Calm Seas

0730 we pulled the anchor and headed out to sail south to our next stop Vava'u. On our way out of the lagoon it was a perfect morning, light winds calm seas, temp about 80 degrees. We were just outside the inlet to the lagoon when we spotted some humpback whales .They were out about a mile in front of us so we went towards them. When we got close we counted about 5 adults and one baby. Chad shot some video of the whales and we headed south. The wind was perfect from the east 15 kts. We were averaging about 6.5 kts and figured we would be in Vavu'a about 1pm the next day. The weather started to change a little. Some clouds were moving in. Our barometer was reading 29.90 and was not moving lower. We were 20 miles south of Niuatoputapu. The wind started to change and was coming from the south. We tacked to the south west and then we would tack back to the southeast and the further we got the south the winds would change back to the east. This time of year the winds are from the east. This was strange to have wind out of the south. Tacking to the southeast was going to put us into Vava'u the next evening. Slowly the clouds started to increase and the waves were getting bigger. The wind was averaging 22kts. We had seen this all the way down from Hawaii several different days so no big deal. Time passed and we were slowly heading southwest. Just before dark we were 20 mile west of our rumb line and we chose to tack southeast. We were established on our southeast heading and the wind was increasing 30kts and the waves were 15 ft, Again we have seen this and not a big deal,we put on our foulys and hunkered on down for the night. We continued for five hours on our southeast heading, in that five hours we only traveled 4 miles. We were fighting the current, big waves, and winds gusting to 35kts. We checked the weather and a low was moving from the south in our direction. We needed to make a decision, to continue on for a very rough ride or turn around and head back to Niuatoputapo. In the 13 hours of sailing we were only 40 miles from our starting point. It was a no brainier if we turned around we would be in a nice sheltered lagoon in 6 hours.We motored sailed down wind and headed back to Niuatoputapo. We entered the Lagoon at day break and set the hook by 0630. We were all exhausted. After much needed sleep we relaxed on the boat made dinner and watched a movie. Tomorrow we are invited to a barbecue on the island. We plan to leave on Tuesday, the forecast is clear skies with winds out of the east.