May 11, 2010 - Final Approach and Arrival at SavuSavu, Fiji

May 9th, as we neared Koro Island, the wind dropped considerably and our boat slowed to between 1.5 - 3 knots. Our hopes of arriving before nightfall had been dashed, however we had received the good news that if we arrived after 6 PM on Sunday we would not be charged overtime fees. Rather than spend another night out we decided to carry on. It literally took hours for us to inch forward a mere 8 miles (if you don't sail this doesn't make much sense, but sailing for wind does not happen in a straight line. You may go 15 miles to move ahead 5). We saw another yacht several miles away and while we were wondering who that could be, Bill from Ivory Quays hailed us to say that he and Val were going to slow down so that they could guide us into SavuSavu Bay. Mystery solved. They were about 10 miles ahead, which in these conditions was a big time sacrifice for them although they did not see it this way. Good friends, those two! We still had at least 20 miles to go before reaching the lighthouse at Lesiaceva Point. This point guards the entrance to SavuSavu Bay and is encased by a large coral reef that extends 150 meters from shore.
So because the seas were flat clam and I do not idle well during times like these I baked a loaf of bread, solved several su doku puzzles and vacuumed the entire boat. Frank had to break away from the helm or lose his mind, so he tidied up with me. Progress was slow but steady until dark when we really did lose our wind and became a floating bob. By now it was black as pitch outside giving us a feeling we were in a dark tunnel with pinholes in the ceiling. It is an eerie feeling when you know there is land and coral out there but you can't see it. We finally began to make out a few distant lights dotting the shoreline. Frank had long since overlaid the chart with the radar and marked IQ on "Marpa" so that the instruments could guide us along. This is a good thing because some of those dots along the shore began moving. They were boats. A few of them were getting closer and were showing up as large "blobs" on the radar heading directly toward us. We turned on all of the foredeck lights so that incase their radar guy was snoozing at least someone would get a visual on us. One of these vessels looked like a moving city as it approached IQ just ahead of us. They were not monitoring VHF channel 16, so Bill began scanning and hailing them. He finally hit pay dirt when one of them responded that they were overnight vessel-carrying ferries and that yes, we were in their path. Bill put out a "securitie" to all stations alerting traffic in the area of our situation (that one of us has no power). Thankfully, they diverted and gave us the right-of-way. Eventually we were able to see the flashing light on the point so we gave it a very wide berth. By now it was getting quite late and we still had at least 5 miles to go in a very hazard-ridden area. Frank alerted Bill that we were going to try the engine and if it didn't give us the ungodly clang/knock, then we would carry on at just under 4.5 knots. We just couldn't risk drifting with no wind through this pass. If you feel worn out reading this and wish we would get on with it - imagine how we felt.
Every now and then the clanging and knocking would begin. Frank would ease off the throttle until it would taper off and then rev back up. By now it was 10:30 PM, over 10 hours since we had reached Koro island just 30 miles away. We were getting pretty tired - this straining to see and to be on guard and the adrenaline it pumps through a body takes its toll after a while. Our eyes were getting jumpy too. We finally negotiated our way into the bay when Bill called to tell us that we should be aware of two large unmarked and unlit shipping barrels that will be floating somewhere in our path as we enter the channel. Oh joy!
God Bless Ivory Quays! They slowed and began to align their boat so that they could give us a direct line to follow them into the channel. Thank goodness their mast light shone a line for us across the becalmed water of the bay. Although I was up on the bow by this time I couldn't see a blasted thing, I tried shining our 3-million candlepower torchlight into the water, scanning for obstacles but all I could only see about 5 feet out while it was deflecting too much light back into our eyes, nearly blinding us (the water was so calm it acted as a mirror). We passed one of the barrels just about 6 feet to starboard. The son of a gun was all but invisible until a small light from shore illuminated it for the few seconds during which I had happened to scan in that direction. Phew! We never saw the other barrel; therefore we surmised that we passed it unseen somewhere along the way. God was still large and in charge for sure.
We eventually navigated through the channel and into Nakama Creek in front of the commercial wharf at SavuSavu. After a few failed attempts at setting anchor because the depths here are erratic, dropping from 60 - several hundred feet in a heartbeat, we got well set. Bill and Val were so close we could hold a conversation. We thanked them profusely for a well done piloting effort and then settled in for a much needed rest.
May 10, 2010
The day began at around 8:30 a.m., when Dolly from The Copra Shed Marina hailed us on VHF 16. We laughed as we peeked out of the hatches to see that we had in fact anchored right on the fringes of the mooring field. Dolly informed us that Simon, the head of security, would be coming out to guide us to our mooring. She said once we got set, Simon would bring the Health and Customs officials out to clear us. We were cleared by 10:30. At around noon we dinghyed over to the Copra Shed to get acquainted with our new little home. We received our info packets and headed straight to the bar/café where we ordered some delicious curry lunches and settled in for the afternoon. We declared this a "do nothing day". After a short while, we disbanded to take naps and agreed to meet back at the Yacht Club for dinner.

