Farewell Fiji

Time to head south to New Zealand

L-R: Dave, me, Richard. Slipping our mooring in Port Denarau.

All is well. We’ve concluded the paper chase and successfully cleared customs and immigration in Fiji. We slipped our moorings and motor-sailed out of the Navula Pass bound for sea and New Zealand.

Customs and immigration processing. Friendly and efficient. In and out in 20 minutes.

The forecast looks good. It’s never perfect. Hopefully, we struck the right balance between patience and perfection.

The forecast models predict rough seas at the start and again on day four. Source: PredictWind

We’ll have rough seas for the first half of the days. That’s common. The land effects of Fiji accelerate the wind and compress the sea period.

Then, on or around day four, we’ll cross the remnants of a low-pressure system currently lying across the route. That will bring rain and rough seas again.

As Mike Tyson famously said, “…everybody got a plan til they get punched in the face…” Here’s hoping that if we get punched in the face it’s not a hard one.

Our routing software thinks it will take us 5 1/2 to 6 days to get across. We shall see. Source: PredictWInd

The boat feels good. The crew is excited. It’s time to go.

Farewell, Fiji.

Track our progress here: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SVRoam/

And subscribe to daily updates of the Ship’s Log: https://www.sailroam.com/s/log