Log - Fiji to Vanuatu 🇻🇺

-

Fiji to Vanuatu 🇻🇺  501 nautical miles (928 kms)

Day 1 - Fri, Sept 18. Checked-out from Fiji. The marina staff gave us a wreath of flowers and sang goodbye in Fijian. Very moving. We are double-handing (two sailors, two shifts), 6hrs on and 6 hrs off. Caught a wolf herring on the way out! It leaves silver glitter on your hands. Being extremely cautious with wind angle, reefing and not overpowering the sails because one of the lesser shrouds has a wire fraying. We are pointed too far north (300°), but the wind will change. Ben got soaked by rain on his watch, I got soaked by a surprise wave on mine. The sea is a washing machine, and we both puked up everything. I also have a chest cold, but spirits are good and there is gorgeous phospherence. 

Day 2 - Sat, Sept 19. Beautiful winds and 3 meter swells. It's gusty with winds going from 11knts to 20-28knts and back again every few minutes. Fully reefed. Sometimes I ride them out, other times I run us downwind to take pressure off. We're pointed 250° now, direct to Vanuatu. Seasickness is better - earning those sea legs back - we both got some sleep. Kept proper food down today (yay!!!!). Reheated chicken stir-fry tastes like heaven. Kintaro is carving through the swells and following the moon west. All is well!

Day 3 - Sun, Sept 20. Sunny, perfect winds. We are flying through widely spaced sea hills, but triple reefed and trying to go slower (!!) to arrive at dawn. No ships, just the occasional energetic flying fish that really put the "fly" in their name. At night the moon is so bright it looks like we are sailing down a river of silver light. And ALL the stars. Beautiful!

Day 4 - Mon, Sept 21. Perfect sunny weather. We are still trying to go slow, but we shook out two reefs in the genny as the wind dropped off. Fishing lines are out, but so far just two flying fish on the deck. I first sighted Vanuatu (Futuna Island) at 1700. Whoot whoot! We also got email permission to enter the country. Leftover chilli and rice for dinns. 

Day 5 - Tues, Sept 22. Midnight and 36nm to go till Port Resolution on Tanna Island. Chest cold is worse and very annoying - will try not to cough in front of the quarantine officials. Arrived with sunbeams through the clouds, a rainbow, aaaand....an epic volcano belching out smoke. Even the shore beside us is smoking sulphur plumes. Anchor is down, quarantine flag is up, and now we wait to hear from the authorities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Operation "Spread the Wuuuuuv."

-
Image
Today, I decided to do something constructive. There is a certain reckless insanity that comes over a person after a very painful experience, so I decided to make the most of it and do something perhaps a little crazy. I made lots of Valentine's Day cards and gave them out to all the saddest looking people on Rideau street and in the mall downtown. It was fun! There was an old, depressed-looking hunchback (how much more pathetic does it get than that?) who shuffled by me, and I hid one in his bag when he wasn't looking. I gave another to a very fat lady who looked at me suspiciously, then realizing what it was, burst out laughing and yelled out her thanks. There was a skinny girl who looked like a bean-pole (correction: she looked more like an upright knitting needle—even a tape-worm would have abandoned her), who was crying her eyes out, and I gave her one too. I can't remember all of them, but I gave a couple out in a coffee shop, a number to people sitting alone in the m...
Read more

Honda civics, grief and signs

-
Image
They say (whoever they  are), that once you own a certain type of car, you see it everywhere. For example, years ago I owned an zippy little honda civic, and sure enough, I notice them all over the place now. I'd never paid attention before, but they seem to be just everywhere. So when we see reminders of lost loved ones, I wonder, are we r eally seeing signs, or is it just our brains filtering for reminders, meaningful situations, or ways of feeling connected to them to ease the loss? It's been two years since Sammer passed away, and it seems his fingerprints remain in the world. As you probably know, Sammer was a captain and career sailor, and sailing was how we bonded. My first "honda civic" moment was in a training course with the Coast Guard, and my officer told me to do an exercise on the charts, which involved recording latitudes and longitudes. He pointed to one spot -- the same reef where Sammer and I had had a particularly memorable adventure when we were fi...
Read more

Victoria!

-
Image
Well it has been a while since I posted! I decided to try my luck in the lovely, funky city of Victoria until my money ran out. Here, I have had so many adventures that I'll have to write a book about it at some point :) The first few weeks I lived in a boarding house that would have been inspiration for a Dickens novel. My fellow in-mates (as I fondly think of them) were for the most part completely crazy, and I arrived once to find the police rummaging about the place and investigating a theft. At some point or other, I was pulled aside by almost every boarder, who warned and gossiped against each other: "Don't trust Bill," or "Never leave your door unlocked or Nancy will get in," and "Never make a deal with Tom." People's food was going missing, and at least one person was well, how to put this politely.....not entirely trustworthy, so I rigged up an alarm system for my bedroom door (I was quite proud of myself) to prevent against theft. ...
Read more