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May 9, 2010 - Happy Mother's Day!

We are continuing to feel the blessings of fair winds as we slowly make our way through the small islands scattered along our path to Fiji's 2nd largest island of Vanua Levu. Last night we spotted the Tri-colors of two other yachts (possibly Ivory Quays and Lady Kay), flanking us as we moved slowly along. We have been in touch with yachts that had stopped at Minerva and are now kicking themselves for not having continued onward, in spite of the discomfort, as we had done. Some who were headed to Tonga decided to carry on after a day or two and are being met with winds right on the nose. Others coming toward Fiji are getting such light winds yet confused seas that they are forced to motor. Many of the group that ducked in there are still sitting and waiting for better sailing conditions. We made the right decision and have been rewarded greatly.
Last evening conditions had achieved a nice level of comfort aboard the good ship Destiny enabling me to prepare a delicious Pasta Carbonera with shrimp and fresh basil. We were so happy to be able to sit and eat without bracing both our food and ourselves. We enjoyed a truly comfortable night of both sailing and sleeping. Today we are amazingly still sailing along at very decent speeds ranging from 3 - 7 knots and the boat is actually level. The seas have calmed considerably. We received a call from Ivory Quays on the VHF thanking us for the passage prayers, saying that we must be living right because God was surely looking out for us. They have done this jaunt from NZ to Fiji countless times over the years and have never had such a good passage. Indeed we are tremendously grateful.
I enjoyed a nice chat with my parents about an hour ago, wishing my mom an early happy Mother's Day, since it is still Saturday in Texas. We'll try Frank's mom next.
One more night out and then we will be enjoying some shore time soon.

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May 8, 2010 - Day 8 Getting Closer, Fiji in sight

Bliss turned into angst as our fast moving progress was plagued with building seas. During the night of the 6th and throughout yesterday the ocean swells became monstrous. It seemed as though walls were forming around Destiny as she fearlessly surfed from one to the next, sometimes turning completely sideways as though skating on a sheet of ice. I informed Frank that the galley is closed for business - no coffee service, no tea service and no meals were being offered especially anything that required the use of knives. So we ate fruits and nuts, carrots, celery, granola bars, apples and yogurt and dreamed of munching down on a big juicy burger or a nice chicken breast.
All in all it has been and continues to be a thrilling ride. These are the kind of conditions one longs for whenever racing. It's just that racing for several days, although thrilling is not conducive to using the toilet, cooking, eating or even just sitting. Neither one of us, however, would trade calm seas and lighter winds for comfort right now. Our goal is to get as far along as possible before the winds abate and we are forced to struggle. So far, the universe is conspiring to get us to Savu Savu. Thank you, God!
Last night as we continued our northward trek, we began to shed the double layers of sweatshirts and pants, going instead for cropped pants and lighter weight clothing. Frank is already in shorts and t-shirts, running around barefooted. Days and nights are getting warmer. The moon has gone into hiding. Although we have encountered numerous squalls and rains, the boat can't seem to get a good fresh-water wash down. With these high seas and the salt spray coming into the cockpit everything is salt encrusted, including us and our clothing. Yesterday we both attempted to take showers. I went in first. It was such an effort, I felt like I was in the ring with a raging bull! When I got finished I was worn plum out, and Frank raised an eyebrow at me as he asked me what on Earth I was doing in there. Then it was his turn. I sat and laughed listening to Frank getting banged and slammed around, groaning and groping. When he got out, he said, "Wow! That was a workout!" I just smiled and nodded. 'Nuff said.
So, today at around 11:00 a.m., off in the distant haze we spotted the first land in over 7 days. It is one of Fiji's small & apparently uninhabited islands. We may not approach any anchorage or shore before 1st clearing into the country. We may have to cheat a little if we begin to get too close to Savu Savu before Monday morning. Fiji's rules are bizarre for arriving yachts. If we arrive outside of business hours then a huge fine (called overtime fees) is levied against us. So if we arrive on the weekend, we will be billed fees of $400 - $800 depending on the day and time of the "encroachment", and the mood of the Customs officials. We love how they call it overtime when they don't actually do anything until Monday morning. Today we can't sweat that stuff. We still have 150 miles to go…it is now 1:20 on Saturday afternoon. If the forecasts are spot on, we won't have to worry about slowing down because nature will take care of that when the expected low comes through some time today or tomorrow. In the meantime, we sail on!

