New Zealand to Fiji: Day 1

Ready to go. L-R: Riaan, Greg, me

We're off and running (literally)

Day one of our 1,200-mile passage from Opua, New Zealand, to Savusavu, Fiji, is complete. A solid 190-mile day. Most of it running with the "Chicken Rig”: full main with the solent winged to weather with a spinnaker guy. Wind is from the south-southwest at 16 - 20 knots with 1.5M following seas.

The "Chicken Rig:" Mainsail with the solent winged out to weather with a spinnaker guy.

We moved our departure up by one day. I awoke on the fourth to discover the forecast conditions for the trip had changed. What was a fast, smooth five-and-a-half-day trip now had rough seas at the Fiji end of it. That happens. These weather models are very accurate three days out. More than six days out, not so much.

NZ to Fiji.jpeg — We'll face some rough seas at the end of the trip as we make landfall in Fiji. Leaving sooner is better than later.

By leaving a day early on the 6th, we'd minimize our exposure to those rough seas at the end and give us a bit more margin in case of bad weather.

Fortunately, Greg and Riaan were able to juggle their work and home schedules to make it happen. Pam worked the flight changes. The guys landed at 12:30 p.m. and taxi'd from Kerikeri to Opua, where I was waiting with the boat. They stowed their gear. By 2pm we were in the customs office, and by 2:20pm we were casting off the dock lines outbound for sea.

Christine (Sugar Shack) is a prolific baker. She baked us farewell cookies! They left for Noumea, New Caledonia right behind us. We hope to see them next year in Australia.

We tried the A1 spinnaker today for about an hour looking for a bit more speed. But the wind seemed to know what we were up to and built back up to 20 knots. Discretion being the better part of valor, we took it down. It is great having a strong, experienced crew onboard. They help make short work of these changes.

We also had the topping lift line part during the night. It's the rope that holds the boom up off the deck when we raise and lower the mainsail. We need it when we reef the sail because it involves raising and lowering the sail. Chafe caused it. I'm not sure where. We're going to need to reef for stronger winds on Tuesday. We'll try using the spinnaker halyard as a makeshift topping lift.

I'm still working through my usual two days of queasiness that I always get at the start of the passage. Otherwise, we are sailing fast in smooth following seas. A great day on the ocean.