Long day, mostly motoring, but we covered a lot of ground. We managed to motorsail some of it, but mostly it was just to-weather motoring to cut down the distance to Fulaga.We were pretty lucky with the weather, 2 squalls (one of which barely got the boat damp, the other had more rain but finished in a minute), and the wind eased as we turned south east down the coast. We managed to fill the water tanks, do some laundry and prepare some food for the trip - so it was reasonably productive desp

Long day, mostly motoring, but we covered a lot of ground. We managed to motorsail some of it, but mostly it was just to-weather motoring to cut down the distance to Fulaga.We were pretty lucky with the weather, 2 squalls (one of which barely got the boat damp, the other had more rain but finished in a minute), and the wind eased as we turned south east down the coast. We managed to fill the water tanks, do some laundry and prepare some food for the trip - so it was reasonably productive despite

We headed over to Denarau and by a stroke of luck, the fuel bay was empty. Straight on, and some diesel and petrol later we were already to go! We anchored out in our usual spot, and a bit later, Fenice came and anchored near by. They were headed to the Lau, like us. When we’d seen them at Blue Lagoon, they thought they’d missed their chance to get out there as they have friends coming later in the season. However, they see the same weather window we do, and are also jumping on it…We had a

We had a few boat jobs to do this morning, re-commission the dive compressor, check the kit etc. The dive compressor put up a bit of a fight but all sorted, as is the dive kit (slight leak on the inflator of the newest BCD, sorted with a new o-ring).We filled the tanks, then headed for the Pinnacles dive site - one we know well. A good test dive. All worked fine.Tomorrow we’ll head to Denarau to refuel. Probably we’ll reprovision from Vuda for a change but that can wait until Tuesday morning

Yesterday we didn’t do much other than boat jobs. Cooking, cleaning etc. However, the weather is starting to look interesting. By that, I mean interesting enough that we should think about moving to the NE corner of Viti Levu (the main island) ready to jump to the Lau group. Thursday to Saturday are good days to sail SE, and its about 30hrs across to Fulaga (pronounced Fulanga).So this morning, we raised sail and headed south. We had a cracking sail in 15-20knots of E wind, giving us good boat

Forgot to mention that as we got close to the Blue Lagoon, we had dolphins under the bows. Been a while since we’ve seen them - they were small ones and stayed for a little while. We got some nice video, but again, can’t yet put that here. So here is a still…

We decided we’d move up to the Blue Lagoon as the anchorage there is very pleasant (if a bit windy) and we’d finally be able to catch up with Chris and Lynda on Fenice.It was a somewhat interesting sail, with the wind going from nothing to 30knots behind the island, and a solid 25-30 in the gap between the two. We caught a few fish - all small tunny so they went back.As we turned into the passage to the anchorage, we passed Geniet Lewe going the other way. This is a boat we know well, albeit

This morning, we got on with boat jobs until we saw the boats from the resorts heading around the corner. At which point, we hustled and jumped into the dinghy to go and see if we could find some manta rays (along with a hundred other people from the resorts, and some from The Beast too - such is life!).It wasn’t long before we were rewarded…Nina got some nice video of them doing their loop-the-loop thing, but alas I have not yet got video uploads working, so this is a still from the vide

We spent a night at a nice little bay I’ve stopped in before (this is going to be a theme along this part of the coast!). The Beast - a large aluminium catamaran built in NZ got there ahead of us as was another power cat. However, by the end of the day, we were back to sail outnumbering power - 3 sailing cats to two power cats (though if you go by volume, The Beast won it for the power mob).It was a very pleasant night, with just enough breeze to keep things cool. A gentle roll wicked around t

This morning (after baking bread), we moved further up from Musket Cove to Castaway Reef, a spot that I’ve anchored at before. In fact, I anchored here with Pirlouit in 2019 and got some good photos as we had total glass-out conditions then.Today has a little more breeze, but it eased off over lunch. Not quite glass-out, but very nice anyway.This reef is one of the inner ones, rather than the barrier reef which is much further out, so the depths off the shelf are not huge. We’re anchored in

