On the Way Again

We left Savusavu for points easier to pronounce yesterday. Yesterday's passage was about 45nm under very cloudy skies for the most part, which is something you want to avoid in Fiji normally as you need the sun (in the right position in the sky too) to help navigate through reefs. We had purchased a chartlet kit with detailed waypoints which gave us a helping hand and then we got some sun breaks in the first long reef "canyon". The current was boiling through there and reminded us of sailing in Washington. Our boat speed over ground (true speed) got up to almost 8kt with the engine just idling. It was pretty hairy at first as the reefs were on both sides, but it was well marked with red and green cones on either side and fairly deep, so no prob.

It had been raining hard all night the night before so we were ready to cancel the trip until the next day, but the forecast was for it to clear and the last rain stopped at 7am. We left at 8:30 and got in to the anchorage at 4:30pm. Unfortunately the sun was right in our eyes as we motored north through the last two smaller reefs and some of the markers were missing which always makes the skipper really happy. Our friends on Ranger had just gone through though and told us which way to go around the markers that were there so all was well.

It is 5am in the dark right now. I seem to always wake up around now, every day, which is way to early, but we go to bed at 8:30 or 9pm every night so no wonder. These are typical cruiser hours for all you landlubbers. No TV, not enough juice to watch movies all night, and you get sleepy reading. I guess we could try to train ourselves to stay up but there really is no point - SNL and Letterman are a thing of the past, along with TV news, sitcoms and old Rambo movies.

Just a short day away is the magical isle of Yandua, just west of Vanua Levu. Some of our friends have been there and recommend it highly, so we will go check it out. Flash! - Cindy just woke up and asked me if it was raining in through the hatch, and I said "of course not, it is not supposed to rain today". Well, it is raining and that will change our plans may be as we have more reefs to go through, especially at Yandua. I plotted a course yesterday using partially the waypoints we got for the GPS and partially our chartplotter with its electronic charts. I had to add one waypoint to avoid some reefs for a passage not marked with the purchased waypoints. But what makes me nervous is that going in to the Yandua anchorage, the waypoints take you directly over some of the deadly green reefs. The charts out here are notoriously unreliable so that is to be expected but when everything does not match then you need something like good sunlight to take the edge off and keep your stomach from getting ulcers. Oh well, another day in Paradise! But just to keep you on your toes, we heard another boat was lost over by Vanuatu this week but no details as of yet.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com