FIJI!!

The very first survival report: Suva, Fiji

All those of you who had placed your bets on our shipwrecking or giving up already on the first leg: You've lost your money! All those of you who's placed money on us failing miserably at a later stage: you're still in the game!

So we've landed on Fiji. Egil for the second time after getting stuck here on his way from LA, me for the first time. We anchored in Suva harbour in the morning the 13th feeling pretty knackered after 16 days at sea and spending the entire last night tacking back and forth in between some islands. We were trying to get to Suva against a current and wind who had joined forces in trying to convince us of the futility of such an undertaking.
We had a pretty interesting start of the journey. For the first three or four days the wind was blowing good. Excellent sailing wind. If you were going anywhere but from south to north, for instance if you have decided to take your boat from New Zealand to The South Pole. We were not. The whole thing was topped off with a gale the forth night blowing up to 35 knots.

We got out of it allright though, even though that was the worst weather we've sailed in. We were down to our smallest sails in the end. We were so happy when the morning came we celebrated by cutting my hair on the foredeck. Should anyone feel the need for a haircut done in a 30 knot blow, Egil is your guy!

The gale incidentally coincided with the retrieval of our sealegs that up until the third or fourth day had been stowed somewhere were we were unable to locate them. The only time spent below deck those days were pretty much time spent asleep. Food was mostly meals that we had cooked before leaving, anticipating the upcoming misplacement of sealegs. However by the third day the remaining pre-cooked meals were turning greener than our faces, and it was about time to toughen up and deal with life awake below deck and in front of the stove. No more problems from that point on.


After our little gale-experience the winds turned the other way: our way. Too bad they at the same time decided to take some time off. We spent a lot of time in fickle winds, keeping us busy changing sails to try and keep moving in 4-8 knots of wind. We had 5-6 days of several hours spent rolling around in the swell without being able to move. Also towards the end we had a full day, 24 hours straight, without going anywhere (diesel cost $$, wind is free you know). We were therefore pretty amazed when we at day ten out from NZ saw sails in the horizon and raised a dutch yacht (incidentally called «Libertijn») on the VHF. It turned out they had started out from the same place as us, only one and a half day before us, and we were even north of them! They complimented us on making «good speed». Big smiles!



Other than that, nothing much. We've got to use ALL our sails, from storm jib to gennaker. We've spent some time repairing our 50 year old lightwind genoa and other bits and pieces.



Egil had a pod of dolphins keeping him company for hours on one of his nightshifts. Some days out from New Zealand a small bird came out to us. Not a sea-bird, just a little fellow that had probably been blown off shore by the winds. He came to us and rested for some time under our sprayhood, but he was too scared to eat the bread we tried giving him or to stay along for the rest of the trip to Fiji.

The days have gone by leisurely. We have kept the boat moving, eaten, slept, read, enjoyed the scenery (yes, the ocean do have «scenery»!), and let the windwane do the steering for us. Other than steering in and out of Whangarei and Suva respectively, we have helmed for one hour altogether for 16 days... And then, finally; FIJI!!!

..and now we're in Suva. Not the nicest of places, but good enough after two weeks at sea. It's pretty dirty, smelly and worn down, but still charming and friendly. And we get to do our blogging and laundry, but we hope to move on from here shortly. Hopefully in a couple of days. We hope to cruise our way in one- and two day legs up to Lautoka were we are gonna clear out and head over for Vanuatu. Both Lautoka and Suva is on Viti Levu, the Fijian main island. Lautoka on the west coast and Suva in the south.