03 August 2007
Tonga to Fiji
We are headed for Savu Savu on Vanua Levu in north western Fiji a distance of 450 nautical miles NNW of Tonga. This will be a tropical sail between 18 and 16 degrees south of the equator so should be a pleasant cruise. The first 300 miles is open water then we enter the Fiji Group and the final 150 miles is among the reefs and islands. Once we are officially cleared from Tonga we will sail to the most westerly anchorage in the Vavau group and have a good nights sleep. Barbara will take her seasick pills and then on waking we will be off. Weather permitting of course.....
07 August 2007
Theres always lots of Weather
We arrive Savu Savu, Fiji after a 4 day passage that delivered some unexpectedly rough weather - 38 knots and later a boisterous following sea - nothing dangerous just highly annoying and uncomfortable. Had some excitement - in middle of night (of course) the wire strop (head pendant) holding the top of the genoa sail to the furler connection at the top by the mast snapped and the genoa fell into the sea and in a flash trolling beside the boat in the swell, held on only by the tack fitting at the base. So we had to haul it back on deck (slowed the boat down first) and it wasn't that hard, surprising really as quite a big sail. To get it off the deck we simply opened the foredeck hatch and shoved the sail down into the bow - as it was wet with sea water that made a bit of a mess but thats sailing. Only problem was a couple of stanchions got bent so we have them off to get them straightened.
Air Sea Search
The feature of this leg was the ever changing weather with tropical squalls coming in from all directions at times. One night we had the airy experience of talking on VHF with an RNZAF Orion aircraft looking for a missing Tongan fishing boat and we had dialogue with them but as we were 80 miles away from the search area and it was upwind our asssitance was not required as they said other boats were closer.
