7TH TONGA CIRCUMNAVIGATION WATER SPEED RECORDS FASTEST HYDROGEN SOLAR ZEWT BOATS AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS JULES VERNE

The Kingdom of Tonga is a Polynesian country and archipelago comprising 169 islands, of which 36 are inhabited. The total surface area is about 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) scattered over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of the southern Pacific Ocean. The sovereign state has a population of 100,651 people, of whom 70% reside on the main island of Tongatapu.

Tonga stretches across approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi) in a north-south line. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, Niue to the east, Kermadec (part of New Zealand) to the southwest, and New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the farther west.

Tonga became known in the West as the "Friendly Islands" because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773.

Tonga began implementing policies to power its remote islands in a sustainable way without turning to expensive grid-extensions. A number of islands lack a basic electricity supply, a supply coming from imported diesel: in 2009, 19% of GDP and 25% of imports consisted of diesel.

In view of the decreasing reliability of fossil-fuel electricity generation, its increasing costs and negative environmental side-effects, renewable energy solutions have attracted the government's attention. Together with IRENA, Tonga has charted out a renewable energy based strategy to power the main and outer islands alike. The strategy focuses on Solar Home Systems that turn individual households into small power plants. In addition, it calls for the involvement of local operators, finance institutions and technicians to provide sustainable business models as well as strategies to ensure the effective operation, management and maintenance once the systems are installed.

With the assistance of IRENA, Tonga has developed the 2010–2020 Tonga Energy Road Map (TERM), which aims for a 50% reduction of diesel importation. This will be accomplished through a range of appropriate renewable technologies, including wind and solar, as well as innovative efficiencies.

Tonga is not hydrogen ready as we write, hence clean fleet operators will have to seek alternative handling facilities to comply with the IMO's 2040 target.

LEG	NAUTICAL MILES	BUNKERING	WAYPOINT	SUNSHINE DAYS
-	-	-	-	-
START	-	-	-	-
-	-	FILL UP	Gibraltar	00.00
1	729	-	Tenerife, Canary Islands	1.90
2	3,154	-	Trinidad, Port of Spain	8.21
3	1,182	1	Panama City	3.00
4	970	-	Galapagos	2.45
5	3,640	-	Tahiti	9.48
6	1,423	-	Tonga, Nukualofa	3.71
7	410	-	Fiji, Suva	1.07
8	1,886	1	Port Moresby PNG	4.91
9	340	-	Thursday Island, Cape York	0.88
10	724	-	Darwin	1.89
11	1,572	-	Jakarta, Indonesia	4.09
12	1,881	-	Colombo, Sri Lanka	4.90
13	2,109	1	Aden, Yemen	5.49
14	698	-	Jeddah, Saudi Arabia	1.82
15	670	-	Port Said, Egypt	1.75
16	1,111	-	Palermo, Sicily	2.89
17	170	-	Naples, Italy	0.44
18	940	FINISH	Gibraltar	2.45
-	-	-	-	-
-	23,609	-	RUNTIME DAYS @ 12.5kts	78.70
-	-	(ADD 3 DAYS)	RUNTIME DAYS @ 13kts	75.67
-	-	-	-	-
-	-	(ADD 4 DAYS)	14 KNOTS AVE INC	70.26
-	-	-	AT 15 KNOTS AVE	65.58
-	-	-	AT 16 KNOTS AVE	61.48

7TH LEG - At a speed of 13 knots the seventh leg of the hydrogen powered zero carbon voyage would take just over a day to complete, free of emissions. The demonstration of ZEWT technology in action, could help speed up the transition to non polluting waterborne transport. These projections are only a guide. Many of the ports of call could be bypassed completely to give us a shorter passage.

LEG	NAUTICAL MILES	TIME IN PORT	WAYPOINT	SUNSHINE DAYS
-	-	-	-	-
START	-	-	Monaco	0.00
1	784	2	Gibraltar	4.67
2	729	2	Tenerife, Canary Islands	4.34
3	3,154	2	Trinidad, Port of Spain	18.77
4	1,182	2	Panama City	7.04
5	970	2	Galapagos	5.77
6	3,640	2	Tahiti	21.67
7	1,423	2	Tonga, Nukualofa	8.47
8	410	2	Fiji, Suva	2.44
9	1,886	2	Port Moresby PNG	11.23
10	340	2	Thursday Island, Cape York	2.02
11	724	2	Darwin	4.31
12	1,572	2	Jakarta, Indonesia	9.36
13	1,881	2	Colombo, Sri Lanka	11.20
14	2,109	2	Aden, Yemen	12.55
15	698	2	Jeddah, Saudi Arabia	4.15
16	670	2	Port Said, Egypt	3.99
17	1,111	2	Palermo, Sicily	6.61
18	170	2	Naples, Italy	1.01
19	393	FINISH	Monaco	2.34
-	-	-	-	-
-	23,846	36	RUNTIME DAYS @ 7kts	141.94
-	-	-	-	-
+ 10% service	= 156.13 Days	-	7 KNOTS AVE INC PORT & %	192.13
-& maintenance	-	-	AT 6 KNOTS AVE	224.16
-	-	-	AT 5 KNOTS AVE	268.99

SOLAR POWERED TRANSIT EXAMPLES - The above table illustrates one of the most likely climate/ocean awareness expedition routes that could be undertaken by the Elizabeth Swan, showing the time elapsed in days for 7 knots average cruising speed, including times for 5 and 6 knot averages - allowing for 10% downtime and 36 days in ports. Hence, although the objective is to reduce the current solar circumnavigation record from 584 days, the event in not an outright non-stop yacht competition in the offshore racing sense. The solar powered Elizabeth Swann is capable of speeds above 15 knots in the right conditions.