Parko, my good sailing buddy from Whanga, always refers to Rayfiki as that Kick Arse Yacht. Well today it lived up to its name. Sitting up on the tramp in the sun as we clipped along at 10 k with a true wind speed averaging 15k was fantastic. I even got a screenshot of us doing 10k in a TWS of 10.3k a peak of 18 was great. The seas were calm with about a 2 to 3 m swell with a long period so that was pleasant and helpful. All crew just enjoyed the shear excitement of the speed and like an albatross we seemed to skim over the top of the sea. By 4.30 the wind kept coming up, so first went the screecher, and so ended a most pleasant day in the sun. We just kept reefing down: next came the main and then the headsail. Unfortunately with the wind has come a lumpy sea so we just tootled along at a more sedate rate.

We have thrown the mooring lines in Denerau and came out to Musket Cove today. It is too easy to spend money in Denerau with the good food and bars at our doorstep. We had a good sail over and dropped anchor just outside the mooring area. Tomorrow we will go explore all the new alterations to the Island Bar and surrounds. Our plans are to chill here for a few days and then may start moving slowly north to Savu Savu. We have no plans in concrete so it is just “let’s see how we feel in the morning” scenario.
Monday afternoon saw us catch the bus up to Lautoka and visit our friendly dentist. I had chipped a tooth at Christmas time and he has now done the preparation work for the crown, which will be here in about 10 days. Good to get that visit over at the beginning of the season.
The water temperature at the moment is still 29 degrees but the wind brings down the air temperature, so it is a bit cool after having a swim.