[p]beale12.4
[s]
pos: 17 13.247s 178 58.052w
Date: 23/06/2017 12:00 gmt+12:00
Woohoo! Yesterday We made it from Tonga to Fiji two-up. Just Joanne and me onboard.
We had a champagne graduation ceremony last night to celebrate our major milestone into cruising.
The crossing from Tonga to Fiji was roly-poly as we sailed straight downwind in 2 to 3 meter swells, so Joannes intestinal fortitude was properly tested and she passed with flying colours.Jo is now a seasoned offshore night sailor, capable of driving a yacht straight downwind in 3m seas. Just one very brief fish-feeding incident in the dark, early morning of day two, otherwise a smooth ride on our floating home.
It wa not entirely without incident, however. The fleet of 20 or so boats started close together, then separated through the next 40 hours, then all ended up coming through a moderately narrow gap between an island and a reef as we approached Vanua Balavu. Joanne's 9 to midnight watch got fairly exciting as we suddenly had 5 boats within a mile or so, in the dark, some making interesting course changes in the middle of the channel. Jo nearly ran Wind of Change up the bum before we executed abrupt evasion tactics - Hard'a'port - and put a wiggle and a bit of sea room on the track.
Then John took over to pilot us through the first scary gap. Whereupon Murphy intruded on the watch and the electronics locked up. No chart, no autopilot and no compass. Hmmmmmmm. Pitch black, yacht lights in all directions, all within a mile. Hmmmm. Another, rather different test of intestinal fortitude.
Backup plan 1 into action. Grab the trusty iPad with a different charting program, and steer using that while jo tries to reset the electronics. I.e. Turn them off and then back on.
That worked and the trousers were preserved for the rest of the sail.
Made it clear how reliant we are on our bloody electronics however.
Anyway, near-catastrophes aside, we had a very smooth ride once we turned the corner and reached up in the lee of Vanua Balavu towards the gap in the outer reef.
Then a narrow and winding path through the reef and bommies from there to the village of Dalaconi. We adopted the now-standard navigation technique of following close behind larger boats with deeper keels than us. Not always possible because there are so many cats in the fleet, but in this case we were lucky and safe.
And we are in Fiji! Yay!
Life is good and the champagne tasted sweet that afternoon.
Now to explore...

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