Our stopover in the Vava'u Group of Tonga marks another milestone in the EYE trip across the Pacific. It marks the southernmost point of our Pacific crossing and the furthest south that we have sailed since leaving the east coast of the US! Our southernmost latitude was 18 degrees and 44 minutes below the equator which (as you may remember) we crossed on the way to the Galapagos after leaving Panama.
Here in the southern hemisphere it is already winter! We are still pretty close to the equator so we are not cold, but we did notice a temperature drop here in Tonga compared to Samoa. The shortest day of the year (winter solstice) in the southern hemisphere and the longest day of the year (summer solstice) occurred just a few days ago on June 21st. The sun reached its highest point above the equator on that day. From here on the days will be getting shorter in the northern hemisphere and longer in the southern.
Right now we're as far south from the sun as Rhode Island is north of it. We on the crew are used to getting snow in the winter, but instead we have a sweet Rhode Island summer.
TSS
