to catch up to them for a bit before they head off to Micronesia. We will be in Fiji through September until we begin looking for a weather window to New Zealand beginning in October.  We are excited to be hosting my sister, Michelle for a week in Fiji in September.  Who knew that Fiji Air would have a direct flight from Texas to Fiji??? Anyway, we are super excited to have her visit in mid September for a week. We are happy to host any of our friends and family aboard Meraviglia, so if you would like to visit us in Fiji in September, let us know! The flights on Fiji Air are surprisingly affordable and you would have free accommodations onboard Meraviglia!

Hope all are enjoying your summer and more soon from Niue!