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May 6th, 2010, Passage from NZ

A common phrase line in the book, "The Alchemist" indicates that the entire universe conspires to help us fulfill our destiny. Frank and I have decided it is not our destiny to sail to Minerva Reef. We tried to go there unsuccessfully in 2008 and were prevented from doing so and now it appears as though this will again be the case for us.
After an erratic day of sailing, the winds came hard and firm, pushing us much too fast, therefore, last night in order to maintain our heading we fought to reduce our speed so that we would not arrive at Minerva in the dark. We could have averaged 9 knots during the night but reefed in both sails so that we could maintain a max speed of 4- 5. We had a very rough night. Today the discomfort continued to the point that I am absolutely sore all over from having been tossed all around. We are both very tired today.
So around 9:30 this morning Frank and I had a pow-wow. He gave me all of the information at he could gather so that we could make a sane decision for ourselves and for Destiny. If we continue on the present course we would be forced to "hove to" for several hours outside Minerva until a daylight approach could me made. Then we would need to motor into 30-knot winds and 3 meter seas to the entrance of the reef. This we are told would greatly stress our engine. Our engine is fine, but we cannot afford to run it that hard with the malfunctioning CV joint on the drive shaft. At least that is my understanding. Long story short - we can turn toward SavuSavu, Fiji and literally fly with these winds right now and forget trying to force ourselves into Minerva. This is a no-brainer.
As soon as we turned the boat we began surfing with the huge waves and Destiny settled into a comfortable rhythm at a speed of between 8-10 knots. Now this is more like it!

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May 5th, 2010 - NZ to Fiji, Day 5

Today, Wednesday, marks day 5 of our passage to Fiji. Yesterday began with very erratic wind conditions that continued through much of the early part of the day. Our goal is to stop at Minerva Reef for a couple of days on the way up if we can get into position to enter the narrow pass at the entrance. It is like threading a needle, and if we do not get a good angle for approach early on, then it will be a "beat" to get there. We can't afford that right now with limited use of the engine, therefore, paying attention to wind and wave forecasts and proper planning is paramount for this undertaking. That is not my department, but Frank is very adept at this. Our present goal is to "east" as far as possible from the rhumb line so that when the predicted winds do shift we will be able to ride them to the entrance.
Right. So the better part of our morning was spent easting with little or no wind. Occasionally we would enjoy microbursts that would give us a little push. Dead calm would generally follow such a burst, which is hell on a boat that has no use of the engine with a sea state that is quite choppy, lending to whipping of the sails and slamming as the boom tries to fight its preventer. It certainly jars the soul and leaves one feeling entirely helpless. We steadily persisted pursuing what bits of wind we could capture.
Finally, the winds freshened and we were able to get going by mid afternoon. We sang praises and prayed that this would keep up right on through. Frank took the early watch, waking me at 10:00. He said to awaken him at 01:00. I knew he was running on sleep deprivation, and was getting dangerously close to exhaustion. He said it was a good night for sailing, although he had encountered a couple of squalls. It seems the minute he fell into the bed I began to encounter the march of the squalls. They would appear on the radar looking ominous, and thankfully, they consistently marched toward us from the east, giving us a much needed lift. Throughout the next 5 hours, like clockwork they came, blasting Destiny with 20-30 knots of sustained winds for approximately 15 - 30 minutes, followed by depleted winds of 4-5 knots and flat calm. On and off, up and down almost like clockwork I'd reef the sails and release the sails. I was into a good rhythm and too energized to sleep so I stayed on until 03:00, when finally I was tired of fighting the calms which much harder to deal with than the high winds, and turned the helm over to Frank.
Today has been pretty much of the same as last night, although on a smaller scale and with less frequency. We are enjoying it tremendously appreciating the winds and feeling thankful that we have not had to fret over our inability to use the engine. The Good Lord has heard all the prayers coming our way! 199 miles to go to the entrance of North Minerva, as of 2:30 PM (14:30 hours).

