After many hours on a close course that felt like being on a rocking horse the winds slowly faded. Guppy made good progress and from going too far South she is gradually heading back to West. We sailed all night before the wind started teasing us again .. Guppy was smoothly moving so I had a good sleep and I cooked something tasty for dinner. I now feel reborn .. From my daily SSB radio chats, I learned that Guppy and I were getting very close to another yacht we had already made contact with a few days ago. We kept in touch via VHF radio and in the afternoon it appeared on the horizon. It is Dutch! A solo sailor on a small Midget 26 sailboat. We got closer and the middle aged man played some songs on his accordion as we quietly bobbed alongside for a while. I tried to throw a chocolate bar over to him but after landing on his yacht it bounced into Neptune’s kingdom .. He too is on his way to Tonga so we will see each other there again .. Still 140 nautical miles to go [259 kilometres or 161 land miles], and I think I will arrive within two days.

Laura