Nina arrived back in Fiji, and once collected from the airport - we dealt with the obligatory arrival covid test and immigration (to add her to the crew list - a mandatory list of people signed onto the boat). Then recovering from jet lag took over which meant she had to put up with my catering (a quick egg fried rice)!The next day we shopped ts the supermarket and fresh fruit and veg market to top up supplies. We’re generally waiting for the trade winds to calm down so we can make our way eas

Clearing into Fiji was a somewhat slow affair, but I’m used to island time, so we relaxed, had breakfast, took the boat into the western (new) lagoon for COVID testing, then had lunch and awaited the rest of officialdom.Once cleared (and we had to wave goodbye to all our poultry products unfortunately), we took a berth in the new lagoon to recover, reprovision, get data sims, all the usual post-arrival stuff. We may even have had a couple of beers to celebrate the successful passage…So we’

We had quite a windy last afternoon, and yet another chinese boat that ignores collision regulations, forcing us to avoid them.However, we’re now safely inside the reef at the main island of Fiji and have a couple of hours of motoring to do to the quarantine anchorage for Vuda Marine. We’re tidying up a few things on the boat as we go and will get our head down as soon after the anchor hits the sand as possible!

The sailing has been great and we’ve been doing some great speeds. Wind picked up a bit this morning and we’ve been up in the 7 to 8 knots range for most of the day. Reefed a bit as the sea state picked up. The wind is staying determinedly more E than SE, so we’ve still got it ahead of the beam for now, and we’re picking up quite a bit of salty spray. Hey ho.The great news is that we’ll be in the pass through the reef around midnight, or even a bit before. Then its about 18nm to the an

Just after last nights blog, we hooked a nice yellowfin tuna. Alas, it got free from us as I was trying to bleed it - so some shark has been lucky! In fact one shark had already had a go - a cookie cutter shark had taken a disk from it whilst it was on the line. And yes, a cookie cutter shark is really a dog fish…So a bit sore from losing the tuna and a bit bored of motorsailing, we continued on into the night. A couple of times we tried sailing but the angle was too tight, or it shifted and w

Its been a continuation of the motoring in the light winds. What wind there has been, has been too tight to sail without missing Fiji. We’d rather keep our banked east in the pot so that when we turn for Fiji, if the wind isn’t as forecast, we’ll still make the pass through the reef.So today we did a number of little jobs that needed calmer seas. Though this morning it was a bit lively, the swell settled down and its been a very comfortable, if a little soporific afternoon. We made some al

Last night was pretty uneventful - starting with the screecher, then we swapped to the genoa as the wind increased. Made pretty good miles. Still haven’t seen another boat since the chinese fishing fleet and a container ship sometime back (Monday?).Today, the winds trended lighter and we ended up putting the genoa away and motoring on one engine. That gave me chance to make up our mezze feast I’d been thinking about. The sourdough pita breads worked well, with each one fully puffing so we’

2/3s done, 1/3rd to go. Not much out here today, and its pretty calm and flat

When we left the Gold Coast, with a 10-12 day trip ahead of us, its not possible to get an accurate forecast for the whole route. Beyond 5 days and things become harder to forecast - more of a lottery. You think your can see patterns, but often they surprise you.I don’t like surprises, particularly not weather ones. So I’ve been downloading a GRIB file of weather data for the whole area we’ll cover morning and night. We knew about the windy front when we left, but with that rough came the

Its been an eventful day. We had computer problems in the night with the navigation computer. This isn’t essential but its a nice to have, so I swapped the disk over to another computer that we have handy and got things going again. As well as sharing all the navigation and AIS information between all our devices, this computer also handles the satellite link and records our journey.After that disturbed night, and with such calm conditions, we decided it was time to sort out the bowsprit. I ha