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May 4th Update - 4th day at sea

Our second night, during the middle of Franks's midnight to 3 a.m. watch - and the middle of my sleep, I began dreaming that someone was banging loudly on the door of my house with a pipe then I realized that it was really a loud clanking noise coming from within the bedroom. I startled awake, of course thinking "what the heck???", and began checking the lockers and engine room for the nature of this horrific sound. When I opened the floor hatch to the drive shaft it became deafeningly loud. I called up to Frank to shut down the engine. He came down, listened and began trying to troubleshoot the situation. He narrowed it down to a few potential problems which I won't go into because he has journaled this in more detail on his blog. We did, however shut down the engine and began the bob. It was a beautiful night and the moon and stars lit up the sky, giving us something to enjoy in spite of our little bit of trouble. As a safety measure we alerted the fleet and sent an email to family and cruising friends.

The winds finally picked up with daybreak and we enjoyed a fantastic sail for most of the day, making up for lost time but falling a bit behind the fleet. We crossed our fingers and prayed for this to keep up, realizing that we should not attempt to use the engine. Frank intended to phone Island Packet as soon as they opened on Monday morning hoping for some enlightenment. In the meantime we kept a positive attitude and attended to the business of sailing.

Our third night, I suppose due to the warmer waters we noticed the boat's wake alight with the sparkling of phosphorescence. That coupled with the brilliantly starlit skies made the lack of wind a nice distraction from the fact that we were losing precious ground. We watched as mast lights passed us in the night leaving us a little lonely. In fact when Frank relieved me close to midnight, the winds had all but died, we were only making around 2 knots. It was apparently so bad that he stayed up all night, not waking me until 5 a.m. when he was making his call to Island Packet Yachts. Gosh they are great! They maintain such an amazing hands-on and personal relationship with their owners. Warren of IPY talked Frank through a trouble-shooting process until they determined the nature of our mechanical failure, which Frank has detailed on his blog (I think). It is another part that we have just worn out, as they do on a cruising yacht, but for we would not normally carry a spare. He is making arrangements to get a replacement shipped to us in Fiji. Meanwhile we are advised that we should minimize use of the engine unless it is absolutely imperative to do so. We feel this is sound advice and are happy to know that we can at least turn it on when critical moments arise. So, here we are, happily tacking along chasing wind like the sailors of old. Many boats in the fleet are staying in touch with us, offering to assist any way that they can and are looking out for us. A friend of ours, Bill on Ivory Quays, was telling us (on the VHF) how much they feel for us and Frank replied, "Well Captain Cook did it this way and if he can, we can". Bill responded, "That's right-o, Frank, Cook didn't have a propeller to worry about".

It is now 10:30 a.m., Day 4. We have easted and although the winds continue their gust and relax routine we are getting a nice average speed of 6 kts out of our girl.

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May 1, 2010 - Blast off! Leaving New Zealand

When departure time arrives for an open ocean passage, the air is static with energy and emotions, ranging from excitement to anxiety. Everyone in the community of Opua in addition to the cruisers speak of nothing but weather, boat repairs, boat parts and where best to procure them, provisions from food to toilet paper and booze and where to procure these, boats looking for crew and crew looking for a boat to take them to exotic island destinations. Everyone wants to be heard and few want to listen. High-octane stuff! Although we will dearly miss some very special friends we have made here, Frank and I were ready to go.
Earlier on we had signed on to join the ICA Rally to Tonga, with plans to make haste from there to Western Samoa then on to Wallis, Futuna, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and ending up in Australia by the end of October. As is usually the case with us we changed our minds and have decided to go to directly to Fiji, then spend a month in Vanuatu and a month in New Cal before sailing to Australia. Of course, that is always subject to change. Although not going to Tonga, we arranged to sail with the ICA fleet as far as Minerva before turning northwest to Fiji. Hence, when the whistle blew on Saturday morning we waited a few beats to let the Tonga fleet depart and then off we went.
We left knowing that we would have a fairly rough sea-state and winds from behind, aka "downwind", which is not comfortable for some boats such as ours. I have been known to break away from Southern Lady tradition to curse (a lot) and to sometimes use foul language; however, I am often surprised and disgusted at the way some cruisers casually say things such as, "We're gonna take it up the butt today, Mates!" Some of the more refined sailors use "bum" instead. Anyway, that is how we took it for the first several hours. We all tacked and jibed trying to fill our sails without having to raise the whisker poles. These were not spinnaker/gennaker conditions. Eventually, Destiny found her sweet spot and sped away. We had a fabulous first 24 hours, making incredible time and distance. Our first sunset was just as lovely as could be, then before the near-full moonrise the stars shone brilliantly! The Southern Cross was just overhead amidst the glow of the Milky Way. It was a nice ending to a good first day out of the shoot. All we needed to do now was get in the groove for our night watches which seems so easy for others but we are just too excited to make ourselves go to sleep on demand.

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