Bula from Fiji! We’ve been at the dock in Savusavu since Tuesday. All the post-passage jobs such as laundry and refuelling are done, so other than stocking up on fresh veggies, we are ready to set sail again this Tuesday. First stop Taveuni Island and then slowly east towards the Lau islands. Very excited as we have never visited the more remote eastern islands before.
After patiently waiting for a suitable weather window (time well spent completing a number of boat jobs!) We left the dock in Opua on 9th June in the company of five other boats. Winds were extremely light and we had a very smooth few days out on the ocean. It was nice to ease gently into life on passage again. The next part of the trip was a mixed bag, with lots of squalls, wind, no wind, wind from the long direction and then finally some constant 20-25 knots of breeze for the final few days into Savusavu.
On the evening of 12th June we were relayed a mayday call which had been made by our friends on SV ‘Squander’, who were 150 nm to our east and bound for Tonga.
We were on standby for several hours in case we were required to assist. Part of their rigging had failed, but they managed to assemble a jury rig, so downgraded their mayday call and made the decision to head back towards New Zealand. The upshot was that after valiant efforts, they had to abandon ship on 16th June just 60nm off Great Barrier Island. Very sad, but all onboard were brought back to land safe and well.
Our journey continued onwards and thankfully we had a very uneventful passage. We even had a sighting of mum and baby humpback whale.
On 18th June after 1212 NM and 9 days 4 hours later , we finally arrived into Savusavu.
We thought we would post a few photos taken from our crossing from NZ to Fiji.
Vinaka!